In Numbers 7 Moses finished setting up the tabernacle, anointed and consecrated all the furnishings, then did the same for the altar and utensils. And then I imagine a pause, when he just finished sprinkling the last drop of blood, lit the last censor of incense... I imagine a moment that possibly lasted a few minutes or hours but certainly felt like an eternity. That pregnant space of time after Moses finally did everything God commanded for the preparation of the tabernacle. Everything. From sacrificing the last goat to hanging goat hide curtains. From meat forks to breast plates. Onyx stones on ephods to acacia wood in the cross bars. He's done. And now he's waiting for God to fill the tabernacle.
For Moses, this must have been a very tense and frenzied preparation. Like the first time your parents come to your house for Thanksgiving dinner. Your Mom is a perfectionist when it comes to the moisture of turkey meat. And Aunt Madge gets really critical if the marshmallows on top of the yam dish are not the right shade of golden brown. You can already see Grand Pappy's bushy eyebrow raised just a tad when he spoons into the green beans that don't have enough crunchy cornflakes sprinkled on top.
Except it's worse for Moses. Because Grand Pappy doesn't kill you with fire from heaven if the mashed potatoes are over salted. Moses thinks again of Nadab and Abihu, his dead nephews.
So there is Moses in the Tabernacle, probably sweat coating his palms as he is making tiny adjustments to the location of the lamp stand, the wash basin, then back to the lamp stand to turn it just a smidgen the other way.
And nothing is happening. Nothing. He's waiting for God to fill the tabernacle with His glory, take His place on the mercy seat. But there are crickets chirping in the background. Silence. Or, even worse than silence, maybe Moses is hearing the grumbling of the thousands of Israelites outside the courts. An occasional "What's taking so long?" rising above the crowd. "Oh for Pete's sake!!!!" (or the Hebrew equivalent to the name Pete).
And now beads of sweat are dripping down Moses' forehead, making a puddle on the goat hair curtain. He's thinking about his nephews again, Nadab and Abihu who God killed for offering "unauthorized incense" in the temple (Leviticus 10). He's worried he didn't do something right perhaps. Moses is starting to get freaked out: was the curtain supposed to have been sea cow hide instead of goat skins? The crowd noise outside is pounding in his head. Where is God????!!!!!
He straightens his breast piece and counts, for the 10th time, to make sure there are still twelve stones on front. Did one of the artisans misspell the name of "Issachar" carved on that stone? Is there one "S" or two in Issachar???
He looks at a thread on his robe to make sure it is of gold, blue, purple and scarlet yarn. He's practically loosing it now because the purple thread looks kinda mauve!!
If Moses wasn't OCD when he started all of this, he definitely is by now.
But God still did not fill the temple. Moses braces himself for the lightning bolt that is surely on the way to make him extra crispy. Waits for the thundering wrath.
Instead Moses heard a different sound outside the tabernacle. So he went out to look and get some fresh air, clear his head.
Outside there are twelve leaders, one from each tribe of Israel. They have six carts and twelve oxen. The carts are heaping to overflowing with offerings brought from their people: silver plates, gold dishes, sacks of grain, flour and oil. There was a huge string of animals, practically receding to a vanishing point into the distance: bulls, rams, goats, oxen, lambs. Each of the twelve tribal leaders had collected a mass of silver and gold from his people then melted it down to make a huge silver plate, silver sprinkling bowl and golden bowl for an offering to the Lord.
I imagine Moses seeing this huge crowd, the twelve leaders proudly standing next to the rich and generous offerings from their people, the grumbling of people replaced with the braying of animals. He must have wept.
And for the next twelve days, the leaders of each tribe presented the offerings of their people and brought them before the altar (vs 10). Gifts of worship to the Lord. This was a vast amount of resources and a genuine sacrifice from the people.
At the end of the twelfth day of offerings, something remarkable happened. Moses went back into the tabernacle, past the outer court, through the holy place, parted the curtain in the Holiest of Holies. And he heard the voice of God speaking to him from the mercy seat on the ark. God arrived!
Only after the 12 leaders of Israel brought their offerings, scarifies, and worshipped at the altar, then God filled the tabernacle. And how much did Moses worship the Lord in that moment!!
There are some great applications here for Christian leaders:
For Moses, this must have been a very tense and frenzied preparation. Like the first time your parents come to your house for Thanksgiving dinner. Your Mom is a perfectionist when it comes to the moisture of turkey meat. And Aunt Madge gets really critical if the marshmallows on top of the yam dish are not the right shade of golden brown. You can already see Grand Pappy's bushy eyebrow raised just a tad when he spoons into the green beans that don't have enough crunchy cornflakes sprinkled on top.
Except it's worse for Moses. Because Grand Pappy doesn't kill you with fire from heaven if the mashed potatoes are over salted. Moses thinks again of Nadab and Abihu, his dead nephews.
So there is Moses in the Tabernacle, probably sweat coating his palms as he is making tiny adjustments to the location of the lamp stand, the wash basin, then back to the lamp stand to turn it just a smidgen the other way.
And nothing is happening. Nothing. He's waiting for God to fill the tabernacle with His glory, take His place on the mercy seat. But there are crickets chirping in the background. Silence. Or, even worse than silence, maybe Moses is hearing the grumbling of the thousands of Israelites outside the courts. An occasional "What's taking so long?" rising above the crowd. "Oh for Pete's sake!!!!" (or the Hebrew equivalent to the name Pete).
And now beads of sweat are dripping down Moses' forehead, making a puddle on the goat hair curtain. He's thinking about his nephews again, Nadab and Abihu who God killed for offering "unauthorized incense" in the temple (Leviticus 10). He's worried he didn't do something right perhaps. Moses is starting to get freaked out: was the curtain supposed to have been sea cow hide instead of goat skins? The crowd noise outside is pounding in his head. Where is God????!!!!!
He straightens his breast piece and counts, for the 10th time, to make sure there are still twelve stones on front. Did one of the artisans misspell the name of "Issachar" carved on that stone? Is there one "S" or two in Issachar???
He looks at a thread on his robe to make sure it is of gold, blue, purple and scarlet yarn. He's practically loosing it now because the purple thread looks kinda mauve!!
If Moses wasn't OCD when he started all of this, he definitely is by now.
But God still did not fill the temple. Moses braces himself for the lightning bolt that is surely on the way to make him extra crispy. Waits for the thundering wrath.
Instead Moses heard a different sound outside the tabernacle. So he went out to look and get some fresh air, clear his head.
Outside there are twelve leaders, one from each tribe of Israel. They have six carts and twelve oxen. The carts are heaping to overflowing with offerings brought from their people: silver plates, gold dishes, sacks of grain, flour and oil. There was a huge string of animals, practically receding to a vanishing point into the distance: bulls, rams, goats, oxen, lambs. Each of the twelve tribal leaders had collected a mass of silver and gold from his people then melted it down to make a huge silver plate, silver sprinkling bowl and golden bowl for an offering to the Lord.
I imagine Moses seeing this huge crowd, the twelve leaders proudly standing next to the rich and generous offerings from their people, the grumbling of people replaced with the braying of animals. He must have wept.
And for the next twelve days, the leaders of each tribe presented the offerings of their people and brought them before the altar (vs 10). Gifts of worship to the Lord. This was a vast amount of resources and a genuine sacrifice from the people.
At the end of the twelfth day of offerings, something remarkable happened. Moses went back into the tabernacle, past the outer court, through the holy place, parted the curtain in the Holiest of Holies. And he heard the voice of God speaking to him from the mercy seat on the ark. God arrived!
Only after the 12 leaders of Israel brought their offerings, scarifies, and worshipped at the altar, then God filled the tabernacle. And how much did Moses worship the Lord in that moment!!
There are some great applications here for Christian leaders:
- Our relationship to God is fruitful only when we add worship to our work. It is not enough to just go through the tasks of ministry. God is so pleased with our offerings of worship, sacrifices of praise and the Holy Spirit speaks to us within the temple of our hearts when we sit at the altar of God in worship, bringing not just words and songs of praise, but also offerings of time, treasure and talent.
Many times and for extended periods in my life I've just been counting threads on my spiritual life, re-arranging the meat fork on the altar, but not worshiping the Lord with all I have. And then I wonder why there are crickets chirping in the background, not the voice of God.
- The combined weight of silver brought by the 12 leaders of Israel was 60 pounds. The gold weighed 3 pounds! Just the precious metal alone was worth over $100,000 in 2011 dollars. Add in the value of the food and animals, and the offering was probably equivalent to millions of dollars back in the day.
What is the value of the worship we bring to the Lord? Is it easy and convenient? Or do we return to the Lord with the abundance He has given to us? Too often in my life, the sum total of my worship to Him consisted of one hour on Sunday morning. But not even a full hour because half of that time was a sermon I didn't remember longer than the time it took to reach the coffee service. And not even 1/2 hour because most of the first worship song I missed because I was late. But even during the remaining worship songs I was thinking about what happened the day prior or would happen the next day. And I was also distracted by that guy who was singing too loudly. And the lady's perfume in front of me that was too strong. So maybe there was 6 minutes of worship that week. Sweet.
- The leaders of the twelve tribes were responsible for collecting the offerings from the people. Our job as leaders is so much more than getting students to attend a bible study, or retreat, or a big gathering where they get pummeled by a dodge ball (though that's certainly a bonus). But one of our goals as leaders is to see our students come to the place where they are offering themselves as living sacrifices to the Lord (Romans 12:1). And then, after that, the students would desire to join the great commission to make disciples of others who then offer themselves as living sacrifices. May the line of worshipers approaching the altar stretch far into the distance.
- The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. We no longer need to have goat hair, or anointing oil, or sea cow hides. (Although a sea cow hide jacket would be pretty awesome!) Because Jesus offered his blood and body, one sacrifice alone, then we can approach the throne of grace and presence of God with boldness (Hebrews 4:16). We are now the temple of God (Heb 3:6) and He's not waiting for us to make a fancy box out of acacia wood covered with gold. But sometimes we make worship, ministry and service to God a long list of rules, adopt a legalistic code that kills the grace of God. We need to guard the liberty we have in Jesus carefully so that the gospel does not get replaced with a "to do list". We are asked to love God with all our hearts, soul and strength and love others as ourselves. Period.
- Where did the Israelites get such huge wealth for their offerings? After all they were a desert nomadic tribe that just came out of 430 of years of Egyptian slavery. God provided it to them out of His abundant sovereignty. When the Israelites fled Egypt, the Lord predisposed the Egyptians to give the Israelites their treasure on the way out of town (Ex 12:35-36). They were utterly plundered by the Israelites. I picture some sort of Jedi mind trick scene:
Hebrew: [waving his hand Jedi style] You want to give me your awesome 48" LED TV.
Egyptian: [swirly hypnotizey things in his eyes] I want to give you my awesome 48" LED TV.
Hebrew: And your sweet iPad 2.
Egyptian: And my iPad 2.
So the bounty the Israelites brought to God for the tabernacle was from God in the first place. This is like a Dad giving his kid a $20 bill so the kid can buy a father's day gift. How sad would it be if the kid only spent $1 then bought $19 worth of candy for himself?
Everything we have has been given to us from the Lord. Everything. God asks us to be responsible stewards of the blessings placed in our care. And as He's given to us, we give back to Him in love and worship.
A nearly identical scene is repeated for Solomon's Temple in 1 Chronicles 29 - 2 Chron 5:
1) Generous offering stewarded by the leaders of people.
2) Release of praise and worship
3) God filling the temple.
It is as if we need to generously give our stuff to others, to make a void that will be graciously filled by God.
No comments:
Post a Comment