January 25, 2024 - Exodus 28-31

Lots of instructions here regarding the priests who would serve at the tabernacle:  their garments and vestments, the manner of ordination, the daily offerings over which they would preside, instructions for their service (including the altar of incense, the financial gifts the sanctuary, the bronze basin, the anointing oil and incense), and instructions for the laborers who would build the tabernacle.  Now, Moses and Aaron had not yet come down from Sinai.  The Lord was about to wrap things up there on the summit by reiterating his instructions regarding the Sabbath and by giving to Moses the finished tablets upon which were written the Ten Commandments.  The people were getting antsy; all this seemed to be taking more time than they expected.  Before Moses and Aaron would descend from the mountain top, the people took matters into their own hands with the golden calf, but more on that, tomorrow.

A couple lessons from today’s reading.  There are right and wrong ways of approaching our God, the great Creator of the universe, and we do not have to figure those ways out, he told Israel and he has told us how to approach him.  And, largely, it’s a heart matter.  Hear Micah:  “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).  Hear Jesus himself:  “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24).  And another:  We have our schedule and God has his.  God had business to transact with Moses and Aaron, business that would take some time.  Rather than impatiently and sinfully jumping ahead of God, Israel, and we, must learn to patiently trust God and his timing.  Hear the Lord speak through Isaiah:  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9) & Paul:  “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25).  What peace is ours when we wait upon the Lord!

My soul, be silent, wait upon the Lord!

First let Him speak to thee, then speak to Him;

True prayer in thee the Lord initiates,

Thou but a channel art expressing Him.

My soul, be silent, wait upon the Lord!

Learn to deny thy thought and all thy will.

Learn to let God anoint thee with Himself

And thru thy prayer His purposes fulfill.   -- Witness Lee (1905-1997)