Friday, October 12, 2012

Building the Tabernacle...We All Have a Part to Play (Exodus 35-36)

Our passage this week is straightforward.  There is a job to be done and everyone is called to pitch in.  The place of worship, the tabernacle is to be built.  First, Moses gives everyone God's list of the materials that are needed and asks for an offereing, but in the middle of the dessert?  Where would they get such things as precious metals and stones, beautifully colored materials, the hides of sea cows or dugongs, (seriously that's what they're called, look it up, I had to) spices, oils and incense?  We must remember that the Egyptians, upon the Israelites request, gave them many things for their journey when they left Egypt (Exodus 12: 35-36).  This was at God's command that they ask the Egyptians for belongings for their journey.  It's interesting though that the text says they "plundered" the Egyptians as plundering suggests robbery by force when it appears as though the Egyptians were willfully allowing them to take what they needed.  Regardless, we see God working out his master plan as these ornaments which had decorated the empire of Egypt became the detailed beauty of the tabernacle. 

What is so interesting about this passage is what takes place in the many details of bulding the tabernacle.  The response of the people was overwhelming.  It seems after all the grumbling, complaining and missteps of the Israelites, they were suddenly becoming a well oiled, tabernacle building machine.  Moses shows his gifts as an administrator as we see a clear, laid out plan going into action.  Bezalel and Oholiab are called out as master craftsmen and teachers of their craft.  Exodus 36:1 is an inspiring verse that we could easily read over without considering.

"So Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing the sanctuary are to do the work just as the Lord has commanded.” 

I think a deep truth is revealed here that is highly applicable to everyday.  The key phrase here is "every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill and ability."  I believe we see the Israelites becoming such a cooperative, industrious, organized nation  because God had given them a clear vision for a project that needed skills and abilities of everyone.  The Israelites were experiencing the opportunity to take positive pride and ownership in a project and the response was amazing.  We see the craftsmen come to a point where they have to tell Moses "We've got more than enough resources.  The people can take a break from bringing us their goods."  The people were so generous with their gifts the workers had to tell them to stop. 

The rest of Exodus is essentially dedicated to the details of the tabernacle, its furnishings and how they built them.  We see the details of the ark of the covenant, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the priestly garments, the ephod, the breastpiece and more.  The creation and munafacturing of all these things brought the Israelites together under God's leadership through Moses, unified in heart and purpose as a people. 

Isn't it amazing what happens when people find their niche.  These people went from a complaining, whining, hungry, thirsty, idol worshipping mess of a people to a creative, cooperative team.  We wonder why they wanted to go back to Egypt before, but in this display of cooperation perhaps we see part of the answer.  Atleast in Egypt they knew their lot in life and they had a role to play.  It was not the hard work that caused the Israelites to cry out to God for deliverance.  It was mistreatment, unjust expectations and the Egyptians lack of humane treatment of them that was cause for God setting them free and bringing judgement on Egypt.  Since then, these people had been wandering in the dessert not quite sure what to do with themselves, but God gives them, each of them, a purpose and a task and they flourish.  They had been working hard together in Egypt just to survive, pulling one another up when a weaker one falls.  This had given them unity and loyalty to one another as a people who suffered together.  Now they have the opportunity to experience the same but in freedom and service to their God who delivered them.  Imagining them working together to build the tabernacle in God given detail as a newly freed nation should warm our hearts and give us a picture of hope for us today.

What does this tell us about the church?  What does this tell us about ourselves and our young people?  God has a purpose and a plan for all of us and when we begin to glimpse that purpose through our experiences we begin to flourish.  We begin to feel fulfillment.  Why don't we make that a greater priority?  It should be our priority not only for those within the church body but for those we are trying to reach.  Give someone a taste of fulfillment through the eyes of Christ's design and purpose and watch their heart soften and their soul cry out "You are Lord!  You are Lord!"     

     

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Misguided Worship, An Angry Father and a Need to Confess (Exodus 32)

If you're like me, I'm sure you grow weary of the same old routine.  Perhaps you grow weary of the same old church routine.  Maybe, the Israelites were growing weary of the same old faith routine in the desert.  Maybe, they were sick of manna and quail.  They didn't have the food network to offer them 500 different ways to prepare manna, so I'm sure their taste buds were a little bored with it.

My sister used to take me places when I was a kid and she would play tapes for me in her little red Chevette (not to be mistaken with Little Red Corvette).  One artist she shared with me was the late, great Keith Green.  One of his songs was So You Wanna Go Back to Egypt which is a humorous song about the Israelites being stuck in the desert and the events that transpired there.  Towards the end of the song he shares suggestions of how the Israelites might have prepared manna in various ways such as manna waffles, manna burgers, manna bagels and perhaps even bamanna bread (my favorite).  Regardless of the miraculous gift that manna was, I'm sure we could all imagine how the Israelites would take it for granted and how the miraculous could have become mundane for them. 

I can't blame them for their boredom, perhaps not even for their impatience for Moses to get back, but what possessed them to worship a Golden Calf, let alone cause Aaron to make one?  Well, bulls were associated with the worship of Baal, a local Canaanite god.  So perhaps a calf is what Aaron came up with on the spur of the moment.  Baal worship was also connected with fertility.  So when it says they "partied" or "indulged in revelry," this "worship," at least in part, was an orgy.  So it could be that they had observed some of the nearby neighborhoods' form of worship and were a bit curious about their practices.    

It's also evident how much they equated their experiences of God with the presence of Moses.  Thus, with him being gone so long, they took it as a sign of abandonment from God.  This is no different today.  How often do we desire a physical awareness of God?  A sign of his presence?  Did any of you ever pray something like this when you were a child?  "Lord, if you could just give me some sort of sign" or "If you could just get me through (fill in the blank here), I would follow you unwaveringly forever."  Perhaps we didn't use those exact words but you get the idea.

The intriguing, yet scary, picture we get in this scripture account is a peak behind the curtain, a bit of the mystery revealed of God as our Heavenly Father.  God shows his anger at his Israelite children in Exodus 32:9-10.  God appears to be angry enough to wipe out the Israelites.  This brings back another childhood memory of listening to Bill Cosby comedy albums with my family on the record player.  One of Cosby's classic lines was when he quoted what his Father would say when he was angry with his children.  "I brought you in this world, I'll take you out" was Father Cosby's warning to Bill and his brother, Russell.  NO matter how many times my dad heard that, he would always laughed at that line.  I guess he could relate.  In some ways as difficult as it may seem, a parent's misguided passion to blurt something like that out should be a sign of how great their love is for their child.  Because in reality, an expression of indifference would be truly unloving, not an expression of anger.  We as parents want our children to succeed so badly in all aspects of life that when we see them fall short, sometimes we allow our passions to get the best of us.  Our anger rises.  We use fear tactics or whatever we think it will take to get the message across to our children that we are disappointed and they need to do better.

Now consider things from God's point of view.  Obviously, from our human perspective this is not easy.  But we are made in his image and part of that image is that of parent.  He is our supernatural parent and our creator.  Being the parent of the entire human race is not a job I want to sign up for anytime soon.  Yet we ask the question in His divine nature, did God really get that angry that he considered wiping them out?  Perhaps from God's perspective this wasn't as bad a thing as we imagine.  I don't pretend to know what God was thinking but perhaps God's perspective was if He ends their time on Earth and they joined Him in heaven, at least they would understand who their God really is.  This is just conjecture, but surely we can understand from a human perspective that parenting a few is hard, let alone the entire human race.

I think what is more likely going on here is more foreshadowing of Christ.  The narrative of Humankind, from Adam and Eve through to Abraham and his descendants on into the time of Moses, through David to the time of the prophets into Christ's time and on into the present all have one thing in common: the people's need for redemption, their need for a Savior.  Was God's wrath which Moses successfully pleaded God to abstain from expressing, simply a wake up call to that need?  I believe so, not only for the Israelites of that day, but for every generation that followed.  We again see God balancing justice and mercy for the Israelites did not go unpunished as we see later in the chapter.                                         
Perhaps the purpose of God's anger was twofold.  Perhaps God's anger was a test of Moses as well.  We observe Moses, this man who has grown so much in leadership, reminding God of his promise to Abraham and his descendants.  This is the same man who not too long ago before this didn't think he could accept the call of leading the Israelites because he had a speech impediment (among other excuses).  God knew Moses had become more and more like minded with Him.  What hurt God's heart, hurt Moses' heart.  So when Moses saw what they were doing, he threw down the tablets as if to say, "What good are these?  You've already broken them."  THe made them drink the powder of the idol they had worshiped  and he called the Levites to arms.  Moses became an object lesson of God's wrath but then when all is said and done he begs God for mercy on the people and offers to take their place for their punishment.  Sound familiar?  I never cease to be amazed at how glimpses of the Gospel to come shows up throughout the Old Testament.

A negative lesson can also be learned in Aaron.  We see that Aaron is not quite there yet.  When Moses confronts him in Exodus 32:21 Aaron sounds like a child diverting the blame to someone or something else.  First he blames the people because they are so evil.  Then, he out and out lies to his brother and says "I just threw the gold into the fire and out came this calf."  I'm sure we all have come up with whoppers like this one in our day, but to read about Aaron, a grown man of 80+ years old, blaming a fire for his poor leadership of a people by encouraging them to blatantly break the 2nd commandment?  I don't care who you are, that's ridiculously funny!

We can not embrace God's grace until we can come to terms with our need for it.  In other words, we must confess, come clean and own up to our guilt.  I see it in my children.  I don't know how many times we've told Hannah to just come clean with the truth, but she will still try to pin it on her sister or she thinks the more adamantly she denies it, the more convinced we will be that she isn't really guilty.  Somehow from an early age we learn the art of diversion, misdirection, casting a shadow on others in hopes that those whom we love and admire will still think of us as completely wholesome and innocent.  But true growth in grace comes when we just come clean with others and with God.  We are flawed.  We are weak.  We are sinful, but amazingly enough, God still wants to use us.  He still used Moses.  He still used Aaron.  He still used the Israelites.  And he still wants to use us by being living examples of what his grace can do in the lives of flawed, messed up people like me and you.