Exodus
36
THE PROGRESS OF THE WORK ON THE TABERNACLE - (vs. 1-2))
Bezaleel and Aholiab felt that
the time for action was now come. They at once
addressed themselves to their task. Moses delivered into their hands all the various
offerings
which the people,
rich and poor, had brought in (ch. 35:21-29); and
skilled workmen
were
mmediately called
upon to shape it for the designed uses.
vs. 1-2 – “Then wrought Bezaleel
and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man,
in whom the LORD put wisdom and understanding
to know how to work all
manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the LORD
had commanded.” - It is to mark the exactitude of
the obedience that chps. 36- 39,
follow so closely, and with such minuteness, the wording of chs.
26-28. “And Moses
called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the
LORD had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto
the work to do it:”
THE SUPERFLUOUS LIBERALITY OF THE PEOPLE
WHICH HAS TO BE
RESTRAINED (vs. 3-7).
The fact of
the work being commenced did not stop the inflow of gifts. More and yet more
continued to be brought “every morning” (v. 3). At last it became
clear that the supply
had exceeded the demand; and the workmen reported so to Moses (vs. 4-5),
who thereupon commanded that the offerings should cease (v. 6).
vs. 3-7 – “And they received of Moses all the
offering, which the children of
Israel had brought for the work of the
service of the sanctuary, to make it
withal. And they brought yet unto him free
offerings every morning. And all the
wise men, that wrought all the work of the
sanctuary, came every man from his
work which they made; And they spake unto
Moses, saying, The people
bring
much more than enough for the service of the work,
which the LORD
commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused
it to be
proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither
man nor woman make any
more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So
the people were restrained from
bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all
the work to make it, and
too much.”
Superabundant
Giving
Too much is
far better than too little. (Thomas Paine, the great pamphleteer, during
the American Revolution days said, “Better too much
over-reaction when such a
thing as “freedom” is at stake – I say the same for
worship - “Better too much
than not enough” – CY – 2010) - Let a great work be
taken in hand, and it is impossible
to anticipate the exact quantity of the material that it will
require, or the exact cost of work
and material together. Care should always be taken to have a
margin beyond the supposed
necessity. Unless this is done:
THE CLOSE. Fear
naturally arises lest the material or the money should
not hold
out; and economies are practiced which detract from the beauty,
the finish,
the perfection of the construction. Or (which is worse) desirable,
even
necessary, adjuncts are omitted, given up as impracticable under the
circumstances.
calculations of cost are uncertain. Prices rise while a work is in
progress;
material purchased, or presented, turns out to be defective,
and has to be
replaced by something better. Accidents occur. The actual cost of a work
almost always exceeds the estimate — sometimes greatly
exceeds it. How
often do we hear of there being a debt upon a building!
This
would occur far
less frequently, if gifts and offerings kept flowing in
until the authority
entrusted with the work cried “Stop.” Superabundant
giving shows a truly
liberal spirit in those who give. It is not a very
common thing. Cases are rare of
its needing to be “restrained.” The
example of the Israelites should stir
Christians to emulate them. While these poor
wanderers in the desert were so
generous, how is it that we are, for the
most part, so niggardly?
Superabundant
giving is a trial to those who receive the gifts. How
easy to
appropriate
what is not required to our own advantage! Moses withstood
this
temptation. Bezaleel and Aholiab
withstood it. It may be doubted
whether all
Christians have always done so. The gifts that flowed in at the
shrine of
Becket, at the exhibition of the holy coat of Troves, at the altar of
St. Januarius, were intended as
offerings for the service of the sanctuary.
Were they always used for sacred
purposes? Was there not often a
superfluity,
which men converted to their own benefit? There have
certainly
been those in modern times who have enriched themselves out of
moneys
subscribed for charitable purposes, as the records of our assize
courts
sufficiently show.
THE PROGRESS OF THE WORK ON THE TABERNACLE
– (con’t – vs. 8-38)
Ø The
progress of the work is now reported in detail, and in the following order:
Ø The
covering for the tabernacle (vs. 8-13);
Ø The goats’
hair covering for the tent above the tabernacle (vs. 14-18);
Ø The outer
coverings of rams’ skins and seals’ skins (v. 19);
Ø The boards
for the walls of the tabernacle (vs. 20-30);
Ø The bars
for the boards (vs. 31-34);
Ø The veil of
the most holy place (vs. 35-36);
Ø The hanging
for the entrance to the tabernacle (vs. 37-38).
The
chapter, from v. 8, runs parallel with ch. 26,
differing from it mainly in describing
as made that which in ch. 26. is ordered to be made.
vs. 8-38 – “And every wise hearted man among
them that wrought the work of
the tabernacle made ten curtains of fine
twined linen, and blue, and purple, and
scarlet: with cherubims
of cunning work made he them. The length
of one
curtain was twenty and eight cubits, and the breadth
of one curtain four cubits:
the curtains were all of one size. And he coupled the five curtains one unto
another: and the other five curtains he coupled
one unto another. And he made
loops of blue on the edge of one curtain from
the selvedge in the coupling: likewise
he made in the uttermost side of another
curtain, in the coupling of the second.
Fifty loops made he in one curtain, and
fifty loops made he in the edge of the
curtain which was in the coupling of the second:
the loops held one curtain to another.
And he made fifty taches
of gold, and coupled the curtains one unto another with the
taches: so
it became one tabernacle. And he made curtains of goats’ hair for the
tent over the tabernacle: eleven curtains he
made them. The length of one curtain
was thirty cubits, and four cubits was the breadth
of one curtain: the eleven curtains
were of one size. And he coupled five curtains by themselves,
and six curtains by
themselves. And
he made fifty loops upon the uttermost edge of the curtain in the
coupling, and fifty loops made he upon the edge of
the curtain which coupleth the
second. And he made fifty taches
of brass to couple the tent together, that it
might be one. And he made a covering for the tent of rams’
skins dyed red, and
a covering of badgers’ skins above that. And he made boards for the tabernacle
of shittim wood,
standing up. The length of a board was
ten cubits, and the breadth
of a board one cubit and a half. One board had two tenons,
equally distant one
from another: thus did he make for all the
boards of the tabernacle. And he made
boards for the tabernacle; twenty boards for the
south side southward: And forty
sockets of silver he made under the twenty boards;
two sockets under one board
for his two tenons,
and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.
And for
the other side of the tabernacle, which is
toward the north corner, he made twenty
boards, And their forty sockets of silver; two sockets
under one board, and two
sockets under another board. And for the sides of the tabernacle westward
he
made six boards. And two boards made he for the corners of the
tabernacle in
the two sides.
And they were coupled beneath, and coupled together at the head
thereof, to one ring: thus he did to both of them
in both the corners. And there
were eight boards; and their sockets were
sixteen sockets of silver, under every
board two sockets. And he made bars of shittim
wood; five for the boards of the
one side of the tabernacle, And five bars for the boards of the other side
of the
tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the
tabernacle for the sides westward.
And he made the middle bar to shoot through
the boards from the one end to the
other. And he overlaid the boards with gold, and made
their rings of gold to be
places for the bars, and overlaid the bars with
gold. And he made a vail
of blue,
and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined
linen: with cherubims made he it of
cunning work.
And he made thereunto four pillars of shittim
wood, and overlaid
them with gold: their hooks were of gold; and
he cast for them four sockets of silver.
And he made an
hanging for the tabernacle door of blue, and purple, and scarlet,
and fine twined linen, of needlework; And the five pillars of it with their hooks:
and he overlaid their chapiters
and their fillets with gold: but their five sockets
were of brass.”
Exactitute in Obedience
Kalisch observes on this passage, that, “though
even literal repetitions of the same occurrence,
or the same command, are not unusual in the
Biblical style, yet the lengthened and accurate
reiteration” which here occurs, is unusual and must have some
special meaning. He himself
considers that he has sufficiently accounted for it as
intended to draw attention to the
importance of the tabernacle in the Mosaic system, and the
significance, and especially the
symbolical character of the descriptions (‘Commentary on
Exodus,’ pp. 449-450). To
us it seems that there must have been some further reason for
the phenomenon; and we are
inclined to find it in the importance
of the example which Moses here sets of exactitude in
obedience. (Remember God had said, “See, saith He, that
thou make all things
according to the pattern shewed thee in the mount” – [Hebrews 8:5, Exodus 25:40] –
CY- 2010) - If
any one might ever be supposed entitled to depart from thestrict
letter of
observance, where the commands of God are concerned, it would be
such an one as
Moses, who
had conversed as friend to friend with God, and had been twice
summoned to a conference of forty days’ duration.
But Moses does not seem to feel
that he is so privileged. The exact correspondency of
paragraph with paragraph,
verse with verse, clause with
clause, word with word, seems intended to teach
and enforce the lesson THAT WHAT GOD COMMANDS IS TO BE OBSERVED
TO THE LETTER, DOWN TO ITS MINUTEST POINT! Certainly, what these
five concluding chapters of Exodus especially set
forth, is the extreme exactitude which
Moses and those
under him showed in carrying out all the directions that God had
given with regard to the tabernacle. If “fifty taches”
were ordered (ch. 26:6), “fifty
taches” were made (ch. 36:13); if “five pillars” were commanded here (ch. 26:37),
and “four pillars”
there (ibid. – v. 32), the five and the four were constructed and set
up accordingly (ch. 36:36, 38); if
this curtain was to have a pattern woven into it
(ch. 26:31), and that curtain was
to be adorned with embroidery (ibid. v. 36), the
embroiderer’s and the weaver’s art were employed upon them as
ordered (ch. 36:35,37).
Nothing
commanded was ever neglected; only in one or two cases (notably in v. 38)
small additions were made, if not to the orders
given, at any rate to the orders recorded.
Generally,
however, there was an entire effacement of self, a complete restraint
of
private fancy and private preference. Note:
Ø The rarity
of exact obedience;
Ø The
difficulty of it;
Ø The scant
praise which it obtains from men;
Ø The
certainty that it is approved in God’s sight.
Examples:
Ø The
obedience of Moses as here set out;
Ø The perfect obedience of Christ. “My
meat is to do the will of Him that
sent
me and to finish His work” (John 4:34).
“I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4).
On
Tabernacle symbolism see Exodus 26 – this web site.
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