I woke up with a feeling of anxiety yesterday.... who knows why, perhaps lots of things on my list to do, perhaps not feeling like we would have enough time or money to get things done. Of course we hoped to go down south with a little extra spending money, but we'll definitely be sticking to a tighter budget. I was a little anxious about that, but then I stopped and really tried to take my thoughts captive. It was as if Satan was determined to ruin my day. I picked up my Bible and went to Exodus where I was still reading and I came to the final two chapters. They were perfect and the exact encouragement I needed:
"Thus all the work of the tabernacle was finished, and the people of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so they did." (Ex. 39:32). Then the next series of verses goes through the incredible list of things they had to finish, "Then they brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent and all its utensils, its hooks, its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases; the covering of tanned rams' skins and goatskins and the veil of the screen; the ark of the testimony with its poles and the mercy seat; the table with all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence; the lampstand..........." The list goes on and on and on...... all of these things were made one at a time by Oholiab, Bezalel and their team of workers. I could just picture Oholiab and Bezalel sitting down like I do with RM sometimes and saying, "Ok, how many things are left on the tabernacle list? It seems like we'll never get this tabernacle built!" We've made many lists like that and allotted time for each item to get done just so we could see how much time we figured it would take to get things done, especially when we built the house. It seemed like forever, but eventually it all got done and the house sold.
Then, the final two verses of 39 say it again, "According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the people of Israel had done all the work. And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the Lord had commanded, so had they done it. Then Moses blessed them." All the work had gotten done! "Behold," he wrote, "they had done it"!!!! Why, "behold"? Perhaps they were just as shocked as I was when we finished the house that everything had actually gotten done! And the most amazing thing is, Home Depot didn't exist! They were able to finish all the construction work just because people willingly contributed, "And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, 'The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do. So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, 'Let no man or woman do anything more for the contributions for the sanctuary.' So the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more." (36:3-7)
What encouragement - the work gets all done, they had sufficient material to the work, and more. Then, chapter 40 - putting it all together. They moved in! Well, sort of, God moved in actually. "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." But it didn't end there, "Throughout all their journeys......" God was with them in a cloud by day and a fire by night. They didn't go until He directed them and when He did tell them to move it says again, He was with them "throughout all their journeys." Twice that expression is used.
So, the encouragement is definitely clear - God will help us get everything done. He'll provide sufficient material (and more) to get what He wants us to get done (not necessarily what we think we should get done....) and the ultimate blessing is that He'll be with us "throughout all our journeys". Amen!
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