January 13, 2021 – Exodus 24-31

“Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do’” (24:3). Ah, they’re going to do it all, be faithful in all things! They said so! A pretty good mirror for us, here, for considering all our resolutions and good intentions. The talk vs. the walk. Hmmm . . .

“Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst” (25:8). “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!” (Psalm 33:12) Such detailed instructions for the building and furnishing of the tabernacle and for the institution of the priests and for the altar and for the burning of incense and the giving of offerings! Levi often reminds us that we must come before God and worship him as he has instructed us. And, then, the Lord really gets down to business: “With the blood of the sin offering of atonement he [the priest] shall make atonement for it once in the year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord” (30:10).

After setting Bezalel and Oholiab over the work (chapter 31), God “gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God” (31:18). Wow! After all the miracles, after all the instructions and commitments by the people to obey, and after the giving of the two tablets (written by the finger of God himself!), this deal is pretty well sealed, with God directing and his people faithfully trusting and obeying. Not! We are wise to consider the caution found in the epistle to the Hebrews: “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1). How easily we drift away. But our God is faithful! “O love the Lord, all you His godly ones! The Lord preserves the faithful” (Psalm 31:23).