Exodus 36:4-6

Exodus 36:4-6  And all the wise men ... spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the LORD commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. This is amazing! Just imagine at your church the pastor announcing, “Tonight, we won’t have to take an offering because all of you gave too much money in the offering this morning. We not only have enough money, we actually have too much money. So tonight, please don’t give any more money.” That would never happen, would it?! But in our verses for today it did! Moses commanded the people to bring their gold and silver and gemstones to be used to make the Tabernacle for God. And they were excited to give to build God’s house. But they brought too much stuff! Moses had to hold them back. Amazing! They had hearts of gratitude. And when we give, we should give out of hearts of gratitude too!

Exodus 35:10,11,25,30-35

Exodus 35:10,11,25,30-33  And every wise hearted among you shall come, and make all that the LORD hath commanded; The tabernacle, his tent, and his covering, ... And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the LORD hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; And he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship; And to devise curious works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, And in the cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of wood, to make any manner of cunning work. Often we think of preachers as being the only ones who are led by God. Sometimes we think that the Lord only fills the heart of men to preach the Bible and to teach His people. But in our verses for today, we see that God filled the hearts of men and of women to build beautiful things for God’s Tabernacle. God gave wisdom to these people to use their hands to make things that honored God. Think about it: God uses people to build things and to sew things just as He uses people to preach and to teach! Everything that we do should glorify God, whether it is working with our hands or working with our minds.

Exodus 35:4,5,29

Exodus 35:4,5,29 And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the LORD commanded, saying, Take ye from among you an offering unto the LORD: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the LORD; gold, and silver, and brass, The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the LORD, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the LORD had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses. God commanded His people to give for the building of the Tabernacle. But they were not commanded to give a certain amount per person or to give a tithe; they were commanded to give a free-will offering. And that is a good way to fund the house of God. Give freely because you want to, not because you have to. 10% is a good start, but we should give over and above that. We should love to give to God’s house. The Children of Israel did!

Exodus 34:21

Exodus 34:21  Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: ... God told the Children of Israel to work for six days and then rest on the seventh. God knew that people need two things: They need to rest and they need to think about God. We become weary when we work seven days a week. We need time to relax and to decompress. And then we need to be reminded of God at least once a week. I go to church several days a week. I need to! And we all need to be reminded of our commitment to God and to God’s house. When Jesus resurrected on Easter Sunday morning, the Jewish disciples began to worship on Sunday. They called it The Lord’s Day. So today we don’t worship on the Sabbath Day, we worship on the Lord’s Day. But the Bible principle is still the same: rest one day a week and worship God one day a week. At least one day a week!

Exodus 34:5-8

Exodus 34:5-8 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai with the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, he caught the Children of Israel sinning by worshiping the golden calf that Aaron had made. In a fit of anger, Moses threw the stone tablets down and broke them in a million pieces. After he had straightened the people out, he went back up Mt. Sinai to get a second copy of the Ten Commandments. But this time God spoke them to Moses and Moses had to write them down -  on stone tablets! God reminded Moses that He was a good God who was gracious and longsuffering to those who repented and obeyed Him. But God reminded Moses that He was also a righteous God and would not put up with wickedness and sin. And God will not put up with our sin either. But the worst part of our sin is that it affects our children. In our verses today we are told that these sins will be passed on to children’s children. Evil men raise evil kids. What a shame. But, Good men who trust in God will also raise Good kids who respect and fear the Almighty God in heaven. And that is a blessing! And that is something to think about.

Exodus 33:14-17

Exodus 33:14-17 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And the LORD said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name. God promised to go with Moses. And Moses’ response was. “We need you, Lord. If you don’t go with us we will not make it, for without you we are nothing ” What a wonderful way to live our lives. We need God and must depend upon Him. But the best part is the response that God had for Moses. God told Moses that He would be with him. God promised to lead Moses. I am so glad that God has promised to lead us too. And He will!