Year 1, Day 85: Exodus 36

Before I begin, I will confess that the next five chapters are going to be a little on the light side.  These five chapters are essentially the story of how God’s commands for building the worship site are followed.  I will say that if you have fallen behind in your reading and you want to try and catch up, reading the next five chapters in one cohesive unit will not likely spoil too much of your understanding.

Doing the Work Appointed

There are two things out of this passage that I can lift up today.  First, we see that the appointed workers did the job that God had appointed them to do.  They were able to complete the tasks.  God does not assign workers to do jobs that they are ill equipped to do.  They might grow and learn in the process, but they will be able to get the job done meaningfully.

This speaks to the empowerment of God.  When God calls us, we can live out that calling.  We can know success.  We can know satisfaction.  What is important is understanding out identity from the Father and knowing that our King has called us to go forth and accomplish His will.

Abundance

The second thing in this passage is that there are plenty of materials.  When the Spirit moves, you don’t need to beg.  When the Spirit moves, the Lord’s presence will be obvious.  When the Spirit moves, there will be little doubt that God is the impetus of the action and not mankind.

I am reminded of the words that I wrote yesterday.  Human will is about cajoling and guilting because we live very much in a scarcity mindset.  When we only trust on human will, we know that we will have to fight and claw for resources.  But when we genuinely believe that God provides we can live in His abundance.

I’ll relate a story that a friend of mine likes to share.  This man went down to Florida to visit some relatives.  Of course, Sunday morning the friend went to church with his relatives.  During the service, the preacher railed on the congregation about their giving.  During the offertory, the money was collected and counted during the hymn.  The ushers came back and reported to the pastor, who called out for another hymn and told the people that the plates needed to go around again and everyone needs to dig deeper into their pockets.  This process continued three or four more cycles until the pastor was satisfied at “the take.”  At this point, I wouldn’t even call it an offering anymore.  Once satisfied, the pastor moved along with the service and everyone went home.  The man’s relatives told the man that this was pretty much the routine that happened every week.

Take that example and lift it up against what we read here in Exodus.  If God is truly present, we’ll have what we need and more.  If we don’t have what we need, like Moses in the prior chapter we might need to ask once.  But if God is in it – and if the people are willing to serve God – we shouldn’t need to ask more than once.

Life is worth living when it is lived in God’s abundance.  When we live in human scarcity, there is going to be trouble.

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