Immersed...gifted...

 Immersed....gifted...

In Exodus God lays out the plans for the portable Tabernacle in minute details....the colors, the sizes, the designs, the materials....all part of a huge “tent” with layers and layers of meanings...down to the clothing the priests would wear... which the Israelites carried with them throughout their wanderings in the wilderness...

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats' hair, tanned rams' skins, goatskins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece. And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.

Exodus 25:1-9

They gave their offerings to the making of it...probably using the riches of their former slave owners...making something new ...replacing the old things with new ....looking to, honoring, worshiping their God who brought them out of slavery, redeemed...heading toward the promised land...

...using this abundance of resources....He even had the artisans named who would carry out this tremendous task of designing, implementing His details...

I was thinking about these artisans...the abundance of resources...

plans...

Sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph records what the workmen did, what they created, designed until it was finished... Exodus 35-40...

Those workers, called by name, each were gifted with a skill...

Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer. “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.” 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. 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, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing,

Exodus 35:30-36:4 

The tabernacle is finished...putting all the pieces together...

“So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.”

Exodus 40:33b-38 

This just calls to mind the New Testament...we each are gifted as well...given spiritual gifts to use to build the kingdom...and we are each called temples...

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17

It is beyond my comprehension that the God of the Universe would choose to indwell me with His Spirit...that He would give me gifts to build His kingdom...until such time that He deems it is finished...

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 1:6 

Thank YOU....