Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20050501.htm
LIFE'S WILDERNESS SHORTAGES AND GOD
Part V: Heeding God's Pattern To Meet Our Group Material Construction Needs
(Exodus 25:1-9 with 31:1-11)
- Introduction
- In today's ministries where we meet as a body of believers in a "Church" building that is separate from a home, various building construction needs arise at different times for different reasons.
- Now, those who are to lead in the ministry of the Word are not usually skilled, trained or even equipped to address these construction needs well, let alone even to understand or identify such needs as they arise.
- Thus, practical guidance is needed to know God's leading in addressing such needs among His people, and Exodus 31:1-11 reveals a pattern God established for Israel that we can follow today (as follows):
- Heeding God's Pattern To Meet Our Group Material Construction Needs, Exodus 31:1-11.
- God directed the people of Israel to build a tabernacle in which His priests could minister for the spiritual needs of the nation Israel, Exodus 25:1, 2-7, 8-9.
- However, this tabernacle was not to be constructed by Moses, but by the people of Israel, 25:1, 2-7, 8-9.
- Just how this construction was to occur was explained by God in Scripture, and we can use His guidance on the matter as a pattern for material groups construction needs of God's people even today (as follows):
- The materials to be used in the construction of the tabernacle were to come from the material goods God had provided for the people in accord with their freewill choice, Exodus 25:2-7:
- God told Moses to ask the people of Israel to provide a wide variety of valuable materials toward the construction of the tabernacle, Exodus 25:2a, 3-7.
- This offering was to be made on a personal, freewill basis apart from any taxation or tithe, 25:2b.
- The possessions out of which the people were to give materials for the construction had been given by God to them as He had moved the Egyptians to give them to His people, Ex. 3:21-22; 12:35-36.
- Once these materials were collected, organization and skill was needed for the tabernacle construction to occur according to the blueprint set up by God, Ex. 25:9. Thus, God directed Moses in these things:
- God made Bezaleel, the grandson of Hur who had helped hold up Moses' hands in the battle against Amalek, to be highly, supernaturally gifted to head up the work as a master craftsman, Ex. 31:1-5: (a) Bezaleel was given a supernatural gift by the filling of the Holy Spirit to be a master craftsman, Ex. 31:1-3. (b) His gift included alignment to God's fixed moral order (hokma, cf. Bib. Sac., 136:543, p. 232-233), understanding (tebunah, cf. Theol. Workbook of the O. T., v. I, p. 104) and knowledge gained by the senses (da'at , Ibid., p. 366), and this skill was applied to a wide variety of crafts and materials, Ex. 31:3, 4-5. Thus, he was gifted to know not only how to make the tabernacle, but sensitive to the moral and ethical overtones the construction would convey to those who used it so that what was built would promote right thoughts and motives in those who used it!
- God also gifted a helper, Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan to assist Bezaleel as man of lesser skill, Ex. 31:6a. Under these two men, others with even lesser levels of skill in various areas of endeavor worked, creating a clear "chain-of-command" order in the work, 31:6b.
Lesson: To construct the tabernacle, (1) God set up a materially skilled AND spiritually sensitive master craftsman together with a less-gifted helper and even less-gifted workers under them to build the structure, and all under the spiritual, Biblical leadership of Moses who was under God. (2) They then followed God's Biblical blueprint given through Moses (3) using the materials collected by the freewill offerings the people had donated out of God's initial blessing to each of them.
Application: For the construction needs in God's work where God's people are gathered together, we should (1) FIRST discern the Lord's BIBLICAL will as to IF a given construction project is needed, and WHAT KIND, etc.; (2) As we discern God wants us to achieve a particular objective, we should agree on the plan that Biblically honors God; (3) then, we are to collect resources (skilled labor, goods or money, etc.) from the freewill offerings of God's people. (4) Once we are ready to achieve the project, we must do the work (a) using those who are skilled and (b) submissive to God's will and (c) who work in a clear "chain-of-command" that the will and plan of God be achieved.