Exodus 39

Bible Passage: Exodus 39

The second last chapter of Exodus. We are like reaching a season finale of the story of the chosen race, to be continued with more exciting stories to follow in the next season.

In this chapter actually most of what were written were repeated from what had been written in Exo 28, just as the previous chapter about the tabernacle and the items in them.

The instructions of making the priestly garments materialized into actual work of making them. We could imagine the scene of how piece by piece of the priestly garments coming together, from strings to cloth to garment, and the precious stones set into its place one by one onto the breastplate.

Then all the articles were completed one by one, and set up into place and the tabernacle takes its form. What is important is they made them “according to all that the LORD had commanded Moses”.

The Spirit of God was also moving amidst the craftsmen and artisans to perfect His works, as God had promised in Chapter 28.

At this time do you think that all the Israelites could all come to the “construction work site” to look at the holy things being made?

After everything was put into place and the presence of God came upon it, only the priests will be able to go into the Holy place and see the articles, not to mention the Ark of Covenant that was in the Holy of Holies where only the High Priest can enter once a year.

Since much of what was written here was based on the instructions of God to Moses in Chapter 28, I went back read the chapter again, and 3 things caught my attention:

1. The beautiful breastplate with the precious stones is also called the breastplate of judgement, as the Urim and the Thummim were on it, so Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the LORD continually. (cf Exo 28:30)
2. The High Priest wears the elaborate garments, while the “regular” priests wore simple clothes of fine linen. Jesus is our High Priest and we are like the priests serving together and under the High Priest today. Our roles as priests are important, but had a far lesser office than the High Priest, which is what Jesus had taken on for us today, to bear our names on His shoulders and on His heart.
3. There was a particular instruction that drew my attention because of the recent controversy about rules for attire for Bible camp. “And you shall make for them linen trousers to cover their nakedness” (Exo 28: 42). Other than wearing the fine linen tunics, God also instructed that there are linen trousers for the priests to wear when they are serving in the temple. God warned that they must wear them so that they may not incur iniquity and die. That is a serious warning.

Now the idea of what is appropriate to wear for serving God has changed over time and it has become a difficult subject to conclude.

The questions in my mind are –  What is considered nakedness to the Lord? Do we see our nakedness before God? Do we try to cover this “nakedness” when we prepare to serve in His holy work?

Moses looked over the work

“Then Moses looked over all the work, and indeed they had done it; as the LORD had commanded, just so they had done it.”             verse 43

Now Moses is like a project manager, and he is managing a group of artisans to make the tabernacle and the articles in them.

In my world of project management, i am constantly fighting with the builders who always build things differently from the drawings they were supposed to follow, either because they are taking the easy way out or because they have years of experience in building they just make assumptions or build things they think will work.

Moses was the only one who received the instructions from God and He had to make sure all the Israelites at work listen to instructions to make the tabernacle and articles to God’s specifications.

This is indeed not an easy task and one that requires a lot of his attention, moving across the various “sub-projects” to check the details, as every piece was important.

Today usually we do not have such specific instructions from God toward church projects, but often we feel that we could have done better if we had spent more attention to the planning and the execution process.

On the other hand, sometimes we are so concerned to want things our way, we try to manage church projects like we would for our business projects.

In church, we often need to recognise that we are stewards of God and we always need God to be in the midst of the work, to have it as God would want to have it.

This line is hard to draw sometimes. We need to have the heart of God to understand what are more important to Him.

One more thing that struck me is the last line of the chapter – “And Moses blessed them.”

Do you believe that the blessing of Moses will come upon the people?

How do we feel each time we receive benediction in church after Holy Communion’s ending prayer?

Do you believe that the servant of God blessing us from the pulpit will be heard by God and truly bring the blessings upon us?

The most important thing I feel about the chapter is – when we follow the instructions of God and do according to His will, His work will be glorious and we will be blessed.

Today the church is the true tabernacle of God, and we are priests serving in the temple together with our High Priest, Jesus Christ.

There are many things we can learn about worship by studying the items and layout of the Israelites’ tabernacle, though we may not fully understand the significance of each one.

But trying to learn from it is better than coming up with our own ideas of how God wants us to worship Him. Hope that each one of us is worthy to put on the fine linen to serve as priests in His most holy church.