April 24, 2023
Big Idea
God reveals the way and His will through His Word.
"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."
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. 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.
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, 1 36:9 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains were the same size.
10 He 2 36:10 Probably Bezalel (compare 35:30; 37:1) 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.
14 He also made curtains of goats' hair for a tent over the tabernacle. He made eleven curtains. 15 The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. The eleven curtains were the same size. 16 He coupled five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves. 17 And he made fifty loops on the edge of the outermost curtain of the one set, and fifty loops on the edge of the other connecting curtain. 18 And he made fifty clasps of bronze to couple the tent together that it might be a single whole. 19 And he made for the tent a covering of tanned rams' skins and goatskins.
20 Then he made the upright frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood. 21 Ten cubits was the length of a frame, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each frame. 22 Each frame had two tenons for fitting together. He did this for all the frames of the tabernacle. 23 The frames for the tabernacle he made thus: twenty frames for the south side. 24 And he made forty bases of silver under the twenty frames, two bases under one frame for its two tenons, and two bases under the next frame for its two tenons. 25 For the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side, he made twenty frames 26 and their forty bases of silver, two bases under one frame and two bases under the next frame. 27 For the rear of the tabernacle westward he made six frames. 28 He made two frames for corners of the tabernacle in the rear. 29 And they were separate beneath but joined at the top, at the first ring. He made two of them this way for the two corners. 30 There were eight frames with their bases of silver: sixteen bases, under every frame two bases.
31 He made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames of the one side of the tabernacle, 32 and five bars for the frames of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the tabernacle at the rear westward. 33 And he made the middle bar to run from end to end halfway up the frames. 34 And he overlaid the frames with gold, and made their rings of gold for holders for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.
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.
Who knew Exodus could provide such empowerment, direction, and provision from God in sanctuary building plans? My son who is studying engineering appreciates the specific order and design; and my daughter paints, so the colors and materials required entertain her creativity. I see God in His orderliness and purposefulness as He orchestrated the tabernacle that reflects His special covenant with us. I love the language of EVERY craftsman being given skill and intelligence to do ALL the work God commanded.
God equips us to do everything He desires of us, and we are not alone in this process. We have the Holy Spirit in us as believers in Jesus, and we are part of a body of believers working together to love and encourage. Today, the new covenant with God says when we put our faith in Jesus, we are promised eternal life with God when we die and the Holy Spirit now to guide and comfort us.
The Israelites set a strong example of daily bringing their offerings with stirred hearts to build the sanctuary. God desires our willing obedience every day, not out of obligation or guilt, but offering ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2). God's plan in Exodus for His holy sanctuary, where He resides and wants people to come and meet with Him, is reflective of the relationship He wants with us now.
Today, the church reminds us of the strength we have in being together. God wants us in community with people who know us and give truth and encouragement (Hebrews 10:24-25). Satan wants to convince us that we are alone and inept and that God is insufficient. Satan lies, saying we are not enough; and, in my own life, even using the grief of losing my son to make me feel incapable of serving and loving others well. We see in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 how God wants us to depend on Him. He will enable us. I am so grateful for faithful friends who say God is sufficient, loving, and trustworthy. Be encouraged by God working in us and His church to keep us moving closer to Him.
This month's memory verse
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
1. For fun, what role do you think you would have had in building the sanctuary? How has God gifted you today? Are you employing these gifts today for His kingdom? Here is a Spiritual Gift Assessment.
2. How are you feeling insecure or incompetent? How are you allowing Satan to question God's sufficiency to work in you? What Scriptures remind you of truth here?
3. Is there an area in your life that seems impossible to do? In what area do you need to ask others for help? How can you grow your view of God to believe in His power in you?
4. How do you think you are doing with generosity? What are you excited about today or in the past that you have had the privilege of investing in? There is a sweet history at Watermark with our "More Than Enough" campaign to purchase the land to build in 2003. Like the Israelites, Watermark has had good integrity in not gathering more than was needed and in stewarding well the resources given!
As we gear up to release even more features for Join The Journey in 2025, our staff team, unfortunately, no longer has the margin to continue to support the comment functionality. We have big things in store for Join The Journey 2025. Stay tuned!
Hugh Stephenson
Hugh Stephenson
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