Exodus 35

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:31:14utc

A call for volunteers

35:1-35

To us, as impatient modern people, the long inventory given in this appeal for volunteers, seems redundant. We would have condensed this chapter into a few lines only, especially the vs. 11-19. It is hard to say something new and fresh about the articles mentioned in this section. Even The Adam Clarke Commentary, which normally does not shy away from details, opens this chapter by saying: "The principal subjects in this chapter have been already largely considered in the notes on chapters xxv, xvi, xxvii, xxviii, xxix, xxx, and xxi, and to those the reader is particularly desired to refer, together with the parallel texts in the margin." But unless we learn to take time to look at what it takes to serve the Lord and to finger lovingly all that was consecrated to Him as a wave offering, we miss the blessing. All the items mentioned in this chapter are tokens of hearts that were moved and willing to give to the Lord.

The chapter sets out by reminding the people of the Sabbath's command. This, in itself, should strike us as unusual, since God, in the previous chapter, spoke to Moses about four other feasts besides the Sabbath. Obviously, Moses must have said more to the Israelites than is recorded here. It is true that the Sabbath is the original feast, the only one that existed before sin came into God's creation and spoiled it. All the other feasts celebrate redemption, resurrection, consummation, and pilgrimage, events that would not have occurred if sin had not come. The Sabbath supersedes it all. Those who celebrate the Sabbath enter into the rest of God and are in communion with Him. As God's creatures we are part of God's original Sabbath, and as His redeemed, we will enter into His final and ultimate Sabbath.

In the light of what is said, it seems strange that the breaking of the Sabbath would be a crime, deserving capital punishment. We read: "Whoever does any work on it must be put to death." Seen in the light of the meaning of the Sabbath, however, we understand that those that do not celebrate life are already dead. The punishment of death comes only to the dead.

The prohibition to light a fire on the Sabbath has been interpreted in various way by different Jews throughout the centuries. Most orthodox Jews will not cook any food on the Sabbath, but they will use lights.

The offering that is detailed in vs. 5-9 is preceded by the, seemingly contradictory, statement that it is a command of the Lord and at the same time it is a freewill offering. "Everyone who is willing and whose heart moved him" is a recurring thought in this chapter. When Israel left Egypt, the Egyptians paid them back for the four centuries of slave labor they had performed. The payment they received must have been substantial because it is described as plunder. We read that at the night of the Exodus: "The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians."[ 1 ] It is from this loot that the Lord expects the people to contribute for the building of the tabernacle. We read in the next chapter that the response was so overwhelming that the people were told to stop bringing their gifts.[ 2 ] This indicates that, in spite of their tendency toward idolatry, there must have been a deep hunger in the hearts of the people for genuine fellowship with God.

The verses 5-9 give a list of items that were needed for the building of the place of worship and for the service: precious metals, yarn, linen, goat hair and animal skins, wood, oil and spices, and precious stones. Vs. 10 indicates that the labor was performed by a whole army of volunteers, under the supervision of Bezalel and Oholiab. Moses had received the vision and Bezalel and Oholiab were officially appointed to do the work, but the task was carried out in such a way that, when the work was finished, the whole nation would have participated. It was their tabernacle; they made it.

It takes vision, skill, and labor to do the work of the Lord. When the tabernacle was finished, it was filled with the presence of the Lord, but it also contained the soul of the people. The tabernacle with its furniture was a copy of what Moses had seen on the mountain, but it was more than a copy of the original. The tabernacle in heaven is a spiritual reality; what the Israelites made was an expression in material things of this reality. The essence of art is the ability to transfer one reality into another. "Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stone …." as Shakespeare put it.[ 3 ] In imitation of God's creative genius, man has the ability to express into inert material feelings, thoughts and beauty. The human body itself is the expression of man's soul and man can put pain on canvas or carve figures in stone and use vibrations of sound that convey the deepest abstract realities. The more we think of this, the deeper the mystery becomes. This tabernacle with its boards and hooks and covers was to be a picture of heaven on earth; it foreshadowed the fact that the Word would become flesh and would dwell among us.[ 4 ]

All the items mentioned in these verses have been named before with the exception of the tent pegs and the ropes in vs. 18.

After receiving the instructions, we read in vs. 20: "Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses' presence." This, seemingly redundant remark, suggests the intensity of feeling that accompanied the event. Moses had conveyed the vision to the people; not only in the words he spoke, but by the radiance of his face. They had been deeply moved by what they had heard and seen and, as they went home, they looked at both their possessions and their ornaments, and they were gripped by a spirit of generosity that have never before been evinced. Gifts started pouring in, and giving became an experience of hilarious joy.

Nothing is more enriching than giving. We only possess what we give away; what we hoard possesses us. Paul calls this: "the grace that God has given." In his second epistle to the Corinthians he says: "And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will."[ 5 ] What we give is, after all, only the symbol of the real thing. An engagement ring is a token of a promise of love and of affection, it is not love itself. I don't know what earrings represent, but they are certainly not the real thing. Most of the giving of the Israelites was not sacrificial. It was not, what Paul calls, "beyond their ability." It was also not general. We read: "All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the LORD." "All who were willing" implies that some did not contribute. God's grace was available to all, but all did not avail themselves of it.

The substance of the items that were brought differed from person to person. Women cherish different things than men do. Some of the ornaments were typical adornments for ladies, others were worn by men and women alike. Apparently, the modern custom for men to wear earrings is the reoccurrence of and ancient fad. The Pulpit Commentary notes: "That among the Hebrews gold ornaments were worn by men, as well as by women, is indicated by ch. iii. 22, and ch. xxxii. 2. The Egyptian men at the time of the Exodus wore armlets, bracelets, and sometimes anklets, but not often earrings. Earrings, however, had been worn by the household of Jacob (Gen. xxxv. 2)."

Other items dedicated to the Lord were yarn, textiles, and even boards of acacia wood. The latter, probably, was locally available and the offering consisted in the fact that the men felled the trees and cut the wood into timber of useable size. This was more an offering of labor and man hours than of material.

A distinction is also made among classes of people. The leaders or rulers were in possession of the precious stones that were needed for the high priestly garments. The Hebrew word that is translated "leader" or "ruler" is nasiy' or nasi' which means "an exalted one," sometimes translated as captain, chief, governor, or prince." These must have been the heads of clans, which later took a leading part in the dedication of the tabernacle, as described in Numbers.[ 6 ] The precious stones served as evidence of the authority these men exercised over the nation. In sacrificing these jewels, they put their offices before the Lord, which was a recognition of the source of their authority.

There was also the dedication of skills to the Lord. From the humble activity of spinning yarn and making cloth, to wood cutting and other forms of manual labor, all was put into the service of the Lord. The one the Lord had chosen to be in charge of the whole project was Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. He was a man gifted in various crafts. The Bible recognizes this as a spiritual gift, for we read that he was filled with the Spirit of God "to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic craftsmanship." He, and his assistant, Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan also had the ability to teach others. We find here the Old Testament equivalent of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, about which the apostle Paul writes extensively in his epistles.

Bezalel and Oholiab were also images of our Lord Jesus Christ. The writer to the Hebrews calls Jesus: "the builder of a house" and he says: "We are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast."[ 7 ] Christ is the builder of the actual tabernacle and He bestows upon us the gifts of the Holy Spirit, not "to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic craftsmanship," but to work with the real stuff of which gold, silver, bronze, precious stones and wood are only vague shadows. The real building, God's tabernacle, or the temple of the Holy Spirit, the place in which the Lord dwells, is the body of believers who have been redeemed and washed by the blood of the Lamb.

[ 1 ] Ex. 12:35,36

[ 2 ] Ex. 36:3-7

[ 3 ] As You Like It

[ 4 ] John 1:14

[ 5 ] II Cor. 8:1-5

[ 6 ] See Num. 7:12-84

[ 7 ] Heb. 3:3,4