Before I Was Rudely Interrupted

Before I Was Rudely Interrupted

Doug Van Meter shares this illustration: Jonathan Edwards set numerous world records on his way to winning gold at the Sydney Olympics. His father was a vicar of a parish church, and he was raised in what we would understand to be a deeply devoted Christian home. Young Edwards was well-known as an evangelical who saw his athletic skill as a means to glorify God; and one means of doing so was to use his athletic platform to evangelize. Many likened him to Eric Liddell. Like Liddell, Edwards became known for his refusal to participate in athletic events on a Sunday. In fact, because of this conviction he missed the World Championships in 1991. But by 1993 he had a change of mind and no longer saw the need to withdraw from Sunday events. Upon his retirement in 2003 he began to travel and share his testimony. He became the presenter of a Christian program produced by the BBC called Songs of Praise. But that was then. Presently, Edwards is a professed agnostic who has disowned the Christian faith and says that he will definitely not be returning to Christianity. In a website article, he boasts of being “humanist, atheist, scientific, secularist, naturalistic, evolutionary, rationalist, and a sceptic.” In that interview, Edwards said that looking back on his life he now realizes that sport was his identity rather than his faith.

Van Meter goes on to say, “In other words, he was (and is) an idolater. I wonder if perhaps the first step towards fully embracing his idolatry was revealed in 1993 when he decided to no longer obey the fourth commandment.” “I wonder if his decision to no longer observe the Sabbath was not the beginning of his departure from the faith.” When we tell God no with reference to the fourth commandment it becomes easier to tell Him no in other areas. There is an inseparable historical, theological and anthropological link between the fourth commandment and the temptation to idolatry. God has given to us the Sabbath to protect us against committing idolatry. If we fail to trust God with His Sabbath, then we may find that we are not in fact trusting Him with our souls!

At the end of Exodus 31, at the end of Moses’ first forty-days and nights on the mountain with God, the Lord gave him the Sabbath law. Then Lord gave Moses the two tablets of the covenant law or the Ten Commandments. And the next thing we see in the narrative is the Israelites committing idolatry with the golden calf. And for the next three chapters, we are told that the Lord was going to kill His chosen people, but that Moses interceded for them, and God relented but would not dwell among them as they traveled to the Promised Land, then Moses interceded for them again, and God again relented and promised to dwell among them, then God established the covenant with them by commanding them to observe laws that were intended to keep them from idolatry, and finally God gave Moses the second set of two stone tablets of the covenant law.

Last week we saw Moses come down the mountain after his second forty-days and night’s stay with God, and his face was radiant from being with the Lord and speaking with Him. Moses told the people all that the Lord commanded while he was on the mountain the previous two times which included the instructions for building the tabernacle. Now as the construction of the tabernacle is getting ready to start the Lord again commands the familiar Sabbath law. We can almost hear the Lord say, “As I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted.” This morning, we begin our study of the last six chapters of Exodus. These are repetitive chapters in that everything we see until the end of the book we have already studied in Exodus 25-30. There are a couple of reasons why the author repeats these chapters. First, to show the faithfulness of Moses is bringing these commands to the people. Second, to show the faithfulness of God in promising to establish His covenant and dwell with the Israelites. Three, to give hope to the people that God’s plan was on schedule. That he had truly forgiven them and would continue with His plan to use them for His glory. As they move forward, the Lord will ask them, again, to trust in Him. Before the golden calf they professed their faith and trust in the Lord but by committing idolatry they demonstrated by their actions that they didn’t really trust Him. Now it will not just be enough to profess their trust in God; God will command them to practically demonstrate it. That brings us to our big idea that God desires His people to practically demonstrate their trust in Him. How will the Israelites do this? How do we practically live out our trust in the Lord? This morning, we will learn that one way to do this is by honoring God with their time, talents and treasures.

Let’s pray: Father God, we thank you for your word and for the opportunity to learn from it today. We pray that you would open our hearts and minds to understand your truth and that we would be transformed by it. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Our first point is, Time, found in Exodus 35:1-3. This is what God’s Word says. “Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, “These are the things the Lord has commanded you to do: For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death. Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”

The first thing we see is that Moses “assembled” the whole Israelite community. This is in contrast to Exodus 32:1, when the people “assembled” around Aaron. They assembled around Aaron as an angry mob in disobedience but here they assembled around Moses in obedience, ready to hear what the Lord commanded. Moses repeats the Sabbath law to them which included working for six days and on the seventh day taking a day of sabbath rest. God knew what they needed physically and spiritually in order to thrive. Their physical bodies would be able to recharge with this weekly rhythm and as they kept this day holy, their spiritual selves would recharge as well. They were to spend this one holy and special day a week tuned in to God not just individually but corporately as well. God then reiterates the penalty for anyone who violates this command which is to be put to death. This was important because obedience to the Sabbath, spending that day focused on the Lord, would keep them from idolatry. If they disregarded the Lord’s commands and failed to trust God with His Sabbath, they were failing to trust God with their souls. Also, the Sabbath was the sign of the covenant. To reject the sign was to reject what the sign signified which was the Lord’s redemption.

Then we see an added command to the Sabbath law. They were not to light a fire in any of their dwellings on the Sabbath day. Why was this important? It probably goes back to when God sent them manna and quail to eat. On the sixth day, they were to gather enough for two days, because there would be none to gather on the seventh. They were to boil and cook what they wanted on the sixth day, so it was already prepared for the seventh day. They were to abstain from unnecessary work in every possible way and lighting a fire in their dwellings on the Sabbath would be a flagrant violation of the Lord’s commands. Why did God reiterate this command at this particular moment? It was because they would soon be working to construct the tabernacle, and the Israelites may have felt justified in working on the Sabbath in order to get it done quickly. The sooner they finished the sooner God would come and dwell among them. But they were not to disregard God’s Sabbath commands just because they were doing “God’s work.” 1 Samuel 15:22 says, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” God wants us to trust that He can run the world without our help and that He can meet our needs without our constant labors. He also wants us to recognize His lordship over us and that worship is our supreme need. So, God demanded obedience from His people and wanted them to trust Him with their time (Big Idea).

That brings us to our second point, Treasure, found in Exodus 35:4-9, 20-29. This point breaks down into five sections and I will read the pertinent verses as we come to them. The first two sections are, Commandment and Condition, found in verses 4-5a. This is what God’s Word says, “Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the Lord has commanded: From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering. . .”

The first thing we see is that this was a commandment to the entire Israelite community. Everyone is given the opportunity to contribute to the tabernacle project. It was to be an offering to the Lord and was to come from what the people already possessed. Then we see the condition the Lord set on this offering. This was not a tithe which God required but a free will offering. This idea of willingness is repeated at least five times in this chapter to show that the giving was to be voluntary, and that they were not under any obligation to contribute. A free will offering is one where God asks us to go above and beyond our required level of giving in order to give sacrificially for something God is going to do.

The third section is Contents found in Exodus 35:5b-9. This is what God’s Word says, “of gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breast piece.”

These were the raw materials that would be needed to build the tabernacle and its furnishings. They have already been described in previous chapters, but it is important to note what each one meant and how they were symbols of Jesus Christ. Gold is the most precious metal and symbolizes purity, holiness, royalty and divinity. Jesus is pure, holy and is the King of Kings. Silver symbolizes redemption and bronze symbolizes judgment. Judgment can symbolize punishment or purification and justification. Jesus is our redeemer, and he also brings judgment for sin and purification and justification for our sins. The color blue symbolizes the law and the keeping of it, purple symbolizes royalty and scarlet symbolizes blood. Jesus was the only person to perfectly keep the law. Again, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and He shed His blood on the cross to take the punishment for our sin. Fine linen symbolizes righteousness and goat hair symbolizes awareness of sin and its punishment. Jesus was the only righteous one and again He took the punishment for our sins. The skins of rams symbolize power and protection, and the red dye symbolizes atonement for sin. Jesus is all-powerful, he is our refuge and strength, and he atoned for our sins. The sea symbolizes the world of chaos, confusion and rebellion and so the skins of the sea cow symbolize how Jesus protects us from those things.

Acacia wood symbolizes humanity that is incorruptible and so it stands for Jesus’ humanity. The oil for the light symbolizes the presence of the Holy Spirit for our spiritual understanding and illumination and Jesus is the light of the world. The spices for the anointing oil symbolizes the anointing of the Holy Spirit for the work of Jesus and for the anointing given to us to be able to complete His work on this earth. The fragrant incense symbolizes our acceptable prayers to God and Jesus interceding on our behalf before Him. The onyx stones probably symbolize the Urim and the Thummim which was the way the high priest would determine God’s will for the people. Again, this would symbolize Jesus’ intercession for us. The ephod symbolizes the high priest bearing the burdens of the people as he went into the Holy Place as their mediator. Jesus is our mediator today and he carried our burden of sin and carries our burdens of prayer before the Father. And the stones in the breastplate symbolize judgment for God’s people through the work of Jesus Christ. God was very specific in what He desired to be used to construct the tabernacle, his house, and He gave a very detailed list to the people.

According to this detailed list, the people were to bring what they could. They all had different items to bring and so according to their willingness that was what they were to bring. Some would have had more, and some would have had less. We see this in Acts 11:29, “So the disciples decided that each of them would send whatever they could to their fellow Christians in Judea to help out.” And in Mark 12, we see the poor widow put two very small copper coins worth only a few cents into the temple treasury. Jesus commended her in verses 43-44, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” They were to also bring what was needed. Since God had given a very detailed list of what He wanted, the people were to bring exactly what was needed. God caused the need and then used His people to meet it. Lastly, and maybe the most important, they were to bring what God had already supplied them. The people were expected to bring the materials, but they could only do so because God had already given them to them in the first place. We saw this in Exodus 12:35-36, “The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The Lord had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.” This is also true for us today as God has given us everything we have, and He asks us to be good stewards of it.

The fourth section under Treasures is Consideration found in Exodus 35:20-21. This is what God’s Word says, “Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments.”

Once the people heard the need, the entire community withdrew from Moses’ presence presumably to go to their own tents. Moses didn’t state the need and then pass the plate before they left. He allowed them to go home and consider what it was the Lord was stirring up in their hearts to give. This would have given the people an opportunity to think about the grace and mercy God has been showering upon them since they were slaves in Egypt. First, he preserved them as His chosen people, saving them from slavery and then again at the Red Sea. He had provided for them by giving them clean water to drink and manna and quail to eat in the wilderness. He had most recently pardoned them for their sin of idolatry and had established His covenant with them. The purpose of which was for Him to dwell in their midst, to be their God and have a personal relationship with them, which would overflow into being a blessing to the nations around them. As they considered the grace and mercy that God had shown them in saving them, providing for them, pardoning them and in giving them a purpose, their hearts would no doubt be “stirred up” and willing to give what they could, for what was needed from what God had already supplied them. The word “willing” means to incite or to impel. Garrett says, “This is the kind of willingness that would “impel” a person to volunteer as a soldier after their country was attacked.”

We see this happen with the Macedonian believers in 2 Corinthians 8:2-5, “In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.” As the Israelites considered all these things, they would have been encouraged to give back to Him what He already owned. Understanding that God owns everything we have and has given us all we have out of His grace and mercy is the key to practicing the faithful stewardship of our treasures (Big Idea).

The fifth section under Treasures is Contributions, found in Exodus 35:22-29. I am not going to read all those verses because half of them just repeat the materials mentioned in verses 5b-9. But what is important is who contributed. In verse 22, we see those who were willing were both men and women. Notice that they presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord. This was an offering that was ceremonially lifted up before God as a sign of giving it back into his ownership. In verses 25 and 26, we see women who were skilled in spinning brought what they had spun. In verse 27, we see that the leaders brought onyx stones and other gems that would go on the ephod and breast piece, and spices and olive oil for the light, for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense. These items would have been some of the most expensive besides the gold. It makes sense that it would be the leaders of the community who would have these expensive items to give. Verse 29 tells us that all the Israelite men and women who were willing brought freewill offerings to the Lord for His work of the tabernacle. We can presume that every type of Israelite responded, male and female, old and young and rich and poor. Each gave different kinds and amounts of the materials they had to give. Each gave according to their ability to give from what God had already given them.

That brings us to our third point, Talents, found in Exodus 35:10-19 and 25-26. Again, I am not going to read all those verses to you. But just know that each of the items mentioned in verses 10-19 perfectly and beautifully prefigure Christ. Also, in verses 10-19 we see a general call to those who were skilled among the Israelites to make everything that the Lord had commanded. Besides their treasures it would also take their manpower to build the tabernacle and its furnishings. It makes sense there would need to be people who could take the materials and build the tabernacle out of them. God didn’t just want the Israelites to trust Him with their time and treasures but with their talents, as well. The tabernacle project would require the people to be good stewards of their time, treasures and talents.

The skilled or “gifted” artisans were to come and make everything the Lord commanded, meaning they had already been gifted with skills and abilities to do the Lord’s work. Of course, it was the Lord who gave these gifts to those who could then build the tabernacle from the blueprints the Lord gave Moses. But just like their treasures, their talents needed to be given willingly as well. They would have also needed their hearts to be “stirred up” as they considered the Lord’s preservation, His provision, His pardon and His purpose for them. They would have needed to come to an appreciation that the gifts they had were given to them by God and be moved to offer their talents up for His work and His glory. We see this a little more specifically in verses 25-26 where every skilled woman who had the skill spun blue, purple or scarlet yarn and those who had the skill spun the goat hair. We learn from this passage that every Christ-follower has been given gifts and abilities by God to build up the dwelling place of Christ, the Body of Christ. The awesome thing is that each one of us has been given different gifts and different amounts of those gifts. We all have something to offer and when each one of us does our part to build up the local Body of Christ, God gets the glory, and we are blessed by God to be a blessing to those around us, especially those who do not know Jesus. That brings us to our first next step which is to Use my time, treasures and talents to build up the Body of Christ here at Idaville Church.  ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​​​ 

In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom remembers the day her aunt received the news that she had a terminal illness. The woman, whom Corrie called Tante Jans, was well known for her Christian work. She supported charitable causes all over Holland—writing tracts, giving talks, raising funds. Yet she seemed proud of her spiritual achievements, and although people said she was a good woman, somehow, she didn’t always remind them of Jesus. Then came the day when medical tests indicated that Tante Jans had only a few weeks to live. The family wondered how she would take the news. “We will tell her together,” said Corrie’s father, “and perhaps she will take heart from all she has accomplished. She puts great store on accomplishment.” So they all filed into her study. When Tante Jans looked up, she gave a little gasp of recognition. Instantly she knew why they were there. The family sought to console her. They told her that she would have a great reward for her labors. They reminded her of all the organizations she had founded, articles she had written, money she had raised, and talks she had given. But she refused to be comforted. Her proud face crumpled; she put her hands over her face and began to cry. “Empty! Empty!” she choked through her tears. “How can we bring anything to God? What does He care for our little tricks and trinkets?” Then something amazing happened. Tante Jans lowered her hands, and with the tears still streaming down her face, she whispered, “Dear Jesus, I thank You that we must come with empty hands. I thank You that You have done all—all—on the Cross, and that all we need in life or death is to be sure of this.” We gain a heart for giving not by thinking about how much we have to offer God, but by knowing the Savior who gave himself for us. We do not give ourselves to God to gain anything in return, but because God has given himself to us in Jesus Christ.

Do you know the Savior who gave Himself for you? If not, he offers you the free gift of eternal life. All you have to do is trust in him. You trust in Him by admitting you are a sinner, by believing that Jesus died on a cross for your sins, was buried and rose again and by confessing Jesus as Lord of your life. If you took that step of faith and trust or if you want to talk about that, please mark on the upper right on the back of your communication card where it says, “Becoming a follower of Jesus.”

And if you do know Jesus, he wants you to give yourself completely to Him. He doesn’t just want your time, treasures and talents. He wants you to offer Him everything you have and everything you are, from the heart, for the sake of his glory. That brings us to our second next step, which is to Offer all I have and all I am to the Lord from my heart and for His glory. ​​ 

As Gene and Roxey come to lead us in a final hymn and the ushers prepare to collect the tithes and offerings, let’s pray: Heavenly Father, we thank you for your presence among us today. We are grateful for the opportunity to gather, to learn, and to worship together. We ask for your guidance and strength to live out your word in our daily lives. Send us out with your Spirit to be your witnesses in the world. Fill us with your love and compassion and help us to serve you faithfully. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Opening: Doug Van Meter https://brackenhurstbaptist.co.za/trusting-god/

Closing: ​​ Philip Graham Ryken and R. Kent Hughes, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005), 1079–1094.