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In Scripture we read Moses spent forty days on a
mountain listening to God. During those forty days God
gave Moses the Ten Commandments. But does it really take
forty days to give Ten Commandments? That’s four days
for one commandment.
What
else happened during the time Moses spent with God? God
gave Moses specific instructions for building the
Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary in front of which the
people would gather and worship God. And those
instructions were elaborate. The altar decorations and
symbols required gold, silver, bronze, fine wood, and
gemstones. When Moses left the mountaintop and returned
to the people gathered on the plain, he would give them
the Ten Commandments and issue a call for people to give
the items and labor needed to construct the Tabernacle.
I
can’t imagine being so close to the presence of God.
Nor can I imagine what Moses felt as he received the
detailed instructions for the construction of the
Tabernacle. What went though his mind? Would the people
give everything needed? Would the craftsmen and skilled
people give their labor to fulfill the instructions God
had given Moses?
What
does Scripture say? “So Moses summoned Bezalel and
Oholiab and all the others who were specially gifted by
the Lord and were eager to get to work. 3 Moses gave
them the materials donated by the people of Israel as
sacred offerings for the completion of the sanctuary.
But the people continued to bring additional gifts each
morning. 4 Finally the craftsmen who were working on the
sanctuary left their work. 5 They went to Moses and
reported, "The people have given more than enough
materials to complete the job the Lord has commanded us
to do" (Exodus 36:2-5).
The
words that grab my attention in those verses are
“eager to get to work” (Exodus 36:2) and “more
than enough” (36:5). The craftsmen gifted by God were
“eager to get to work” and the people “gave more
than enough materials to complete the job the Lord”
had commanded them to do.
We’re
not camped out at the base of a mountain waiting to hear
from God. We have already heard from God, who has called
each one of us by
name to give our talents, our time, and our gifts in
service to Him. Bezalel, Oholiab, and the others offered
their talents and gifts to God because He had saved them
from slavery in Egypt. Instead of working for a pharaoh
who despised them, the people now worshipped and served
a God who loved them. God calls each of us to use our
talents and present our gifts in response to the love of
Christ who died and rose again to save us from our sin.
Should we give God any less than the commitment
expressed by Bezalel, Oholiab, and the people? Can God
say of us, “they have given more than enough….?”
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