Life’s problems rarely, if ever, have simple solutions. Mostly, they have to be lived with, contained and controlled so they do not frustrate the ultimate purposes of our living. One such aid comes in quite human fashion in Exodus 18 when Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, gives him some administrative counsel intended to save Moses both time and frustration. Then, at quite another level, in Exodus 20, Moses receives the Ten Commandments, a profound and eternal pattern of conduct.
Does it seem trivial to link Jethro’s advice and the Decalogue, as if the two were somehow comparable? I do so only to indicate that our lives are lived by both great principles and by simple hints and insights. And while no managerial advice is to be compared with the Ten Commandments, both have a place in our lives.
Life is also minutiae. The Ten Commandments seem to cover all the really great issues, but the Israelites will have to fulfill those commandments in everyday places—the world of nature, of daily labor, and of other people, including possible enemies. So details must be spelled out. Their house of worship also has details that seem like minutiae. In the instance of the portable Tabernacle, however, the details are crucially significant, because they have meaning beyond taste and aesthetics. The Hebrew Scriptures considered each detail to be holy, each one revealing something of the character of God and of their relationship to God. Later, the New Testament writers would find symbolic importance in each part.
Call it grace, call it the work of the Holy Spirit, call it a miracle; I only know that the best history of the church is written in little names.
—From Strong Was Her Faith: Women of the New Testament (2007, 2012); page 59
But as our plot continues to unfold, it is with a people who are on the move. I will dare to say they are on a pilgrimage, though they don’t often act that way. More often they seem to be no better than a group of grumbling tourists who think they ought to be getting better provisions for what they’ve invested. That may seem a strange statement for a people who have been delivered from slavery, but they dare now and then to suggest that they were better off when they were slaves. No matter; they are headed for a destination that, while it is not clearly known, is full of promise, a place of “milk and honey.” That prospect keeps them going, even if sometimes falteringly. And if the specific destination is not entirely clear, the way there is even more complicated. That’s the way life is—full of promise but rarely simple.
Seeing Life Through Scripture
Next to the Twenty-third Psalm, the Ten Commandments are probably the most familiar longer passage of Scripture. People may not know where to find them or be able to recite all ten; but they know they exist, they probably can tell you two or three, and they’re sure that they’re important.
If taken as presented, they are not simply important; they are crucially so. Obviously, it matters whether we believe in “You shall not murder,” “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not steal.” But the general human community is likely to miss the most important commandments, the ones that undergird all the other more easily recognized ones. These commandments begin with “You shall have no other gods before me,” and all else ultimately depends on the seriousness with which one accepts this commandment.
If the commandments are at face value important, what can be said for the details of the ancient Tabernacle? Is there anything to be learned, other than perhaps some little-understood cultural history? I believe so. At the least, let us be reminded that places can be sacred, not in the sense that they are to be worshiped but in the sense of bringing reverence to our lives. And let us confess we tend to be short of that sense of the sacred, of the reverent, today. We should let some hush settle on our lives when we read of a people who once built, and moved with them, a place of worship, a site of sacredness, in the howling wilderness.
The Sum of It All
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3).
| EXODUS 34–36 | Week 6, Day 1 |
Exodus 34 is a chapter of the second chance. Moses is privileged to return to the mountain to receive a new set of the tables of the Law, to replace those that were broken.
Moses confesses that his people are “stiff-necked” but asks that God “take us for your inheritance” (34:9). The covenant is renewed, with a solemn warning about the perils that lie ahead. Israel will have the power to conquer the nations they will one day face, but they must guard against taking on the evil practices of those people.
It’s interesting to see what matters are emphasized here. Idols—a reminder that their recent disaster came at this issue. And remember the festival of unleavened bread (34:18); this will remind them of their deliverance from slavery. Remember, too, the obligation of the firstborn; a reminder of the climaxing plague. And the sabbath (34:21-24), because this is the unique symbol of God’s people. Moses came from this encounter with God with a face that shone too brilliantly to be viewed.
Then there is the story of talent and of willingness. What a beautiful combination! Neither is fully adequate without the other. The two craftsmen, Bezalel and Oholiab, were joined by “everyone whose heart was stirred to come to do the work” (36:2). A freewill offering was received, with response so great that “the people were restrained from bringing” more (36:6). What a happy quality of commitment!
PRAYER: I want my heart to be so devoted to you that I can hardly contain my desire to give; to your glory. Amen.
Ponder the second giving of the Law and the renewed promise that came with it, and compare the “second chances” God has brought to your life.
| EXODUS 37–40 | Week 6, Day 2 |
A great entertainer once said that he became an overnight success after twenty years of hard work. Most of life’s best achievements are the product of tedium. It may be devoted and even inspired tedium, as in the case of Bezalel and Oholiab, and it will almost surely be crowned from time to time with feelings of achievement. And yes, for one who loves what he or she is doing, even the tedium has a kind of glory. Nevertheless, routine and discipline are inevitable factors in any true accomplishment.
That’s something of the lesson of these chapters. Step by step the workers produced the tabernacle, its furnishings, and the garments of the servers. When they were finished it could be said that they “had done all of the work just as the LORD had commanded Moses” (39:42). Now Moses could anoint and consecrate each item, and he, too, “did everything just as the LORD had commanded him” (40:16).
Then God placed a special seal of approval upon the project. The cloud that symbolized God’s presence “covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle” (40:34). The glory was so great that, for a time, not even Moses could enter the building. Let this be a word to all who prepare and teach Sunday school lessons, all who earnestly serve on committees, all who write sermons and sing in church choirs: Do so with dedication and God will visit with glory.
PRAYER: I ask not for a glory that I cannot endure, but for that which will draw me nearer to yourself; in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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