A thought on building God's kingdom - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Exodus 37:1-5,

"Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. He overlaid it with pure gold, both inside and out, and made a gold molding around it. He cast four gold rings for it and fastened them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Then he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. And he inserted the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it."

The account of the construction of the tabernacle, the ark, the table, the lamp stand, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering, the basin for washing and the courtyard are all provided with interesting detail. The materials used, some information on design and on the construction are provided us.

Where this passage may be that which many folks skim through to get to the other accounts found within Exodus, it is interesting from a few perspectives. The one perspective I have as I read through these accounts is the recognition that these things were constructed by individuals who were "filled ... with the Spirit of God" and enabled by the Spirit "to do all kinds of work..." Exodus 35:31-35. These folks were enabled by the Lord himself for the work,"every skilled person to whom the Lord has given skill and ability to know how to carry out all the work..." Exodus 36:1.

This tabernacle is to be the place where God meets with man. It is the place where man can approach God with his worship. It is the place where the priests, who will represent the Israelites before the Lord will do their work. It is the place where the glory of God will rest and become the "nerve-center" of the community. It is here where the people of God will be set apart from all other nations on earth.

Due to the role the tabernacle, with its equipment and furnishings, all of it is to be constructed from the materials the Lord dictated. It is to be constructed according to the design the Lord dictated. It is to be constructed with the divinely inspired skills and abilities the Lord provided the Israelites.

I don't see much here about "winging it", "gettin 'er done the best we can", or "throwing it together" to get it finished by the end of the day. This was an important effort, one that would result in the acceptable place for God to meet with man. The shear thought of having a place where God met with man is an amazing thought to me.

All this has bearing on my understanding of what may be important and what may not be important as we commit ourselves today in joining with the Lord in the building of his kingdom. The Lord can be specific in details, as is evidenced in the construction of the tabernacle. Where he may not be specific, perhaps we inject some distortion to our concept of the things of God when we fill in where God has not. Where God wants things done in a certain way, we see he can communicate that. Where he chooses not to be detailed, perhaps we need to recognized that as well.

Given what we know, how might this influence your thinking about how we go about the building of God's kingdom today? Exactly how has he asked us to participate with him in the effort?

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com