Week 4 Exodus
Last year on January 28 I read Exodus 25-31.
I decided to read that seven-chapter block again today.
It’s not the easiest 242-verses to read. It’s a set of instructions for building the tabernacle and everything that goes with it.
I started reading, hoping to latch onto something to help myself stay on track. Then it occurred to me: why not look for all the things the Lord told Moses to build? It seemed like a pretty good and simple Mental-Focussing Idea.
I got a pad of paper & pencil. By the end I’d found: the ark & its cover lamp-stand tabernacle tarpaulins frames crossbars veil screens big-altar curtains utensils incense-altar & washbasin. Mixed in there were directions for making oil for the lamps and spices for the incense and elaborate clothes for the priests.
The whole passage gives you a sense of exactness and precision and specificity and detail and artistry.
This is the place where the Lord will be. It’s a special place.
Note: The last verse of the section says: the Lord finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai. I’d totally forgotten that all of this section happened on the mountain even though yesterday I read that: Moses disappeared into the cloud as he climbed higher up the mountain. He stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. This set of instructions in 25-31 was how Moses spent some of his time alone with the Lord. Quotes from Exodus 31:18, 24:18 (NLT).