Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
Have you ever been part of a great volunteer movement which rallied many people to accomplish something significant? I left you yesterday watching the first great wave of such a movement. We were at the base of Mt Sinai with Moses and about 1 million Israelites who only a few weeks before had been captive in slavery bondage in Egypt.
God rescued this huge throng of people with 10 great plagues and now at Sinai, Moses had told the people the Almighty God had chosen them to be His people and invited them to bring supplies to build a Tabernacle for worship of the incomparable God who had rescued them! Wave after wave of people brought their gifts from hearts full of gratitude to God for their deliverance.
Exodus 36:3-6 reports that the response was overwhelming! So much so that something very unusual happened. Moses reports it this way: “The people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. So, the skilled workers, who were doing the work, left their work to tell Moses: ‘The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done!” (Ex. 36:3-5)
WHAT?! Have you ever been part of such a response of generosity that it was actually TOO MUCH? Moses had to send word across the camp that no one was to bring anymore! Moses records that “The people were restrained from bringing more, because what they had was already more than enough to do the work!” Have you ever been told you were TOO generous?! Too loving, too helpful? Where does that type of hyper generosity come from?
Most often I find it’s GRATITUDE and COMPASSION that moves hearts to be overly loving, overly helpful, overly generous. These people were so very grateful to God for rescuing them from Egyptian slavery (Ex. 12); and for wiping out Pharaoh’s pursuing army (Ex. 14); and for providing food and water in the hot desert (Ex. 16); and for protecting them from attacking bandits (Ex. 17); and finally they were thankful to God for not wiping them out when they turned away from the God who had rescued them and made a golden calf idol (Ex. 32), calling it their god!! Oh my, these were a grateful people!
Is there a lesson for us here my friends? If generosity is motivated by gratitude and compassion, do you find that greed and stinginess are motivated by selfishness and self-centeredness? And have you ever considered that the ultimate example of generosity is God Himself? “For God so loved the world that He GAVE His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
The tender hearted, gratitude filled, Israelites were apparently delighted to bring what the Egyptians had given them as they fled Egypt, in order that a first ever house of worship for God could be built! The skilled workers who were summoned by Moses counted it a great privilege to work on a God designed worship Tabernacle rather than building ornate things for Pharaoh’s throne room or banquet halls.
But it wasn’t just skill that these workers had, God actually anointed, with His Holy Spirit, two men, Bezalel and Oholiab! They were the Spirit filled craftsmen God selected to supervise this specialized work of fabricating these things God had designed but no person had ever seen! (Ex. 36:2) Other very talented craftsmen and women joined this specialized work force and using the precious materials the people had brought, they began carefully fabricating the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Shewbread, the Golden lampstands and the Altar of Incense!
Exodus 37 gives a detailed description of this remarkable project. Can you imagine working on a God designed project, attempting to build something which had come directly from the mind of God, something no other person had ever attempted to fabricate?
I assume the work site was a spectacle as many people came to watch this fascinating project of very talented people using some very precious materials to build what Almighty God had designed!
It causes us to pause and ponder, reflecting on the God given abilities and talents you and I have, and how seriously we’ve developed those talents…or wasted them? Or how has God used the journey of your life to refine you, develop you into the very special person you are today? Is God greatly honored by our stewardship and development of what He has entrusted to us and who He has refined us to be?
Could it be God has yet ahead of both you and me some very special assignments He has been preparing that will require talents, abilities, passions, and wisdom God has been pouring into us through our past experiences! Now ponder that for a moment! Are you ready, excited, and available to God today and how will you respond if this week God calls your name, opens a new door of opportunity for you, gives you a special assignment directly from God?
And have we as parents helped our children and grandchildren to identify and develop their God given talents? Have we helped them prepare? Have they learned from us how to discern when God is inviting a person to engage with Him in accomplishing something special?
I hope you enjoy reading Exodus 36&37 today and below in the “Grand Narrative” link are some summary statements for further reflection. As always, I found a wonderful worship song and I invite you to join me in worshiping God with this song right now, and I’ll meet you here again tomorrow…
Today’s Scripture: Exodus 36-37.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Exodus 37
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.