Exodus 38:21-31--Materials for the Tabernacle

Materials for the Tabernacle​
21 These are the records of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, as they were recorded at the commandment of Moses, the responsibility of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. 22 Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses; 23 and with him was Oholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer and embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.

24 All the gold that was used for the work, in all the construction of the sanctuary, the gold from the offering, was twenty-nine talents and 730 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. 25 The silver from those of the congregation who were recorded was a hundred talents and 1,775 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary: 26 a beka a head (that is, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary), for everyone who was listed in the records, from twenty years old and upward, for 603,550 men. 27 The hundred talents of silver were for casting the bases of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil; a hundred bases for the hundred talents, a talent a base. 28 And of the 1,775 shekels he made hooks for the pillars and overlaid their capitals and made fillets for them. 29 The bronze that was offered was seventy talents and 2,400 shekels; 30 with it he made the bases for the entrance of the tent of meeting, the bronze altar and the bronze grating for it and all the utensils of the altar, 31 the bases around the court, and the bases of the gate of the court, all the pegs of the tabernacle, and all the pegs around the court.

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I wanted to cover this part separately from the building of the Tabernacle itself as that had to do with the obedience of the craftsman​, but this passage gives us a look into the hearts of the people of God and their sacrificial giving because of their realization of who God is and what He has done--however, I would stop short of saying that this is evidence of any kind of true repentance of changing of their hearts because we know the end of the story, and this entire generation (save Joshua and Caleb) would die in the desert and not enter the Promised Land because of their wickedness and rebellion.

We see an interesting name for the Tabernacle to start off--the Tabernacle of the Testimony.  That is not just a synonym for the Law, but it is about the Testimony of who God is and what He has done and it was that Testimony (in the form of the Law, the budding rod of Aaron and the omer of manna) that was kept symbolically in the Ark of the Covenant so that the people could look at it and remember what's inside--similarly, the people were to look at that Tabernacle and remember that it was important because of what was inside of it--the Spirit of God as well as the Ark of the Covenant (or the Ark of the Testimony) with the reminders of the words and works of God.  Do people look at us that way since we also walk around with the Spirit of God living inside of us and carry His words and works inside of us and we too are tabernacles/temples of the living God?  Are we visible representations of His Testimony (not our testimony)?

We once again see that God assigned just the right people to the job and it was the job of the Levites to care for the Tabernacle and to be in its service, so there was a whole family of Levites, a "clan" if you will, that was responsible for helping to build and maintain the Tabernacle.  They were assigned as workers to Bezalel and Oholiab and they learned everything they needed to do for building, upkeep and repair, but God gave specific giftings to these specific men both now and throughout time so that the sons of Ithamar, one of Aaron's sons that should have been qualified to serve as priests and maybe even high priest, would be assigned to the building and care of the Tabernacle--and it seems that he and his clan did this without grumbling or complaining about the role that he had been given.  We'll see later in the book of numbers that this cannot be said for all the Levites as there will be a rebellion among some of them who become jealous and also want to serve as priests who offer incense before the LORD--something only the sons of Aaron were allowed to do.  Let's just say that when we get there, we remember to not covet anyone else's role in the body of Christ or His mission that He has given them because He has equipped you for the work He has for you to do and your sin can affect your family and your entire tribe and nation.  (see Numbers 16 if you want to know about the sin of Korah and what I'm talking about).

Alright, now let's get onto the "accounting" part of the text as it seems that God instructed Moses and the Levites to keep an accurate record of everything that was donated--and I don't think it was for tax deduction purposes.  With that said, I honestly don't know the exact value of a talent or a shekel because they are not weights or measures that have been well-preserved or that we use today.  However, here are some estimates.  It is supposed that each talent was roughly equivalent to the weight of a man (probably part of the expression we have of "worth his weight in gold.") That should give us an idea then about how much gold and silver and bronze is here for the amount measured in talents--roughly 50 kg per talent or about 110 lbs per talent.  The shekel mentioned here is a "sanctuary shekel" and it's estimated to weigh 0.4 oz or that 10 shekels weigh approximately 4 oz.  That would also make each shekel 0.025 pounds (sorry for those that use grams instead of pounds as I live in the USA so that's the easiest way for my audience to think about mass/weight).  It's enough to say then that this was a massive donation of treasure from the people and we see that the Egyptians gave them all of this on their way out of Egypt to try and bribe God to stop sending plagues on their  people--they had been slaves in Egypt with nothing and then one day God changed everything and they gained the riches of the wealthiest empire on earth as the Pharaoh realized all the riches in the world would do him no good if him and his people were all dead.  He'd rather be poor and alive than dead.

The people then had to realize that this money never belonged to them and was always given to God and was meant to be used for God's service.  The treasure they received was no indication of how much value they had as individuals or even as a nation, but how much value God had--something that took 10 plagues for the Egyptians to figure out.  But all of this does not compare to the riches that we God controls where the streets are paved in gold in heaven, and this is just a preview of the "real thing" that we'll experience someday in the New Heavens and the New Earth.  If you want to get a glimpse of that you'll need to read the end of the books of Ezekiel and Revelation.  Let's just say that those prophets couldn't put into words what they were actually seeing and could only describe what it was was like (description by simile and metaphor).  It is too amazing for the tongue to describe, but it is the place that Jesus has gone to prepare for us that where He is, there we may be also.  But we know the most valuable thing in heaven won't be the gold or silver or bronze or precious stones--it will be the blood of the Lamb that was slain and offered on the Mercy Seat of heaven to make atonement once and for all for all who belonged to God and now belong to Christ.  There is no price that could be paid in gold, silver, bronze or precious stones to purchase our redemption or salvation.  Our infinitely costly sin against an infinitely good God needed to be paid off by an infinitely precious sacrifice--the lifeblood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

What are you made of?  When people look at you, does your composition reflect the worth and majesty and glory of God?  Does everything you have belong to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit or have you tried to build a large, expensive palace for yourself while you relegate God to a tent (this is the conviction that David had later when he thought that he should build a temple for God--we'll get to what God thought of the people living in paneled houses (palaces) when we get to the prophets.  Just ask yourself if your life is glorifying God or glorifying you?  Is your testimony that your full of and that is hidden in your heart about God or about you?  Do people recognize that God is living inside of you and that you are full of His presence and His glory because it changes everything you are and everything you do, or do they still think you to be the same person who you were before but maybe that you just "found religion" to try and be a "better you."?  Be careful because God is a jealous God and will share His glory with no other--not even you, and we know that the gospel is not about making us rich or famous, nor is it about making us healthy and wealthy, but it is God's story of how He has been at work to accomplish His purposes for His great glory from the very beginning.  That's what the Tabernacle is all about and as Tabernacles of the Holy Spirit, that is what we are to be all about as well, until the day when Christ returns and we will be joined together with the rest of the Bride of Christ and we will be the New Jerusalem as it is the Bride of Christ, the Church that comes down from heaven and is the place and people where Jesus dwells among us forever and ever.