Exodus 31

January 12, 2005

Reading through the Bible in one Year:    Genesis 25:12-26:35; Matthew 9:1-17

Weekly Memory Verse: 1 Peter 3:18

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Exodus 31 (NASB95)
¹ Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ² “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. ³ “I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, ⁴ to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze, ⁵ and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship. ⁶ “And behold, I Myself have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are skillful I have put skill, that they may make all that I have commanded you: ⁷ the tent of meeting, and the ark of testimony, and the mercy seat upon it, and all the furniture of the tent, ⁸ the table also and its utensils, and the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense, ⁹ the altar of burnt offering also with all its utensils, and the laver and its stand, ¹⁰ the woven garments as well, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, with which to carry on their priesthood; ¹¹ the anointing oil also, and the fragrant incense for the holy place, they are to make them according to all that I have commanded you.” ¹² The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹³ “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. ¹⁴ ‘Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. ¹⁵ ‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. ¹⁶ ‘So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ ¹⁷ “It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.” ¹⁸ When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.^[1]

The first part of this chapter deals with the construction of the temple.  God ordained a craftsman and his company to do the work.  How often do we consider a craftsman as one who is ordained by God?  Yet God picked him out and designated him as the one to build the tabernacle furniture.  This also speaks to each one of us where we live at, our lives are to be committed to the Lord.  Our skills that He has given us to earn an income are also ordained by Him and should be used to glorify Him.  In the last chapter we discussed how that everyone is equal in the sight of God.  If that is the case, then when we put our daily lives into practice, we will glorify God in every aspect of our lives.  It doesn't matter if we are preachers, or toilet cleaners, every function is necessary.  Please note:

God supernaturally endowed and amplified the talents and abilities of the artists and craftsmen who were building things for the temple. He poured out upon them a Spirit of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and artistic ability (v. 3). God maximizes their abilities through His Spirit.

This passage talks to us about how to release our full human potential. Secular psychology created what was called “The Human Potential Movement,” which studied how certain psychological principles could enhance people’s performance in life. The goal was to help people reach what was called “peak performance.”

Sports psychologists have developed training techniques that help athletes perform better and achieve their athletic goals. Many professional athletes now regularly use sports psychologists to help them achieve “peak performance.” But God, through His Holy Spirit, has been supernaturally equipping people to reach “peak performance” for centuries.^[2]

The second part of this chapter has to do with the Sabbath.  As Christians, we don't celebrate the Sabbath as a rule.  If we were to take this passage to heart today we would lose a large portion of our workforce.  The world today has forgotten that God commanded us to rest just as He had rested from His work.  They had a six day workweek, and the seventh was set aside for the Lord.  The entire week was to be spent preparing for the Sabbath so that on it, no work would be done.  Here is another note:

“The Sabbath was given specifically to Israel. I do not believe it was ever given to the church. When someone asks me, “When was the Sabbath day changed?” I always reply that it never was changed. It was done away with, as far as the church is concerned. We are not under the Sabbath day which is Saturday. We do not observe Saturday—Jesus was dead that day and we are not serving a dead Christ. On the first day of the week Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The church from the very beginning met on the first day of the week. That is when the church was born; the day of Pentecost was on the day after the Sabbath. The Sabbath was first given to the entire human race but man turned away from God, and God gave the Sabbath exclusively to Israel.”^[3]

One of the reasons that Christians do not worship on the Sabbath is because Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday.  This isn't the only reason though, it also came to be a practice because the early Christian believers were Jewish.  They would observe the Sabbath on Saturday, then on Sunday they would start their week out with worship of the Lord from the Christian perspective.  They were able to entertain both worlds that way, and were able to fellowship with the Gentile believers also.

God gave instructions regarding the Mosaic Covenant and saved the Sabbath to the very last.  This piece of information was crucially important to God, and he wanted it fresh in Moses' mind when He wrote the commands on the tablets before sending Moses on his way.  It is comical, I am writing this study In Loma Linda, where the Sabbath is still observed.  I am not going to side either way, whether we should or should not be honoring the Sabbath.  That is your personal preference.  We need to ask ourselves though, if we are to take a day of rest to worship the Lord or not.  I don’t care if you honor the Sabbath, or just worship on Sunday, the point is whether or not you take the time to spend time with the Lord.  That is a understatement also because we are to worship God continually…therefore the day of rest that is set aside to honor the Lord is more than a day of worship.  It is our time that we honor the Lord in our week.  The really sad thing is that most Christians today bellyache over having to give one to two hours on Sunday just to sit in on a service.  Take that a step further, spend a little more time at church and people call you legalistic.  We hammer the Seventh Day Adventists hard on worshipping on the Sabbath, but perhaps they have a point in their preservation of the tradition.  For what it is worth, I will continue to set aside Sundays since that is the day that my family and my church worship the Lord.  It’s up to you, just make it a point to set aside time for the Lord each week. 

There are other benefits to a day of rest also.  I don’t think that we can count all the blessings that will come our way when we stop for a little while.  Imagine the way that our families would be strengthened, and the way that our faith would be strengthened if we just take the time to breathe. Not to mention the emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical benefits that we would reap. God created the entire universe, then rested, are we greater than God?  In short, quit whining about what day you worship, and worship the Lord!  Whatever day that you choose, do it with gusto, we serve a risen savior, we have reason to celebrate.  He rested, I challenge each of you to follow His example.

Deuteronomy 9:10 (NASB95)
¹⁰ “The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. ^[4]

Traditionally speaking, we believe that Moses had the ten commandments on those tablets, even though these were already given before Moses went back up on the mountain!  Those tablets may have contained the Ten Commandments, and they may also have contained critical information regarding the construction and furnishing of the Tabernacle that we have been reading about in the last few chapters.  These tablets were written by the finger of God, with the possible purpose of preparing the Jews for entry into the promised Land.  Remember, the people had a covenant relationship with God, and a commitment to follow Him.  It wasn't a new plan that Moses had to sell to them, they had already agreed and ratified the agreement among themselves that they would follow God who had delivered them from Egypt.  They were considered set apart as a people and special to God.

I am going to close here, I realize that this study can be a can of worms, and welcome any comments that you might have.

Father, as we consider our jobs, and the day that we set aside for You, give each of us the commitment to perform both tasks to the greatest of our abilities.

In Him,

Joe Turner.