Tag Archives: Exodus

Psalm 114 The Awesome God of the Exodus

Psalm 114

¹ When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
² Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
³ The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back.
⁴ The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
⁵ Why is it, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back?
⁶ O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs?
⁷ Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
⁸ who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

This second “Egyptian Hallel” psalm[1] praises the power of the LORD the God of Israel’s being. Throughout this short poem the nations, the waters, and the land all respond and tremble at the LORD’s presence. Nowhere in the poem does God act, except indirectly in the final verse. The background of the poem is the exodus narrative and the creation narrative. The LORD is the God of creation with power over the waters and the mountains, but also the God of the exodus who brought the people out of Egypt and into the promised land.

The poem is built on parallel expressions: Israel/house of Jacob; Judah/Israel; sea/Jordan; mountains/hills; and rock/flint. Each line doubles the reaction using these parallel expressions and intensifies the effect of the poem’s praise. The people’s experience of the power of the LORD goes back to the experience of God taking the people out of Egypt and making them into a sanctuary (Hebrew qados– devoted, set apart) (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 851) and dominion. The exodus narrative is the obvious reference alluded to throughout the poem and yet in poetic function the event becomes transformed to the creation’s reaction to the presence of the LORD among God’s people.

The opening verse informed the reader of the poem that the reference was the exodus and now in verse three the poet uses a set of parallels to bracket the biblical narrative of the exodus event. The sea which looks and flees from God references the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus 14 while the crossing of the Jordan once it has turned back references the end of the journey in Joshua 3. The sea and river become things that flee[2] from the LORD’s presence among the people of Israel. The God who exercised control over the deep in creation is now feared by these waters which bracket the story of the exodus.

The mountains and hills, unmoving and permanent, now become like rams and lambs in their rapid motion. Psalm 29 used a similar image of Lebanon and Sirion fleeing before the LORD, even using the same term ‘skip’ although in that psalm the metaphor is a calf and a wild ox. Habakuk also utilizes a similar image of the hills and mountains being shattered and sinking at the appearance of the LORD.[3] This reaction of both the waters and the immovable rock of mountains and hills is caused by the presence of the LORD. The earth models the proper response by trembling.[4] Creation itself models that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10).

Although it should be clear throughout the poem that the people, the waters and the mountains are all responding to the God of Jacob, God is mentioned explicitly for the first time in verse seven.[5] The poem concludes by bringing the imagery of rock and water together with an allusion to God’s provision of water via Moses striking the rock at Rephidim in Exodus 17:1-7. The God who moved over the depths in creation and formed the seas, the rivers, the rocks, hills and mountains becomes known to God’s people who come to know God’s impact on the world as God brings them out of Egypt, providing water in the wilderness, and passing them through the waters of the Jordan into the promised land. The people and the earth tremble before the fearful presence of the LORD in their midst.

[1] Psalm 113-118 are often called the Egyptian Hallel psalms because they are recited on the Passover meal on the eighth day of Passover. They are the psalms used to celebrate God’s actions to take their ancestors out of Egypt.

[2] Psalm 77:16 uses a similar imagery.

[3] Habakkuk 3:6.

[4] Psalm 97:4 also has the earth trembling in reaction to the LORD’s lightning.

[5] In the NRSV in verse 2 God is mentioned in verse 2 when Judah became God’s sanctuary, but the Hebrew is simply Judah became his sanctuary (the third person singular pronoun is attached to qados the word for sanctuary.

Psalm 105 Give Thanks to the Faithful God of Our Story

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Grigory Mekheev, Exodus (2000) artist shared work under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Psalm 105

¹O give thanks to the LORD, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples.
²Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wonderful works.
³Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
⁴Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually.
⁵Remember the wonderful works he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he has uttered,
⁶O offspring of his servant Abraham, children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
⁷He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth.
⁸He is mindful of his covenant forever, of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,
⁹the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac,
¹⁰which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
¹¹saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.”
¹²When they were few in number, of little account, and strangers in it,
¹³wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people,
¹⁴he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account,
¹⁵saying, “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.”
¹⁶When he summoned famine against the land, and broke every staff of bread,
¹⁷he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
¹⁸His feet were hurt with fetters, his neck was put in a collar of iron;
¹⁹until what he had said came to pass, the word of the LORD kept testing him.
²⁰The king sent and released him; the ruler of the peoples set him free.
²¹He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his possessions,
²²to instruct his officials at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom.
²³Then Israel came to Egypt; Jacob lived as an alien in the land of Ham.
²⁴And the LORD made his people very fruitful, and made them stronger than their foes,
²⁵whose hearts he then turned to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants.
²⁶He sent his servant Moses, and Aaron whom he had chosen.
²⁷They performed his signs among them, and miracles in the land of Ham.
²⁸He sent darkness, and made the land dark; they rebelled against his words.
²⁹He turned their waters into blood, and caused their fish to die.
³⁰Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the chambers of their kings.
³¹He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, and gnats throughout their country.
³²He gave them hail for rain, and lightning that flashed through their land.
³³He struck their vines and fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.
³⁴He spoke, and the locusts came, and young locusts without number;
³⁵they devoured all the vegetation in their land, and ate up the fruit of their ground.
³⁶He struck down all the firstborn in their land, the first issue of all their strength.
³⁷Then he brought Israel out with silver and gold, and there was no one among their tribes who stumbled.
³⁸Egypt was glad when they departed, for dread of them had fallen upon it.
³⁹He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light by night.
⁴⁰They asked, and he brought quails, and gave them food from heaven in abundance.
⁴¹He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river.
⁴²For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servant.
⁴³So he brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing.
⁴⁴He gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the wealth of the peoples,
⁴⁵that they might keep his statutes and observe his laws. Praise the LORD!

Although there is no superscript to introduce Psalm 105, verses 1-15 of this psalm appear in the mouth of King David in 1 Chronicles 16: 8-22 combined with several other psalms. This quote of this psalm at the arrival of the ark of the covenant in the tent David set up for it in Jerusalem is one possible background for the composition of this psalm narrating God’s gracious actions on behalf of the covenant people. Within book four of the psalter this psalm pairs with Psalm 106 which closes book four as well as Psalm 103 and 104 which preceded it. Psalm 103 gives thanks to the LORD because God is good (hesed), Psalm 104 gives thanks to the God who is great in relation to the creation, and now Psalm 105 celebrates the covenant faithfulness of God to God’s people in a narration of their history. Psalm 105 and Psalm 106 form complementary narrations of the history of God’s faithfulness. Throughout Psalm 105 there is no mention of the faithless moments in Israel’s history with the LORD the God of Israel, nor is there any moment of reflection upon God’s reaction to those moments of faithlessness. Unlike the other historical psalms[1] that is not the purpose of this psalm. Psalm 106 will contrast the faithfulness of God with the faithlessness of the people.

Once again, the people are summoned to give thanks and praise the LORD for the things that God has done and to remember the works, miracles, and judgments. The covenant throughout this Psalm appears to be the covenant with Abraham in relation to God giving the people the land of Canaan. Even though the second half of the psalm will deal with God’s mighty works in the Exodus narrative the Sinai covenant is never mentioned. Instead the focal point of the promise is the covenant with Abraham confirmed with Jacob (aka Israel) and the statute here and everlasting covenant is one sided. God promises protection and the land as an inheritance for this family set aside by God.

The people in the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob wander this land as strangers (Hebrew gerim) who are reliant upon the LORD for protection. Abraham would claim before the Hittites that he was a “stranger and alien residing among them”[2] and this reality of the patriarchs and the people in Egypt being ‘strangers’ forms the ethical reaction to ‘strangers’ in Deuteronomy: “You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”[3] Yet here the focus of the narrative is not upon the ethical responsibility of the people, but the gracious protection of God. God does not allow the settled nations to touch his anointed people or to harm the prophets.[4]

The backstory of the psalm continues through the narrative of Genesis, arriving to the story of Joseph who is sent ahead by God to Egypt to provide bread for the people in a time of famine. Even here, although Joseph is sold as a slave, the mention of the role of the brothers of Joseph in his sojourn in Egypt is obscured. Instead, it is the LORD who tests him through these ordeals. Joseph becomes a heroic figure who endures slavery and imprisonment only to rise to become the lord of the house of Pharoah. Yet, even at the end of this brief retelling of the Joseph story Jacob/Israel is an alien in the land of Ham.[5]

At the midpoint of the psalm the narrative shifts from the stories of Genesis to the stories of Exodus. Exodus remembers the duration of the sojourn of the people in Egypt as four hundred thirty years[6] and during this time they had not only been protected by God but prospered, emerging as a people great in number and feared by their Egyptian overlords. Moses and Aaron are sent to be God’s voice to the people and to Pharoah. The number and order of the plagues are different from the narration of Exodus 7-12 and Psalm 78:44-51. It is possible that this is a separate tradition recounting the Exodus narrative, but I believe it is also likely that the constraints of the poetic form of this psalm are responsible for the truncated nature of this retelling.

Yet, the truncated nature of the retelling of the signs and miracles performed in Egypt are extravagant compared to the narration of the journey from Egypt to the promised land. As mentioned above, the giving of the covenant at Sinai as well as the disobedience of the people is omitted. The forty years of wandering in the wilderness is reduced to eight verses or one stanza of the psalm and as throughout the psalm the focus is on God’s presence, protection, and provision for the people. God provided protection by the cloud and the fire, provided mana from heaven, quails for the camp, and water from the rock, and brought them to the long-promised land of the covenant.

Songs can play a crucial role in helping people to remember their story, and this Psalm helps to remind the people where they come from. Throughout this psalm they are sustained by protection and provision of the LORD through works, miracles, and judgments which demonstrate the faithfulness of the LORD to the people. Any narration of a story makes choices about what to include and what to exclude based upon the intent of the story, or in this case poem or song. The focus upon God’s continual faithfulness and provision may choose to exclude the faithless moments of the people, and yet this psalm stands within a collection of psalms and narratives which reinforce, strengthen, and complete its narration. Yet, the focal imagery of the past three psalms of God being a God of goodness and steadfast love, God being a God of greatness in relation to the creation, and finally God being a God of steadfast love and greatness towards the covenant people mutually reinforce each other.

[1] Psalm 78, 106, 136.

[2] Genesis 23:4.

[3] Deuteronomy 10:19.

[4] Presumably for the purpose of the Psalm the patriarchs are the prophets.

[5] The tradition of Egypt coming from Noah’s son Ham is traced back to Genesis 10:6 where Cush (Ethiopia), Egypt, Put, and Canaan trace their lineage to this survivor of the ark in the Hebrew telling of their history.

[6] Exodus 12:40.

The Connection between Humanity and the Earth in Scripture

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And Elohim Created Adam by William Blake – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=147900

The fields are devastated, the ground mourns; Joel 1:10a

One of the concepts that I’ve felt drawn to in Hebrew thought is the way the earth is personified and often bears the consequences of human activity. Humanity is connected with the earth in a way that is often missed in English and this connection starts at the very beginning of the Bible. The man (adam)[1] is formed from dust the soil (adamah) and when the man eats the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil God’s declaration has the earth bear the curse but also reiterates the linkage between the man and the ground:

And to the man (adam) he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground (adamah) because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground (adamah), for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3: 17-19

This theme continues in Cain and Abel as the personified ground cries out in protest against Cain’s murder of his brother:

And the LORD said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground (adamah)! And now you are cursed from the ground (adamah), which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Genesis 4: 10-12

The consequence of the wickedness of humanity leads a grieving God to blot out human beings from creation along with all the other animals (Genesis 6:6-7) and in the aftermath of the flood God tells Noah:

The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Genesis 9:2

This recapitulates the call of humanity to rule over creation in Genesis 1: 28-30. How humanity exercises this rule will be important for both humanity and the entire creation.

This imagery in Genesis is picked up by the prophets and highlights the connection between the disobedience of the people of God and the earth’s plight. For example, Isaiah states:

The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers; the heavens languish together with the earth. The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled, and few people are left. Isaiah 24: 4-6

Or in Jeremiah:

How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither? For the wickedness of those who live in it the animals and the birds are swept away, and because people said, “He is blind to our ways.” Jeremiah 12: 4

For the prophet Joel the disobedience of the people is the cause of the environmental disaster that they are encountering where the crops, vines, trees, cattle, sheep, and wild animals are all suffering because of humanity. The land becomes the first victim of the curse on behalf of humanity and although humanity will eventually suffer the earth is the first bearer of these curses so that humanity has a chance to understand and repent. As in the signs and wonders (plagues) in Egypt (Exodus 7-11) the environmental disasters all refrain from the loss of human life until the final sign. The blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 27-30 also share this pattern where the land’s prosperity is linked to the obedience of the people and there is always an opportunity for the people to repent and receive the blessing of the LORD. As we will see in the prophet Joel, the expected repentance will lead to not only a reversal of the current curse on the land but to a time of the LORD’s prosperity.

In the New Testament this way of thinking emerges in Paul’s Letter to the Romans as Paul leans into his vision of hope. Paul articulates a bold hope for all of creation when he proclaims:

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8: 19-23

Humanity’s disobedience to God’s will impacts the creation. Although Joel never articulates what actions lead to God’s judgment on the earth through locusts and drought, as we look at natural disasters perhaps this is an opportunity to consider our impact on the world. I write this from North Texas which has had the second hottest and second driest August ever recorded, with temperatures frequently above 105 degrees (and heat index frequently above 115) I wonder what are the things that this community needs to repent of. I do believe that the way we utilize our environment impacts the climate from the fossil fuels we burn to power our lifestyles to the concrete, asphalt, and steel that lay as a hot blanket on the soil. The worldview of Genesis, Deuteronomy, the prophets (and the bible in general) would be critical of the societal drive for acquisition and the lack of care for the world we inhabit. I also have been questioning the disconnect that most urban and suburban people have from the soil. We may be insulated from the consequences of our actions but the impacts for the earth may only grow more dire.

[1] Adam can be a proper name, but it is also the generic term for ‘the man’.

Psalm 78 Telling History to Change the Future

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Grigory Mekheev, Exodus (2000) artist shared work under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Psalm 78

<A Maskil of Asaph.>
¹Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
² I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
³ things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us.
⁴ We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
⁵ He established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children;
⁶ that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children,
⁷ so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;
⁸ and that they should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
⁹ The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law.
¹¹ They forgot what he had done, and the miracles that he had shown them.
¹² In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
¹³ He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap.
¹⁴ In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all night long with a fiery light.
¹⁵ He split rocks open in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
¹⁶ He made streams come out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
¹⁷ Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸ They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved.
¹⁹ They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
²⁰ Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out and torrents overflowed, can he also give bread, or provide meat for his people?”
²¹ Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of rage; a fire was kindled against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel,
²² because they had no faith in God, and did not trust his saving power.
²³ Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;
²⁴ he rained down on them manna to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven.
²⁵ Mortals ate of the bread of angels; he sent them food in abundance.
²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind;
²⁷ he rained flesh upon them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas;
²⁸ he let them fall within their camp, all around their dwellings.
²⁹ And they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.
³⁰ But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths,
³¹ the anger of God rose against them and he killed the strongest of them, and laid low the flower of Israel.
³² In spite of all this they still sinned; they did not believe in his wonders.
³³ So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.
³⁴ When he killed them, they sought for him; they repented and sought God earnestly.
³⁵ They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer.
³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues.
³⁷ Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not true to his covenant.
³⁸ Yet he, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them; often he restrained his anger, and did not stir up all his wrath.
³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and does not come again.
⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!
⁴¹ They tested God again and again, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They did not keep in mind his power, or the day when he redeemed them from the foe;
⁴³ when he displayed his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the fields of Zoan.
⁴⁴ He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams.
⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the caterpillar, and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamores with frost.
⁴⁸ He gave over their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
⁴⁹ He let loose on them his fierce anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.
⁵⁰ He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague.
⁵¹ He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.
⁵² Then he led out his people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
⁵³ He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
⁵⁴ And he brought them to his holy hill, to the mountain that his right hand had won.
⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
⁵⁶ Yet they tested the Most High God, and rebelled against him. They did not observe his decrees,
⁵⁷ but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors; they twisted like a treacherous bow.
⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
⁵⁹ When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel.
⁶⁰ He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mortals,
⁶¹ and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe.
⁶² He gave his people to the sword, and vented his wrath on his heritage.
⁶³ Fire devoured their young men, and their girls had no marriage song.
⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting because of wine.
⁶⁶ He put his adversaries to rout; he put them to everlasting disgrace.
⁶⁷ He rejected the tent of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
⁶⁸ but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.
⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever.
⁷⁰ He chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfolds;
⁷¹ from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance.
⁷² With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.

We narrate the story of our past to attempt to understand our present reality, and yet our narrations of the past are always shaped by our present experiences and questions. Psalm seventy-eight is a long narration of the rebellion of the people in the wilderness and God’s judgment of Egypt to force the release of the people of Israel. Yet, the narration is told not merely to relay historical information but to point to the impact of Israel’s failure to keep the covenant (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 623) Within this historical retelling it focuses on God’s wrath as it is shown towards Israel even after God’s gracious action to deliver them from slavery and to provide food and water in the wilderness. God’s exercise of power for deliverance and provision does not seem to compel the people to obedience and it is only God’s wrath appears that the people change their ways and sought God’s ways. Martin Luther referred to God’s wrath as God’s alien work which reflects the belief that God is fundamentally gracious, but that disobedience provokes this alien expression of punishment or wrath from God. Living much of my life in Texas or the southeastern United States I have always wondered why so many people were drawn to churches that focused on God’s judgment and wrath which articulated clear but rigid definitions of insiders and outsiders having been raised and formed in a tradition that focused heavily on the grace of God, but perhaps for some the God of judgment is more comforting and the rigid boundaries are comfortable. Yet, the God presented by the Bible is both gracious and demanding. God hears the cries of the people and is roused to deliver them, but this same God who is the mighty warrior who delivers refuses to be taken for granted. The narration of the central story of the people of Israel, perhaps in a time where a portion of that people has fallen away, with an emphasis on obedience is to bring about fidelity to God and God’s covenant.

There is no scholarly consensus on the historical background of this psalm, but my suspicion is that it is probably written sometime after the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 BCE but prior to the Babylonian exile in 586 BCE. There are several pointed phrases about Ephraim, Shiloh, and Israel which indicate a perspective of the kingdom of Judah and there is an indication of a disaster in the northern kingdom which seems to be one more example of God’s judgment upon the unfaithful ones in the view of the psalmist.[1] Narrating the ancient and perhaps recent past to learn from it is one of the reasons for revisiting the memories of the people. We live in a world where the written scriptures are readily available, but in a world where the written word is painstakingly handed on and typically only available to priests or royalty this psalm may have been an important way of impressing the historical memory on the current and future generations.

The memory of the past is recited to the community to help it learn how to properly relate to its God. As Walter Brueggemann and William Bellinger can memorably state, “In the recital of memory there is hope for the future.” (Brueggemann, 2014, p. 340) The initial eleven verses are a call to listen and sets the expectations for the hearers to, “not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation…they did not keep the covenant, and they refused to walk according to his teaching:” (8,10) Ephraim, synonymous with the northern kingdom of Israel, is highlighted as being turned back in battle and as mentioned above this may suggest a situation after the conquest of Israel by the Assyrians. Recent events may set the backdrop for the hearing of this examination of the disobedience of the people during the Exodus.

There are two major narrations of the past in this psalm. Both share a common pattern of narrating God’s gracious act, a rebellion by the people, God’s response in anger to the disobedience of the people and a summary of the section. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 623) In the first section verses twelve through sixteen narrate God’s action to deliver the people from Egypt, pass them through the sea, lead them in the wilderness, and provide water in the wilderness. Yet, the response of the people in verses seventeen through twenty is to speak against God and to question God’s provision. Their lack of trust or gratitude provokes God and many of the strongest of the people die in this time. Yet, when God responds in judgment they seek him but even this seeking is halfhearted. Their words are deceitful, and their actions do not hold fast to the covenant God placed before them. Yet, God’s compassion restrains God’s wrath even though their actions cause God grief.

The second narration begins in verse forty-three looking back to God’s actions to bring the people out of Egypt. This second narration looks in amazement at all the actions God did in comparison to the continual rebellion of the people. There are some differences between the narration in Exodus 7-11 and the remembrance here, but it is clear they are pointing to a common memory. Yet, in the psalm time begins to compress as the hearers are moved from God’s action to deliver the people from Egypt, lead them through the wilderness and into the promised land seems to move to a more recent judgment beginning in verse fifty-six. The central focus of the judgment seems to be on the northern kingdom of Israel which is rejected with its holy place at Shiloh abandoned by God. God’s arousal from sleep liberates Judah, but Ephraim (northern Israel) is rejected. The psalm ends with Judah being delivered by God and cared for by David (and the Davidic line). Yet, just like Ephraim and the northern kingdom, Judah’s position is due to the gracious provision of God but carries the expectation to live within the covenant. The psalmist encourages the people to choose the way of faithfulness instead of the disobedient and stubborn ways of their ancestors and their brothers in the north.

The bible narrates a theological interpretation of history which focuses on the interaction between God and the people of God. Interpreters of scripture in both Jewish and Christian traditions have seen within the scriptures a witness to a tension within a God who desires to be gracious but whose people only seem to respond to punishment or wrath. In Beth Tanner’s words this psalm,

tells of God’s great passion for humans, even when those humans turn away. It also tells the sad story of human determination to ignore the good gifts of God and to remember God only when the way becomes hard or violent. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 625)

God’s anger and wrath may be, to use Luther’s term, God’s alien work but the God of scripture refuses to be taken for granted. God is jealous for the people’s attention and allegiance and when the people turn away from God’s gifts God responds. I tell my congregation that “God wants to meet you in grace and love and peace, but if you can only hear God in judgment God will meet you there even though it creates a struggle within God.” We still come together and remember these stories to learn from the wisdom and the struggles of our ancestors in faith, to seek God in grace, to live in obedience and faithfulness but also to attempt to interpret our world in light of God’s gifts and God’s discipline. This may be harder in our very secular world but just as we attempt to learn from our more recent history, we listen to the narration of the psalmist to the memory of the people and learn from their life with God under grace and under judgment.

[1] See for example verses 9, 56-64, and 67

From Abraham to David in Matthew’s Genealogy

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Jozsef Molnar, Abraham’s Journey from Ur to Canaan (1850)

Abraham

Abraham’s (earlier known as Abram) story runs from Genesis 12-25 and this marks the beginning of the covenant that God will make with Abraham and his descendants. The story follows Abraham and Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael, and their interactions with God and the world as they travel from Ur to the promised land, to Egypt and then return to the promised land

Isaac

Isaac, the long-awaited child of Abraham and Sarah, has his story told in Genesis 21-28. Isaac’s wife Rebekah also plays a major role in the story and is decisive in ensuring that Jacob is blessed rather than Esau and that the line continues through the mother’s favored child rather than the father’s.

Jacob

Jacob (later renamed Israel) is the father of the twelve brothers who the tribes of Israel will be named for. Jacob is portrayed from his birth onward as a trickster, but God works with him to set up the beginning of the nation of Israel. Jacob’s narrative runs from Genesis 25: 19-Genesis 50 with his death in Egypt and burial in the promised land.

Judah and Tamar

Judah is the third son of Jacob and Leah (Jacob’s first wife). His birth occurs in Genesis 29: 35 and he will continue to be present throughout the end of Genesis even though Joseph will be the primary character. The narrative of Judah and Tamar is in Genesis 38, where Tamar is Judah’s daughter-in-law but when she outlives two of Judah’s children without an heir she takes matters into her own hands and becomes pregnant by Judah and secures a place in the line of Judah and is an ancestor to the line of kings.

Perez

Perez is born in Genesis 38: 29. The Perezites clan of Judah are named for him.

Hezron

Other than being mentioned in genealogies the bible doesn’t relate any stories of Hezron, Aram, Aminadab

Aram (Ram)

Listed as Ram in the book of Ruth, but otherwise unremarked upon except in genealogies

Aminadab (Amminadab)

He is a father-in-law to Aaron, the high priest in the Exodus narrative (Exodus 6:23) and father of Nahshon in multiple genealogies

Nahshon

Nahshon is listed as the leader of the people of Judah during the exodus (Numbers 2:3) and acts in that capacity in the book of Numbers

Salmon and Rahab

Salmon only appears in genealogies but Rahab is most likely the prostitute first introduced in Joshua 2:1 who shelters the Israelite spies in Jericho.

Boaz and Ruth

Boaz and Ruth are two of the major figures in the book of Ruth. Ruth is from Moab and is brought into the story by remaining faithful to her mother-in-law after the death of her husband in Moab.

Obed

Obed only appears in genealogies, there are no biblical stories about him other than his birth to Boaz and Ruth at the end of the book of Ruth.

Jesse

Jesse is mainly known for being the father of David. He receives Samuel the prophet who anoints his son David in 1 Samuel 16. He also sends his son David to carry food to his brothers in 1 Samuel 17, when David volunteers to face Goliath

David (see the line of kings)

Reflections After Walking Through the Book of Exodus

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This journey through the book of Exodus was an insightful journey for me. I am thankful for what I learned from four wise teachers who have spent far longer in this book than I did: my primary companions were Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and his book Covenant and Conversation: Exodus the Book of Redemption and Carol Myers volume on Exodus for the New Cambridge Bible Commentary, but I also learned from both Terence E. Fretheim whose Exodus commentary for the Interpretation Series I read at the beginning of the journey and Walter Brueggemann whose work on Exodus is in the New Interpreter’s Bible which I read closer to the end of the journey. In addition there is the discipline of writing out the book I am working through, which takes most of a composition book in the case of Exodus. I continue to be amazed by how much I learn in this process and how much I appreciate each book I have worked through. Here are a few reflections looking back on my writing about the forty chapters of the book of Exodus:

In the book of Genesis, barrenness becomes a major part of the story of the people of Israel but in Exodus this is reversed and one of the central issues that give rise to the crisis in Egypt is the fertility of the people. This is one of the many narratives of reversal in the book of Exodus and will be a place where the narrative points to the Israelites being more robust than their Egyptian overlords.
From an overall perspective there is a contrast drawn between the vision of the lords of Egypt, and particularly the vision of a society where Pharaoh controls life and death, and the vision of the LORD the God of Israel for the society the Jewish people are to create. Yet, even for these former captives the vision of a society the saw modeled in Egypt will continue to occupy a potent place in their imaginations.
There is a surprising number of places where the role of women is highlighted in Exodus. Early in the book women are the primary resistors to the policies of Pharaoh: the midwives, Moses’ mother and sister, and even the daughter of Pharaoh all in their own ways resist the policies of death decreed by the most powerful man in Egypt.
Moses’ actions reveal a person unable to see oppression go unanswered. Moses’ actions with killing the Egyptian abusing a Hebrew and driving off the shepherds for the daughters of the priest of Midian to be able to water their flocks demonstrate he sees and acts upon injustice. This may be one of the things God sees in Moses when he is called.
Moses’ resistance to the call of the LORD is worth considering. Even Moses realizes his own inadequacies and attempts to talk God out of choosing him, yet the LORD sees something in Moses that Moses is unable to see in himself. The LORD also accommodates some of Moses’ fears by allowing Aaron to partner with him in this vocation.
Zipporah, Moses’ wife, also becomes one who rescues Moses. This time we enter one of the strangest parts of Exodus (Exodus 4: 8-26) where God comes to kill Moses and Zipporah becomes one more woman who through her actions spare Moses’ life.
I had never noticed the mythic elements of the signs/plagues previously. It makes sense to read this as primarily a conflict between the LORD the God of Israel and the gods of Egypt and how the plagues systematically demonstrate the superiority of the God of Israel over these gods. They are violent, but there is also an incredible amount of restraint as the signs unfold to resist the taking of human life until the end.
The Exodus story is perhaps the central story for the Hebrew Scriptures and is also the metanarrative of the West and has been recast many times. The power of this story in the Hebrew Bible demonstrates how those who were once the pilgrim people can be recast as the oppressor (the new Pharaoh) at later times. This potent move even resonates today. For example, the Civil Rights movement in the United States was able to recast the Exodus narrative to their own situation where they were the people looking for the promised land, living under the oppression of the polices of the Pharaohs of their own time.
The God of the Exodus is a God who chooses sides. In the Exodus the LORD hears, sees and responds to the oppression of the people. The LORD also warns these former slaves not to become the oppressors or they will find themselves opposed to the LORD their God.
Wrestling with the hardened heart of Pharaoh and free will. Is Pharaoh a villain or a tragic character? Does he become powerless in yet another great reversal in the narrative? However one’s theological position resolves this, it is an interesting theme in the narrative.
Looking at the strategies of Pharaoh I was struck by their parallels to the strategies many abusers use to main control over the abused.
The people will be forming a new identity as the people of God and liturgy, the structuring time, eating, storytelling and the journey will all be a portion of this identity formation.
Just as women were critical early in the story in resisting Pharaoh, they also become important in worship. Miriam sings with the women, women are involved in the creation of the tabernacle, there are women who are stationed outside the tent of meeting. These small glimpses highlight that women had a larger role than I initially thought in the worship of the LORD the God of Israel.
Israel continues to have crises of trust and identity along their journey. They will struggle to live by faith as they journey through the wilderness short on water and food. They will seek the relative familiarity and security of their bondage in Egypt. They will, in the absence of Moses, try to worship in the same way that other nations do.
Jethro, a foreign priest, will demonstrate to Moses how fulfill priestly responsibilities (he is the first one to sacrifice to the LORD in the book) as well as how to effectively lead.
Israel’s vocation as a priestly kingdom, a precious treasure and a holy nation is a high calling and one worth discerning.
Like when I worked through Deuteronomy, I find the expansion of the law in Exodus an interesting place to look at the type of society they were attempting to create and even though we may not copy their laws it is worth thinking about what type of society we would want to envision and what laws would make that possible.
The God of Israel is not an unemotional God like so many people imagine. The LORD draws close enough to be wounded by the people’s betrayal with the golden calf. The relationship is broken Moses becomes the mediator between the wounded God and the people who have broken God’s trust.
Exodus dedicates an incredible amount of space to the narrating and construction of the tabernacle, the holy things within it, the vestments for the priests and the ritual of ordination-holy space, holy things and holy people to work in that space. There is a lot in these two long sections to reflect upon, but the construction of the space is designed as a way for God to travel with the people and to bring a little bit of heaven to earth. We continue to need holy spaces, holy things within those spaces and people set aside for the work of God to mediate this God who desires to dwell among the people.

Exodus 40 A Hopeful Conclusion

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Model of the Tabernacle as seen in Timna Park, Israel shared by author through Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Exodus 40:1-33 Moses Finishes the Work of the Tabernacle

The LORD spoke to Moses: ² On the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. ³ You shall put in it the ark of the covenant, and you shall screen the ark with the curtain. ⁴ You shall bring in the table, and arrange its setting; and you shall bring in the lampstand, and set up its lamps. ⁵ You shall put the golden altar for incense before the ark of the covenant, and set up the screen for the entrance of the tabernacle. ⁶ You shall set the altar of burnt offering before the entrance of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, ⁷ and place the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it. ⁸ You shall set up the court all around, and hang up the screen for the gate of the court. ⁹ Then you shall take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it, and consecrate it and all its furniture, so that it shall become holy. ¹⁰ You shall also anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and consecrate the altar, so that the altar shall be most holy. ¹¹ You shall also anoint the basin with its stand, and consecrate it. ¹² Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and shall wash them with water, ¹³ and put on Aaron the sacred vestments, and you shall anoint him and consecrate him, so that he may serve me as priest. ¹⁴ You shall bring his sons also and put tunics on them, ¹⁵ and anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may serve me as priests: and their anointing shall admit them to a perpetual priesthood throughout all generations to come.

¹⁶ Moses did everything just as the LORD had commanded him. ¹⁷ In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was set up. ¹⁸ Moses set up the tabernacle; he laid its bases, and set up its frames, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars; ¹⁹ and he spread the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent over it; as the LORD had commanded Moses. ²⁰ He took the covenant and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark, and set the mercy seat above the ark; ²¹ and he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the curtain for screening, and screened the ark of the covenant; as the LORD had commanded Moses. ²² He put the table in the tent of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the curtain, ²³ and set the bread in order on it before the LORD; as the LORD had commanded Moses. ²⁴ He put the lampstand in the tent of meeting, opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle, ²⁵ and set up the lamps before the LORD; as the LORD had commanded Moses. ²⁶ He put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the curtain, ²⁷ and offered fragrant incense on it; as the LORD had commanded Moses. ²⁸ He also put in place the screen for the entrance of the tabernacle. ²⁹ He set the altar of burnt offering at the entrance of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the grain offering as the LORD had commanded Moses. ³⁰ He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing, ³¹ with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet. ³² When they went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed; as the LORD had commanded Moses. ³³ He set up the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and put up the screen at the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.

One year after the beginning of the journey the new year begins with the assembly of the tabernacle. On the first day of the first month of the second year there is a new opportunity to begin again. Just as the previous year began with the people’s position as slaves ending and their journey into the wilderness as the people of the LORD the God of Israel began, now here at the beginning of year two they witness the completion of their work for a dwelling for the LORD in their midst. The tent of meeting previously had been outside the camp and a place where only Moses and Joshua would go to. The LORD’s dream of dwelling among the people was shattered in the betrayal by Aaron and the rest of the people with the golden calf.

The craftsmen Bezalel and Oholiob and all the craftsmen and women of Israel who were a part of creating the curtains, bars, the ark, the altars, the incense and the anointing oil have completed their work. They have taken the gifts of the people, the best of precious metals, stones, fabric, spices and oils and they have used their divinely inspired talents to create this space where the LORD’s presence can inhabit. It is to be a little bit of heaven on earth, a place that can be holy because the one who will inhabit it will be holy. It is an offering of reconciliation from the people. The gifts and the work become a communal act of apology and hope that the LORD who brought them out of Egypt will come and abide in their midst.

Moses is the one who is charged with completing the work and the repetitive refrain ‘as the LORD commanded Moses’ emphasizes the obedience of Moses. The phrase occurs initially encompassing all the work and then seven additional times as it details the completion of each portion. Seven indicates completion in the bible and so the number of times the phrase is repeated is probably not a coincidence. The careful articulation also mirrors the seven days of the creation narrative and this human work of creation is offered up to the Creator of the heavens and the earth.

Moses fulfils the function that Aaron and his sons are not yet ready to perform. Moses is a holy person, a person who can go and speak to God face to face as one speaks to a friend. Moses is allowed to go into the holy spaces with the LORD. Aaron and his sons will be washed but they will still need to be ordained for their ministry to begin. In our time we are skeptical of the idea of holy people, holy place and holy things but this story points to reality that, “holy acts by holy persons in holy places give access to the liberating, healing, forgiving power of the holy God.” (Actemeir, 1997, pp. 977, Vol. 1) Moses as a holy person consecrates the act of the people, lifts up their offering to God of this place created to be holy and completes the work of the people in creating the tabernacle.

Exodus 40: 34-38 God Dwells Among the People

³⁴ Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. ³⁵ Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. ³⁶ Whenever the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the Israelites would set out on each stage of their journey; ³⁷ but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day that it was taken up. ³⁸ For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, before the eyes of all the house of Israel at each stage of their journey.

The book of Exodus ends on a hope filled note. Reconciliation has occurred to the point where God will dwell among the people. The tent of meeting becomes filled with the presence of God, the tabernacle has been accepted as a dwelling place for the holiness of the LORD of Israel. The betrayal of the golden calf has been overcome and there is a new possibility as the journey can now continue. The people of God now enter the precious and dangerous vocation of journeying with God. Moses has held together the people and the LORD through the journey from Egypt to Sinai. They are not to the promised land, but they are a people of hope. They no longer dwell under the oppression of the king of Egypt, they are a people whose God dwells among them, has established the covenant with them, and will now journey with them to the promised land. They are a people of the law which points to a new way of living, a different way than the ways of the land of Egypt they were taken out of. They are a people. They are a people who the LORD has provided for throughout their journey and promises to continue to provide for. They are a people who are expected to live a life of obedience and thankfulness for the calling they have received. Their journey continues, and they will be a people on the move. They have journeyed far but there are still many miles and many experiences that lay before they inhabit the promised land. But for now, the book of Exodus closes on a note of hope: God has forgiven. A small portion of God’s vision for the people has now been fulfilled. The journey with God continues for Moses and the people. It is a new year, a chance at a new beginning for the pilgrim people of God.

Exodus 39 Completing the Work of the Tabernacle

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Erection of the Tabernacle and Sacred Vessels by Gerard Hoet (1728)

Exodus 39: 1-31 The Vestments

Of the blue, purple, and crimson yarns they made finely worked vestments, for ministering in the holy place; they made the sacred vestments for Aaron; as the LORD had commanded Moses.

² He made the ephod of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen. ³ Gold leaf was hammered out and cut into threads to work into the blue, purple, and crimson yarns and into the fine twisted linen, in skilled design. ⁴ They made for the ephod shoulder-pieces, joined to it at its two edges. ⁵ The decorated band on it was of the same materials and workmanship, of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen; as the LORD had commanded Moses.

⁶ The onyx stones were prepared, enclosed in settings of gold filigree and engraved like the engravings of a signet, according to the names of the sons of Israel. ⁷ He set them on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, to be stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel; as the LORD had commanded Moses.

⁸ He made the breastpiece, in skilled work, like the work of the ephod, of gold, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen. ⁹ It was square; the breastpiece was made double, a span in length and a span in width when doubled. ¹⁰ They set in it four rows of stones. A row of carnelian, chrysolite, and emerald was the first row; ¹¹ and the second row, a turquoise, a sapphire, and a moonstone; ¹² and the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; ¹³ and the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper; they were enclosed in settings of gold filigree. ¹⁴ There were twelve stones with names corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel; they were like signets, each engraved with its name, for the twelve tribes. ¹⁵ They made on the breastpiece chains of pure gold, twisted like cords; ¹⁶ and they made two settings of gold filigree and two gold rings, and put the two rings on the two edges of the breastpiece; ¹⁷ and they put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the breastpiece. ¹⁸ Two ends of the two cords they had attached to the two settings of filigree; in this way they attached it in front to the shoulder-pieces of the ephod. ¹⁹ Then they made two rings of gold, and put them at the two ends of the breastpiece, on its inside edge next to the ephod. ²⁰ They made two rings of gold, and attached them in front to the lower part of the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod, at its joining above the decorated band of the ephod. ²¹ They bound the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a blue cord, so that it should lie on the decorated band of the ephod, and that the breastpiece should not come loose from the ephod; as the LORD had commanded Moses.

²² He also made the robe of the ephod woven all of blue yarn; ²³ and the opening of the robe in the middle of it was like the opening in a coat of mail, with a binding around the opening, so that it might not be torn. ²⁴ On the lower hem of the robe they made pomegranates of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and of fine twisted linen. ²⁵ They also made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates on the lower hem of the robe all around, between the pomegranates; ²⁶ a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate all around on the lower hem of the robe for ministering; as the LORD had commanded Moses.

²⁷ They also made the tunics, woven of fine linen, for Aaron and his sons, ²⁸ and the turban of fine linen, and the headdresses of fine linen, and the linen undergarments of fine twisted linen, ²⁹ and the sash of fine twisted linen, and of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, embroidered with needlework; as the LORD had commanded Moses.

³⁰ They made the rosette of the holy diadem of pure gold, and wrote on it an inscription, like the engraving of a signet, “Holy to the LORD.” ³¹ They tied to it a blue cord, to fasten it on the turban above; as the LORD had commanded Moses.

Perhaps the crafting of the garments for the priesthood are even more important after the incident of the golden calf in Exodus 32 to set aside Aaron and his sons for the priesthood. The directions for the vestments was outlined in Exodus 28 and I don’t have a lot to add to the earlier discussion. This is a place where the clothes do make the person.

In our modern world we don’t consider the priestly role a particularly risky one but for the Israelites there is always risk when entering the presence of the holy LORD of Israel. Yet, on behalf of the people, the priest is to put on the sacred vestments and perform their tasks. We won’t see the ordination of Moses and his sons until Leviticus 6, but as we approach the end of Exodus the vestments for their work have been created and the place where they are to minister to the LORD is ready to be presented.

Exodus 39: 32-43 The Completion of the Work

³² In this way all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished; the Israelites had done everything just as the LORD had commanded Moses. ³³ Then they brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent and all its utensils, its hooks, its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases; ³⁴ the covering of tanned rams’ skins and the covering of fine leather, and the curtain for the screen; ³⁵ the ark of the covenant with its poles and the mercy seat; ³⁶ the table with all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence; ³⁷ the pure lampstand with its lamps set on it and all its utensils, and the oil for the light; ³⁸ the golden altar, the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the entrance of the tent; ³⁹ the bronze altar, and its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils; the basin with its stand; ⁴⁰ the hangings of the court, its pillars, and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court, its cords, and its pegs; and all the utensils for the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of meeting; ⁴¹ the finely worked vestments for ministering in the holy place, the sacred vestments for the priest Aaron, and the vestments of his sons to serve as priests. ⁴² The Israelites had done all of the work just as the LORD had commanded Moses. ⁴³ When Moses saw that they had done all the work just as the LORD had commanded, he blessed them.

The artisans have done their work, their ministry in the creation of all the items for this holy space and the holy things to occupy the space is completed and presented to Moses. Even though the LORD’s desire to dwell among the people was placed in jeopardy by the people’s betrayal with the golden calf, they now have given and labored in the creation of this place which is a little bit of heaven on earth. They have created a mobile holy space as a pilgrim people still journeying to their promised home. It is their offering of obedience and of their treasures presented to their LORD. The work is now finished, and Moses blesses the people. The LORD has dwelt away from the people, but now the people have prepared a place in the camp for the LORD to dwell among them. As we approach the end we await to see if the LORD’s presence will occupy this space.

Exodus 37-38 Holy Things for Holy Space

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James Tissot, Moses and Joshua in the Tabernacle (1896-1902)

Exodus 37 Holy Things for the Holy Space

Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood; it was two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. ² He overlaid it with pure gold inside and outside, and made a molding of gold around it. ³ He cast for it four rings of gold for its four feet, two rings on its one side and two rings on its other side. ⁴ He made poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold, ⁵ and put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark. ⁶ He made a mercy seat of pure gold; two cubits and a half was its length, and a cubit and a half its width. ⁷ He made two cherubim of hammered gold; at the two ends of the mercy seat he made them, ⁸ one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other end; of one piece with the mercy seat¹he made the cherubim at its two ends. ⁹ The cherubim spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings. They faced one another; the faces of the cherubim were turned toward the mercy seat.

¹⁰ He also made the table of acacia wood, two cubits long, one cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high. ¹¹ He overlaid it with pure gold, and made a molding of gold around it. ¹² He made around it a rim a handbreadth wide, and made a molding of gold around the rim. ¹³ He cast for it four rings of gold, and fastened the rings to the four corners at its four legs. ¹⁴ The rings that held the poles used for carrying the table were close to the rim. ¹⁵ He made the poles of acacia wood to carry the table, and overlaid them with gold. ¹⁶ And he made the vessels of pure gold that were to be on the table, its plates and dishes for incense, and its bowls and flagons with which to pour drink offerings.

¹⁷ He also made the lampstand of pure gold. The base and the shaft of the lampstand were made of hammered work; its cups, its calyxes, and its petals were of one piece with it. ¹⁸ There were six branches going out of its sides, three branches of the lampstand out of one side of it and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side of it; ¹⁹ three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with calyx and petals, on one branch, and three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with calyx and petals, on the other branch — so for the six branches going out of the lampstand. ²⁰ On the lampstand itself there were four cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with its calyxes and petals. ²¹ There was a calyx of one piece with it under the first pair of branches, a calyx of one piece with it under the next pair of branches, and a calyx of one piece with it under the last pair of branches. ²² Their calyxes and their branches were of one piece with it, the whole of it one hammered piece of pure gold. ²³ He made its seven lamps and its snuffers and its trays of pure gold. ²⁴ He made it and all its utensils of a talent of pure gold.

²⁵ He made the altar of incense of acacia wood, one cubit long, and one cubit wide; it was square, and was two cubits high; its horns were of one piece with it. ²⁶ He overlaid it with pure gold, its top, and its sides all around, and its horns; and he made for it a molding of gold all around, ²⁷ and made two golden rings for it under its molding, on two opposite sides of it, to hold the poles with which to carry it. ²⁸ And he made the poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with gold.

²⁹ He made the holy anointing oil also, and the pure fragrant incense, blended as by the perfumer.

Bezalel, Oholiab and all the workers take the resources of the people and begin to create the holy things that will be used in the worship of the LORD the God of Israel. The ark is constructed as outlined in Exodus 25: 1-22. The focus on the construction of the objects does take less description than initially given to Moses on the mountain, but the direction of these texts points towards the obedience of the workers to the design laid out to Moses by God. Although the ark itself will come to have powerful function as a symbolic representation of God’s presence it is ultimately a box designed to hold the covenant given to Moses between God and the people. In a much later time for the Jewish people the Torah scrolls will come to have central place as their most precious and holy things, but even here it is a receptacle for the words spoken by God which takes the place of an image of God that the people would rally around.

The table for the bread of presence (based on the design of Exodus 25: 23-30) and the lampstand (see Exodus 25: 31-40) are the next two pieces that the narrative lists in the construction process of these holy things. Bread is the basic staple for life and here it serves as a place where a loaf for each tribe can be lifted up before the LORD. Light also was an essential image for the people and in a time before electricity this elaborate lampstand would have been a difficult piece to construct requiring great skill, but it is also a sign of people using their best talents to place within the holy space of the tabernacle.

Word of God, light and bread are central religious symbols that occupy a place in the center of the temple and will continue to occupy religious language, symbolism and imagery throughout the centuries. It is probably not accidental that the gospel of John takes these three images (among others) in referring to the meaning of who Jesus is for these early followers of Jesus (Jesus as the Word of God, the light that has come into the world, the bread of life).

The altar of incense comes later in the plans that are given to Moses (Exodus 30: 1-10) but the construction of the space in oriented more pragmatically around similar types of items being discussed being crafted together. The detailed description of the anointing oil, and incense in Exodus 30: 22-28 is reduced to a simple line stating that the oils and incense were made as by a perfumer. There is an olfactory element to the worship, an element that some traditions still maintain. Although I am very sensitive to many fragrances we host a Coptic Orthodox church at our congregation which uses incense as a part of every worship service. The holy things for worship include unique smells that are only to be associated with the worship of the LORD.

Exodus 38: 1-8 Altar and Basin for the Holy Space

He made the altar of burnt offering also of acacia wood; it was five cubits long, and five cubits wide; it was square, and three cubits high. ² He made horns for it on its four corners; its horns were of one piece with it, and he overlaid it with bronze. ³ He made all the utensils of the altar, the pots, the shovels, the basins, the forks, and the firepans: all its utensils he made of bronze. ⁴ He made for the altar a grating, a network of bronze, under its ledge, extending halfway down. ⁵ He cast four rings on the four corners of the bronze grating to hold the poles; ⁶ he made the poles of acacia wood, and overlaid them with bronze. ⁷ And he put the poles through the rings on the sides of the altar, to carry it with them; he made it hollow, with boards.

⁸ He made the basin of bronze with its stand of bronze, from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

The altar, as outlined in Exodus 27: 1-8, which is made of bronze and occupies a space farther away from the central tabernacle (and uses a less precious material) becomes one of the final items mentioned as it is constructed. Finally, there is the basin of bronze initially described in Exodus 30: 17-21. Within this brief note on the basin is an interesting and often overlooked note that the basin was made from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. There were women who were a part of the work of the tabernacle! We don’t know what their function was, but it places them near the holiest places. I believe that in Herod’s temple that there is a delineation between the court of women and the court of Israel where only men could approach, but apparently in the description of the tabernacle’s construction there are women who also have a function within the holy places.

Model of Tabernacle, as seen in Israel, Timna Park licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Exodus 28: 9-20 The Court of the Tabernacle

⁹ He made the court; for the south side the hangings of the court were of fine twisted linen, one hundred cubits long; ¹⁰ its twenty pillars and their twenty bases were of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. ¹¹ For the north side there were hangings one hundred cubits long; its twenty pillars and their twenty bases were of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver. ¹² For the west side there were hangings fifty cubits long, with ten pillars and ten bases; the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver ¹³ And for the front to the east, fifty cubits. ¹⁴ The hangings for one side of the gate were fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three bases. ¹⁵ And so for the other side; on each side of the gate of the court were hangings of fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three bases. ¹⁶ All the hangings around the court were of fine twisted linen. ¹⁷ The bases for the pillars were of bronze, but the hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver; the overlaying of their capitals was also of silver, and all the pillars of the court were banded with silver. ¹⁸ The screen for the entrance to the court was embroidered with needlework in blue, purple, and crimson yarns and fine twisted linen. It was twenty cubits long and, along the width of it, five cubits high, corresponding to the hangings of the court. ¹⁹ There were four pillars; their four bases were of bronze, their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals and their bands of silver. ²⁰ All the pegs for the tabernacle and for the court all around were of bronze.

The court is outlined in Exodus 27: 9-19 and this serves as a buffer zone between the holiest space and the space where the people live and work. The court is also a place where most of the work done by the priests is done, since the entrance into the tabernacle will only occur at the day when the camp is to move or at the specified times given to the high priest.

Exodus 28: 21-31 Stewarding the Resources for the Temple

²¹ These are the records of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the covenant, which were drawn up at the commandment of Moses, the work of the Levites being under the direction of Ithamar son of the priest Aaron. ²² Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the LORD commanded Moses; ²³ and with him was Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, engraver, designer, and embroiderer in blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and in fine linen.

²⁴ All the gold that was used for the work, in all the construction of the sanctuary, the gold from the offering, was twenty-nine talents and seven hundred thirty shekels, measured by the sanctuary shekel. ²⁵ The silver from those of the congregation who were counted was one hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred seventy-five shekels, measured by the sanctuary shekel; ²⁶ a beka a head (that is, half a shekel, measured by the sanctuary shekel), for everyone who was counted in the census, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred three thousand, five hundred fifty men. ²⁷ The hundred talents of silver were for casting the bases of the sanctuary, and the bases of the curtain; one hundred bases for the hundred talents, a talent for a base. ²⁸ Of the thousand seven hundred seventy-five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their capitals and made bands for them. ²⁹ The bronze that was contributed was seventy talents, and two thousand four hundred shekels; ³⁰ with it he made the bases for the entrance of the tent of meeting, the bronze altar and the bronze grating for it and all the utensils of the altar, ³¹ the bases all around the court, and the bases of the gate of the court, all the pegs of the tabernacle, and all the pegs around the court.

Even in ancient times there is a desire for accountability for the resources invested in a project. This is a phenomenal investment of resources. A talent is roughly 75 pounds, and so at the modern value of gold the 37 talents is worth roughly $46 million dollars, in addition to the cost of the silver, bronze, yarn, spices, oils and the physical labor that went into the construction project. Ithamar, a son of Aaron, is tasked with overseeing the accounting for the work that Bezalel and Oholiab oversee. It also begins to give some idea of the resources necessary to move the tabernacle in a time prior to mechanical locomotion. One hundred silver bases, each weighing around 75 pounds, in addition to hundreds of feet of curtains, poles, the bronze bases and all the furnishings-each movement was a significant undertaking. The tabernacle will involve not only a significant investment of resources to construct but for a people on the move it will also involve a large investment of human and animal strength dedicated to the movement and assembly/disassembly of the structure.

The designation of the half shekel for each man over twenty-five is outlined in Exodus 30: 11-16 and the offering for the tabernacle is described in Exodus 35: 4-29 and as Exodus 36: 3-7 where we are told the people brought more than enough resources for this project.

Exodus 35-36 Beginning the Construction of the Tabernacle

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Erection of the Tabernacle and Sacred Vessels by Gerard Hoet (1728)

The final six chapters of the book of Exodus echo Exodus 25-31. In many places I will refer to the appropriate discussion from those chapters which lay out the plan of the tabernacle, the holy items that are within the tabernacle, the clothing for the priests as well as oil and incense used for the holy things. These chapters, like chapters 25-31, most Christians never read or when they do they scan through them but the reality that the book of Exodus dedicates more time to the design and construction of the tabernacle than anything else in the book should make us pause. Physically writing out these chapters, which is a part of my discipline, has made me realize the importance of these chapters as a part of the narrative of reconciliation between the LORD the God of Israel and the people of Israel. The people’s participation in this project is an essential part of moving back towards God.

Exodus 35: 1-3 Sabbath

Moses assembled all the congregation of the Israelites and said to them: These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do:

² Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy sabbath of solemn rest to the LORD; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. ³ You shall kindle no fire in all your dwellings on the sabbath day.

The practice of Sabbath is a critical part of the life that the people of God are to live. Sabbath is emphasized not only in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) but is also reemphasized in Exodus 23: 10-13, and in Exodus 34: 21-24 and once again here at the beginning of the construction of the tabernacle. Even in this work of creating the tabernacle, sabbath is still essential. Sabbath takes precedence even over doing holy work. As a pastor, I can appreciate the emphasis on Sabbath even as one undertakes God’s work. I also see the continual temptation in my people and even in my own life to allow work to consume this space of solemn rest.

Exodus 35: 4-29 The Offering for the Sanctuary

⁴ Moses said to all the congregation of the Israelites: This is the thing that the LORD has commanded: ⁵ Take from among you an offering to the LORD; let whoever is of a generous heart bring the LORD’s offering: gold, silver, and bronze; ⁶ blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine linen; goats’ hair, ⁷ tanned rams’ skins, and fine leather; acacia wood, ⁸ oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, ⁹ and onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and the breastpiece.

¹⁰ All who are skillful among you shall come and make all that the LORD has commanded: the tabernacle, ¹¹ its tent and its covering, its clasps and its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases; ¹² the ark with its poles, the mercy seat, and the curtain for the screen; ¹³ the table with its poles and all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence; ¹⁴ the lampstand also for the light, with its utensils and its lamps, and the oil for the light; ¹⁵ and the altar of incense, with its poles, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the entrance, the entrance of the tabernacle; ¹⁶ the altar of burnt offering, with its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils, the basin with its stand; ¹⁷ the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court; ¹⁸ the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court, and their cords; ¹⁹ the finely worked vestments for ministering in the holy place, the holy vestments for the priest Aaron, and the vestments of his sons, for their service as priests.

²⁰ Then all the congregation of the Israelites withdrew from the presence of Moses. ²¹ And they came, everyone whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and brought the LORD’s offering to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the sacred vestments. ²² So they came, both men and women; all who were of a willing heart brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and pendants, all sorts of gold objects, everyone bringing an offering of gold to the LORD. ²³ And everyone who possessed blue or purple or crimson yarn or fine linen or goats’ hair or tanned rams’ skins or fine leather, brought them. ²⁴ Everyone who could make an offering of silver or bronze brought it as the LORD’s offering; and everyone who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work, brought it. ²⁵ All the skillful women spun with their hands, and brought what they had spun in blue and purple and crimson yarns and fine linen; ²⁶ all the women whose hearts moved them to use their skill spun the goats’ hair. ²⁷ And the leaders brought onyx stones and gems to be set in the ephod and the breastpiece, ²⁸ and spices and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense. ²⁹ All the Israelite men and women whose hearts made them willing to bring anything for the work that the LORD had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a freewill offering to the LORD.

Years ago, when I was serving as an intern pastor in Wisconsin for a rural parish with several congregations over one hundred years old I got to see some of the records about the initial construction of the buildings. It was amazing to look back upon the way in which the entire community pulled together and with their hands, skills and resources they built a building to be a place where they could worship. I often forget how recent most of the technology I take for granted is. As the people bring their very best resources together for the construction of the tabernacle it is a voluntary offering. Unlike the golden calf where Aaron orders the people to remove their earrings and bring them to him, now those who are moved by generosity bring the materials needed for construction. Those who have specific gifts also use those gifts to be a part of this gift they are creating for their LORD.

Both men and women have access to these fine materials that will be used for the various projects and both have a hand in bringing this project to completion. There is plenty of work for both women and men contribute in the creation of these holy places and holy things. Women probably had a larger role in the creation of the curtains and hangings, while men probably had a greater involvement in the creation of the frames, metal work and stone work but both roles were essential in the creation of the holy things.

The offering fulfills the original plan for the offering in Exodus 25: 1-9. There are additional reflections on the offering at that point.

Exodus 35: 30-35 Setting Aside Bezalel and Oholiab

Bezalel by James Tissot (1896-1902)

³⁰ Then Moses said to the Israelites: See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; ³¹ he has filled him with divine spirit, with skill, intelligence, and knowledge in every kind of craft, ³² to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, ³³ in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, in every kind of craft. ³⁴ And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. ³⁵ He has filled them with skill to do every kind of work done by an artisan or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and in fine linen, or by a weaver — by any sort of artisan or skilled designer.

Two craftsmen are named and will have a crucial role in the completion of the tabernacle plans. Bezalel and Oholiab also have the Spirit of God come upon them for their work of construction and teaching. Their vocation as craftsmen will be a vital part of the project coming to completion. The setting aside of Bezalel and Oholiab completes their appointment by God on Mount Sinai, prior to the golden calf which Aaron crafted, in Exodus 31:1-11. There is additional discussion in my comments on Exodus 31 about Bezalel, Oholiab and the need for people skilled as artisans in addition to the roles of priest and prophet.

Exodus 36:1-7 The Completion of the Offering

Bezalel and Oholiab and every skillful one to whom the LORD has given skill and understanding to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the LORD has commanded.

² Moses then called Bezalel and Oholiab and every skillful one to whom the LORD had given skill, everyone whose heart was stirred to come to do the work; ³ and they received from Moses all the freewill offerings that the Israelites had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, ⁴ so that all the artisans who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task being performed, ⁵ and said to Moses, “The people are bringing much more than enough for doing the work that the LORD has commanded us to do.” ⁶ So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing; ⁷ for what they had already brought was more than enough to do all the work.

The people are called together into this project and their hearts are moved to give generously. They are a part of something bigger than themselves. In one sense, the offerings and the work they do become a peace offering to God. They are a way to fulfill a part of God’s vision of a place where God can dwell in the center of the people. In another sense, it is a project that unites the people in a common goal as they come together to build the tabernacle. This common project for a time unites them as a people of Israel rather than the twelve tribes and countless families that are a part of the wilderness journey. There is more than enough for the project to be completed and the giving seems to be a joyful act. The abundance is so great that Moses must put an end to the offering because the workers are being overwhelmed by the abundance of materials being brought together. The impossible task now seems possible. The seemingly incredible amount of resources required to build the place of worship for a pilgrim people is quickly surpassed with the resources that people carried with them on their journey. God’s vision begins to take shape through the hands of the men and women gifted to be both givers and builders of this place where the LORD will dwell among the people.

Exodus 36: 8-38 The Construction of the Tabernacle

⁸ All those with skill among the workers made the tabernacle with ten curtains; they were made of fine twisted linen, and blue, purple, and crimson yarns, with cherubim skillfully worked into them. ⁹ The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits; all the curtains were of the same size.

¹⁰ He joined five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he joined to one another. ¹¹ He made loops of blue on the edge of the outermost curtain of the first set; likewise he made them on the edge of the outermost curtain of the second set; ¹² he made fifty loops on the one curtain, and he made fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that was in the second set; the loops were opposite one another. ¹³ And he made fifty clasps of gold, and joined the curtains one to the other with clasps; so the tabernacle was one whole.

¹⁴ He also made curtains of goats’ hair for a tent over the tabernacle; he made eleven curtains. ¹⁵ The length of each curtain was thirty cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits; the eleven curtains were of the same size. ¹⁶ He joined five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves. ¹⁷ He made fifty loops on the edge of the outermost curtain of the one set, and fifty loops on the edge of the other connecting curtain. ¹⁸ He made fifty clasps of bronze to join the tent together so that it might be one whole. ¹⁹ And he made for the tent a covering of tanned rams’ skins and an outer covering of fine leather.

²⁰ Then he made the upright frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood. ²¹ Ten cubits was the length of a frame, and a cubit and a half the width of each frame. ²² Each frame had two pegs for fitting together; he did this for all the frames of the tabernacle. ²³ The frames for the tabernacle he made in this way: twenty frames for the south side; ²⁴ and he made forty bases of silver under the twenty frames, two bases under the first frame for its two pegs, and two bases under the next frame for its two pegs. ²⁵ For the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side, he made twenty frames ²⁶ and their forty bases of silver, two bases under the first frame and two bases under the next frame. ²⁷ For the rear of the tabernacle westward he made six frames. ²⁸ He made two frames for corners of the tabernacle in the rear. ²⁹ They were separate beneath, but joined at the top, at the first ring; he made two of them in this way, for the two corners. ³⁰ There were eight frames with their bases of silver: sixteen bases, under every frame two bases.

³¹ He made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames of the one side of the tabernacle, ³² and five bars for the frames of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the tabernacle at the rear westward. ³³ He made the middle bar to pass through from end to end halfway up the frames. ³⁴ And he overlaid the frames with gold, and made rings of gold for them to hold the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.

³⁵ He made the curtain of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine twisted linen, with cherubim skillfully worked into it. ³⁶ For it he made four pillars of acacia, and overlaid them with gold; their hooks were of gold, and he cast for them four bases of silver. ³⁷ He also made a screen for the entrance to the tent, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, and fine twisted linen, embroidered with needlework; ³⁸ and its five pillars with their hooks. He overlaid their capitals and their bases with gold, but their five bases were of bronze.

The tabernacle, the place for the holy things and ultimately where God will meet with the high priest, becomes the first item listed as the construction begins. The construction description proceeds in a different order than the plans. Ultimately, they are carried out as laid out on Mount Sinai. The plans for the tabernacle are described in Exodus 26 and there are additional comments there about the tabernacle itself.

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Tag Archives: Exodus

Psalm 114 The Awesome God of the Exodus

Psalm 114

Psalm 105 Give Thanks to the Faithful God of Our Story

Psalm 105

The Connection between Humanity and the Earth in Scripture

Psalm 78 Telling History to Change the Future

Psalm 78

From Abraham to David in Matthew’s Genealogy

Reflections After Walking Through the Book of Exodus

Exodus 40 A Hopeful Conclusion

Exodus 40:1-33 Moses Finishes the Work of the Tabernacle

Exodus 40: 34-38 God Dwells Among the People

Exodus 39 Completing the Work of the Tabernacle

Exodus 39: 1-31 The Vestments

Exodus 39: 32-43 The Completion of the Work

Exodus 37-38 Holy Things for Holy Space

Exodus 37 Holy Things for the Holy Space

Exodus 38: 1-8 Altar and Basin for the Holy Space

Exodus 28: 9-20 The Court of the Tabernacle

Exodus 28: 21-31 Stewarding the Resources for the Temple

Exodus 35-36 Beginning the Construction of the Tabernacle

Exodus 35: 1-3 Sabbath

Exodus 35: 4-29 The Offering for the Sanctuary

Exodus 35: 30-35 Setting Aside Bezalel and Oholiab

Exodus 36:1-7 The Completion of the Offering

Exodus 36: 8-38 The Construction of the Tabernacle