Called and Chosen to Build and Rest: Exodus 31

Sacred text: Matthew 11:28–30 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Introduction:

“Busy.” That is probably one of the most common answers we hear when we ask someone, “How are you doing?” And if I’m honest, it’s often my answer too. We live in a culture that runs on busyness. A hustle-saturated world that tells us our value is measured by how much we produce, how much we accomplish, and how full our schedules are. We strive, often in our own strength, our own abilities, our own wisdom, to build something for ourselves. Our own reputation. Our own success. Our own little kingdoms. And somewhere along the way, busyness has even become a badge of honor. A packed calendar must mean you’re important. A frantic schedule must mean your life matters. There is meaning and purpose in it. If you listen to the voices around us, whether it’s self-help books or social media influencers, the message is always the same: Do more. Push harder. Chase the hustle. Build your own destiny.

But here’s the question we need to ask this morning: Is that what God wants for His people? Does God desire that we be so consumed with activity that we have no time for Him? No time for His people? No space for worship, rest, or reflection? I don’t believe that is what God desires at all. And as we turn to Exodus 31, we are going to see that Scripture speaks clearly into this very issue. God is not calling His people to build something on this earth for themselves; He is calling them into something far greater.

But receiving that truth requires humility. Because it is the proud heart that insists on building its own kingdom, often while neglecting the very people of God. But Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The kingdom belongs not to the self-made, but to the poor and God-dependent. So yes, we are called to be builders. But not of our own personal kingdoms. We are called to labor for His kingdom.

And in Exodus 31 (if you want to go ahead and turn there), we will see something beautiful: God not only calls and equips His people for that work, but He also commands them to rest. To honor Him. To remember His covenant. To trust Him enough to stop for one whole day. Because in God’s kingdom, even our rest is an act of worship. With that in mind, let’s turn now to our text: Exodus chapter 31.

Exodus 31 ESV

The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent, the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin and its stand, and the finely worked garments, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, for their service as priests, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the Holy Place. According to all that I have commanded you, they shall do.” And the Lord said to Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ” And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

Context: As we come to Exodus 31, we must understand where we are in the story of redemption. Up to this point, we have seen the Lord call Moses and use him as His instrument to rescue His people from slavery in Egypt. God has displayed His power through the plagues, delivered Israel through the Red Sea, and brought them safely to Himself at Mount Sinai. It is there, at Sinai, that God enters into covenant with His people, giving them His law, not as a means of earning salvation, but as a way of living as His redeemed people.

Moses has been on the mountain, receiving instruction directly from the Lord. And much of what we have seen in recent weeks has focused on the detailed instructions for building the tabernacle, the place where God would dwell in the midst of His people. Every detail, every measurement, every material has been intentional. Nothing is left to human creativity alone, because this is about God’s presence among His covenant people.

Now, as we come to chapter 31, we reach the conclusion of these instructions. This is the final word from the Lord before Moses descends the mountain to deliver all that he has received to Israel. And what we will see in this passage is both fitting and instructive: It is that God not only appoints and equips His people for the work of building his kingdom, but He also reminds them of the importance of resting in Him. So with that context in mind, let’s begin to walk through this text together.

God Calls and Equips (Exodus 31:1-11)

First, I want us to see how God called his people. In verses 1-5, God tells Moses, “I have called Bezalel by name, to do something very specific for me, and I have filled him with my Spirit and given him everything he will need to do it.” This shows us that God calls and equips a specific people, by name, for specific tasks in the building of his kingdom. In Ephesians 4:11-15, Paul says that it is God, through Christ, who gave to the church the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers to build up and equip the saints for the work of the ministry. We acknowledge that these are very specific tasks, in which God calls very specific people, and gifts them uniquely, to do the hard work of building up God’s kingdom through the church, even right here in little old Borger, Texas. And in the first part of verse 6, God again calls a very specific person, Oholiab the son of Ahisamach, to be a partner with Bezalel in building the tabernacle. What this tells us is that God doesn’t leave us to build for His glory and kingdom on our own. Rather, God places very specific people in our lives to help us build his kingdom for his glory. And listen, if you have never felt that calling to help build the kingdom of God in a specific way, don’t worry, you're not being left out.

God also calls and equips, in a very general sense, all people to help in the building of his kingdom. The last part of verse 6 is God saying, “Look, I have called these two men specifically, but I am also calling the rest of my people and giving you all the ability to work alongside these men through different giftings, helping them build the tabernacle.” In other words, if you are an able-bodied believer, you have work to do as well. The pastors of a church should never be the only ones doing anything. The church was never designed to grow on the backs of a few specific men, while everyone else just sits back and worries about their own little kingdoms, outside of the church. You may never be called to be a pastor, elder, deacon, or teacher in the church, but, as one of God’s people, you have been called and gifted in other ways to help further and build the kingdom of God on this earth, and even more so, right here in our little part of the Texas Panhandle.

Listen, we have got to stop seeking to build our own little kingdoms and expecting God to bless it, while at the same time we are completely ignoring His kingdom on earth; the church. Turn and look at Matthew 6:19–21 Jesus himself says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” We will never see the kingdom of God in this world if we never have the kingdom of God in our hearts. Here is a sad reality for us: Many churches are fading away because fewer and fewer people are engaging with it outside of Sunday mornings. Some of you need the first half of this chapter, a reminder that we are called and equipped to be more busy building God’s kingdom than our own. But some of you need this second half of the chapter, a reminder to rest and reflect in God’s goodness, to be refreshed, and to stop trying to control everything you cannot control. For all of us, the question remains: What are you treasuring more, your own kingdom, or God’s kingdom? The one you treasure the most will show in your personal life and in the way you help build up the church; God’s kingdom on earth. This work isn’t easy; it can be tiresome and frustrating, but it is worth it, because it is what God has called and equipped us to do. But are we just supposed to work our lives away and kill ourselves doing this work? Not at all. In fact, the next section shows us how deeply God cares about our rest.

God Commands Rest (Exodus 31:12-17)

Here in verses 12-17, we learn that rest is not the reward for finished work; it is a command and a covenant sign of belonging to God. God is still speaking to Moses, and God essentially says, “Tell my people to keep my sabbath holy in their lives, because I have set them apart from the rest of the world as my own, and if anyone works on the sabbath, they will die.” If you want to know how seriously God takes the sabbath rest, he mentions twice in this passage alone that whoever steps out of bounds on the sabbath shall die. Listen to Numbers 15:32–36: “While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him in custody, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. And the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.” Now, I think it is safe to say that God cares about keeping the sabbath holy.

So, God not only calls us to work and build up his kingdom, but he also calls us to rest by keeping the sabbath. And God models this rest in the creation narrative and later institutes it as a means that must be kept. Verse 17 mentions this: Exodus 31:17 “It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ The sabbath is to be kept holy, as a sign of the covenant faithfulness of God, and the grace of rest for his people. God does not give work without also giving rest from that work. This is part of that creator-creature distinction you sometimes hear us refer to. In other words, we are not like God, and if we do not rest, our bodies will force us into rest, and we may not wake up. Some of you may laugh at me for this, but the older I get, the more I am finding my limits as a finite creature. I am not God, and I cannot just keep going and pushing myself without ever resting; otherwise my body begins to explain to me just how much it has been mistreated in my 43 years.

Burnout is a serious thing we need to consider. Burnout, whether in building our own kingdoms or in building God’s kingdom, has the potential to leave us spiritually dead and could even lead to physical death. How do we fight this burnout culture we live in? We fight it by keeping the sabbath and resting in the strength, abilities, and wisdom that God gives us, instead of ourselves. We are not the infinite little engine that could, chanting, “I think I can! I think I can!” We are that beat-up old station wagon that barely even starts up in the morning and struggles to make it through each day. Most of the time we don’t know if it’s going to start up the next morning. And we can panic about that, or we can trust and rest in God, having faith in his plans. That’s sabbath rest. God has been gracious enough to give us a whole day of it, to trust, to remember, to reflect, and to worship the One who is infinite and never sleeps. If you remember earlier, I stated that the kingdom doesn’t belong to the self-made; it belongs to the poor and God-dependent. How we keep the sabbath shows our dependence. It shows our trust in a God who already has the next step in motion, so that we can rest in his sovereignty and let go of our own control. And listen, this isn’t just me telling you this; it is God’s commandment to us. Let’s look at verse 18.

These Commandments are from the “Finger” of God (Exodus 31:18)

Exodus 31:18 “And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.” These commands were not coming from Moses alone, but the very “finger” of God. This is the kind of language used in the Bible to describe God in a way that we might better understand it. What Moses wrote here, and is saying, is that the law written on the tablets of stone and all of the instruction that we have been reading about is from God himself, just as if God had reached down with a chisel and hammer in hand and carved the words into the tablets of stone himself. A little later on in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses again speaks of these tablets, saying, Deuteronomy 4:13–14 “And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess.” None of these laws and instructions were simply Moses or Aaron making up stuff on their own to keep people under control and build some sort of kingdom for themselves; it was all of God. Because it was all of God, it was to be treated as the very words of God himself.

So, verse 18 explains to us whose law this is, and that matters deeply, because far too many of us have grown casual with God’s laws. Jesus himself tells us in Matthew 5:17–20 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus fulfilling the law does not mean that we stop striving to keep the commandments of God. Will we fail? Absolutely. That’s why we need Jesus to cover us in his righteousness. But that is not a license to stop caring about the things of God altogether.

So, the question is raised, how are you cultivating a respect for the Word of God in your own life? You cannot live by it if you do not know it. I understand that the Bible is a large collection of books; it is intimidating for some, confusing for others, but this is why we need personal discipleship and reading groups and Bible studies. You have to start somewhere if you are going to learn it and cultivate a life on it. But we far too easily give up when we come across a name we can’t pronounce or something seems to be confusing, when we should simply ask for help. Open a good study Bible, and it explains verse-by-verse what you’re reading. I will personally be your study assistant if you text me your questions. If we are going to be creatures of the Word, then we are going to have to be in the Word.

Christ is Lord of the Sabbath

Now, as always, we want to show you how even the Old Testament points us to Christ. Let’s look at Matthew 12:1–8 “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

Jesus is the Lord of the sabbath. He reminds the Pharisees that the sabbath wasn’t about keeping a bunch of extra laws through restrictions; rather, acts of love and mercy were perfectly acceptable, and even preferred on the sabbath. But there was a much deeper meaning to the sabbath and the keeping of it. In fact, in Christ, there is a fundamental change that takes place within our hearts when the gospel enters into us. Where the law said, “Work six days and then find your rest.” The gospel says, “Find your rest, and then work your six days from that. Charles Spurgeon says, “But under the gospel the arrangement is, ‘Rest on the first day before you have done a stroke of work. Just as the week begins, take your rest, and after that, in the strength derived from it, and from the grateful motives which arise out of that one blessed day of rest, give to the Lord the six days of the week.’” Instead of working towards the goal of rest, we work from our rest. We are no longer working to achieve something; rather, we have achieved all that is needed in Christ, and so we work from that. The sabbath day, this day, is a day of worship, rest, and refreshment, trusting in the sovereign Lord and Creator of the universe. It should be kept holy and protected. It is a day that reminds us that Christ has not left us alone, without hope, help, or promise. It is a day where we ought to reflect on all that God has done in our lives and to be expectant of what God is going to continue doing in our lives, especially over the next six days.

I want to challenge everyone here with an assignment. I do this often with counselees. I want to challenge everyone here to journal this afternoon or evening sometime (write this down so you will remember to do it). I want everyone to just reflect on the past, writing down every moment where you can see God was at work doing something. This often takes time, and you won’t get a whole lot the first time you do it, but try to think of all the times God was doing something in your life. Once you have a list, even if it's just a few things, reflect on more present times, and see how God is still using that stuff from your past to strengthen and shape you today. This really is an amazing little way to connect your past to your present and see how God is actively working in your life. You will eventually start connecting dots you never thought were there. We should make this a practice, especially on the sabbath, to remember the goodness of God in our lives and refuel ourselves for the next six days.

Conclusion:

Now, you probably thought I was ending my sermon ten minutes ago. Now, I am really going to. Jesus says, “Come to me and find rest for your souls.” I love this quote from Augustine; he says, “You (God) have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.” We are restless creatures when we leave Jesus for the end of our week, instead of making Him the beginning of our week. We can work ourselves to death, spiritually and even physically, trying to build our own kingdoms, or we can let God work in us and through us to build his kingdom and find our rest in the finished work of Christ.

Invite the band up

As always, we invite everyone into this calling. If you are here and you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have repented from your sins and placed your faith in Him and Him alone, then rest peacefully today. Remember all that God has done in your life and look forward to all that God will continue doing in your life. If you have not repented of your sins and trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then let today be that day. Don’t leave here without responding appropriately to this calling. Jesus lived and died for you; He covers you in righteousness. Respond in faith. Let’s pray.

Prayer: