Construction Begins
The Going Forth - From Slavery To Freedom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Reading:
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Introduction:
We all understand what it feels like to be excited for something to happen that you’ve had to wait for a long time to happen.
Everyone relates to this in different ways.
Whether it is generational, financial, or cultural.
My generation is expectant for technology to continue advancing.
Like in the movies where someone made a phone call and you could see the other person as you spoke to them on a tv screen.
It was so cool and finally in 2010 it became a reality.
It wasn’t new tech; but was an new cultural norm.
It was first put forward in 1927 and showcased at the 1967 worlds fair, in 1992 video phones were available through AT&T; but it wasn’t until 2010 when it became a norm.
Growing up we couldn’t wait for Christmas when the newer game console was released by PlayStation or X Box, or Nintendo, or a game system.
For you and your generation it was something different and you know what it was like to wait for something, build up the excitement for that day you could finally get it.
For Israel they had anticipated this day while walking through the desert.
From the moment they heard that God would dwell among them they longed for that day.
It was finally time.
Peoples hearts were stirred and a pile of supplies began to mound to construction the tabernacle.
Finally:
Construction begins (1-2)
Construction begins (1-2)
1 “Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.”
2 And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work.
Bezalel and Oholiab gathered all the those who God gifted in crafting things together and started the work.
I would imagine that because they had an organized mind they instructed the people to make piles of what was donated.
Maybe Bezalel and Oholiab were purposeful with the contributions from people and made spots for each different category.
Golden objects, Yarns, Fine Linen, Goats Hair, Rams skins/Goat Skins, Bronze, Silver, Acacia wood, Stones all separated, Spices and Oils.
Hear what items were they bringing.
Each item was necessary because of what they were made of, not what significance then held.
There is an point to see in the objects people contributed.
Why they brought them: because they were moved by the Lord to give and sacrifice it to Him.
Here is a question about these objects: How many of these objects were objects of Idol worship?
Egypt had many idols and those idols were represented to the people in many ways, whether it was an image in yarn or tapestries, bronze, silver, gold even wood.
The Israelites were proclaiming an choice by way of contribution.
They were choosing God as their object of Worship and sacrificing, or putting away, their former objects of worship.
Connection:
What is it that you used to worship before worshiping God?
Money?
Importance?
Items?
People?
At the moment you accepted Christ’s grace, He became the expected object of your worship.
In that season: did you try worshiping both things? Christ and the former Idol?
Sure. For a while; but it didn’t work, you couldn’t worship both God and that idol.
This truth we find in scripture:
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
It specifically points out the worship of money; but 1 John takes it a few steps further and makes it more applicable to us who’s struggle isn’t with money.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
We are being instructed to do as the Israelites were so moved in their hearts to do here in Exodus 36.
Remove the worldly desires or objects of those desires.
Place them at the feet of Jesus as a contribution, and leave them there to never be picked up again.
Replace them with Godly desires that reflect your proper and reasonable worship.
Be remade in your heart and mind for the Lord, be different after salvation as Colossians teaches us:
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
If your saved - desire Holy things instead of worldly gain.
Give up those idols for the Lord, as Israel is an example here.
All these piles are sitting in staging areas (I’m not sure if this is how they did it; but in my mind this is logical).
The people see these sacrifices from others and it probably brings conviction about their idols so they too bring theirs in preference for the Lord.
Transition:
The people’s hearts were so moved that you could probably call it a revival!
So much response brought all the supplies needed.
All Contributed In Abundance (3-7)
All Contributed In Abundance (3-7)
3 And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning,
4 so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing,
5 and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.”
6 So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing,
7 for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.
It says that every morning people contributed for the construction of the tent.
So much was brought that the workers stopped working to tell Moses the problem they had:
Not only do we have enough, there's actually too much!
God’s working in the hearts of the people was so powerful that people gave more than what was needed.
God reveals something to us about Himself here:
Something that Paul taught about in Ephesians.
Paul was praying for spiritual strength for those in Ephesus.
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
16 that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being,
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,
21 to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Hear his prayer and the truth about God that relates to our passages in Exodus.
God will give in abundance not because He has to; but because He wants to.
Imagine how much He desires to give us every day, and tries to but we refuse.
God desires to give from a wealth that never runs out.
Even if we only received His grace that He gave in abundance as were told in 2 Cor.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
We could have an abundant life like were told in John:
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
To this we must ask why?
Why does He give so much for us when we were His enemies, and we continue to disappoint Him?
It reveals that He loves us as a Father.
When your children aren’t making good decisions, you still love them and want to help them even though they might not want it or acknowledge it.
What are we to do with that kind of knowledge about our Lord?
Reciprocate what you have received freely and abundantly.
As we learned in Exodus 35 last week: Don’t hold onto it for yourself, offer it to others
Follow the example that He left for us:
34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.
35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;
38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Give to others as Christ gave for you!
Here in Exodus God moved in the hearts of Israel and they gave much more than what was needed.
Look at the small detail beyond this part:
6 So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing,
7 for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.
They wanted to do more and give more for the Lord.
Point:
When people desire the Lord instead of worldly possessions, they will give abundantly for His service.
For the Israelites it was giving to supply the materials for the Lord, to be accessible and present among them.
For us it is giving to fulfill the call of our mission:
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
It is up to us to maintain that goal in our hearts, and our minds just like all the craftsman did while building.
The plan was carried out and it was:
Organized and Systematic (8-38)
Organized and Systematic (8-38)
8 And all the craftsmen among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains. They were made of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns, with cherubim skillfully worked.
9 The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains were the same size.
In Construction there is a system to everything.
The Lord didn’t give phases for construction when He gave Moses the blueprints.
He did provide the details back in Chapters 25-31.
His instructions show a perspective to us: the Lord works from the inside out.
Here in the beginning of the construction process, if you pay attention, the order is opposite from what God’s said back in 25-31.
God began with the box that will hold the testimony for the covenant between Israel and Him; the Ark of the covenant, then adds the Mercy Seat which is where He will rest.
Man began with the outside first, then moved inward.
Bezalel started with the covering for the tabernacle.
The curtains were coupled together, in 2 sections of 5 and covered the structure of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.
10 He coupled five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he coupled to one another.
11 He made loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain of the first set. Likewise he made them on the edge of the outermost curtain of the second set.
12 He made fifty loops on the one curtain, and he made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that was in the second set. The loops were opposite one another.
13 And he made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains one to the other with clasps. So the tabernacle was a single whole.
This boundary reminds me of when God made coverings for Adam and Eve’s sin with animal skins.
21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
A covering between God and man was established.
This covering needed structure to hold it up.
20 Then he made the upright frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood.
The pillars were set in bases of silver and spaced evenly.
From front to back and from left to right.
Spreading the weight evenly.
The pillars needed sheer strength so the bars were made to hold the frames.
31 He made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames of the one side of the tabernacle,
These bars provided support and the wall was a barrier between God and man.
For us In Christ, and the church, we have a strength and security from the boundaries that sets us apart from the world.
We find strength through His word and from the Holy Spirit.
Allow the Lord to strengthen you through His word and your obedience to the Holy Spirit.
Transition:
You can have a relationship with Him minus any separations, which is different from Israel in the Tabernacle.
They had walls and veils to separate them from God.
35 He made the veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; with cherubim skillfully worked into it he made it.
36 And for it he made four pillars of acacia and overlaid them with gold. Their hooks were of gold, and he cast for them four bases of silver.
37 He also made a screen for the entrance of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework,
38 and its five pillars with their hooks. He overlaid their capitals, and their fillets were of gold, but their five bases were of bronze.
The veils separated the holy place and the most holy place.
It said they sewed images of Cherubim's into the veils.
It may have represented the last moment God was in man’s presence and a separations was created.
24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
The Cherubim on the separation might remind them that Man sinned against God resulting in separation.
There was also a veil between the outer courts and the hoy place.
No one could come through that veil, into His presence, without making atonement for their trespasses first.
Only one person could enter: A mediator.
Israel had Moses; but now the whole world has Jesus.
Romans teaches us this:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins.
26 It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
also 1 John 2:2 He is called our substitute. We should take our own punishment.
2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus made the payment instead.
And...He mediates on our behalf.
His blood established the new covenant of Grace.
15 Therefore He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
He is the only one who could’ve done it and He did.
5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Conclusion:
Exodus 36 outlines the beginning of something new for Israel, God present and available in the tabernacle.
It created excitement for Israel.
Do you get excited every morning you wake up knowing that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit and you have access to Him anytime you want?
We should!
All of Israel contributed the materials as their hearts stirred them to do so.
When our hearts are aligned with the desires of the Lord we give in an abundance.
It is also an opportunity to offer over the idols we once followed in exchange of following Him.
How is God stirring your heart to contribute to His kingdom?
What are the idols that need to be surrendered?
Lay them down at His feet and replace it with Him.
From the order and structure we find that God has and expects excellence from our worship.
When we do something for Him, it should reflect His perfection.
Things that represent God should not be chaotic, it should be intentional and on His terms, that includes how we order our lives.
-Pray!
