Prepare
Opening Prayer
Lord, thank you for this day, the blessing of worship, and the joy of reading your Word. Make this ordinary grace extraordinary in our lives by the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.
Read
Scripture Passage
Materials of the Tabernacle
21 This is the inventory of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the Testimony, which was counted according to the commandment of Moses, for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest.
22 Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord had commanded Moses. 23 And with him was Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designer, a weaver of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and of fine linen.
24 All the gold that was used in all the work of the holy place, that is, the gold of the offering, was twenty-nine talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. 25 And the silver from those who were numbered of the congregation was one hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary: 26 a bekah for each man (that is, half a shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary), for everyone included in the numbering from twenty years old and above, for six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty men. 27 And from the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil: one hundred sockets from the hundred talents, one talent for each socket. 28 Then from the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, overlaid their capitals, and made bands for them.
29 The offering of bronze was seventy talents and two thousand four hundred shekels. 30 And with it he made the sockets for the door of the tabernacle of meeting, the bronze altar, the bronze grating for it, and all the utensils for the altar, 31 the sockets for the court all around, the bases for the court gate, all the pegs for the tabernacle, and all the pegs for the court all around.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ex 38:21–31
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
Moses orders an inventory of the tabernacle materials under Ithamar's oversight. The passage names Bezalel and Oholiab and accounts for the enormous quantities of donated gold, silver, and bronze used for the sanctuary, sockets, veil, altar, court, and utensils, displaying the costly royal dwelling built for God among his people.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Exodus 38:21
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
Bryan explicitly declines to select a best verse. Verse 21 best represents the passage because it identifies the inventory and its accountable oversight, from which the detailed accounting follows.
C — Called or Christ
C — Christ Connection
Give cheerfully without prosperity-gospel manipulation, and value God's presence above precious materials. Make the Lord central, long for and cherish him among his people, love him and others, and live for the glory of the covenant King.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
hey hey good morning good morning welcome to coffee and devotions that's where every day you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee we get into God's word and we grow and I love the Lord together and this year 2023 Lord willing we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus I'm so glad to be with you today why don't we have some coffee we'll pray and we'll get into some nerdy math section I hope it will amaze us let's pray our hot coffee first and then pray let's pray Lord we thank you so much for this day it's a blessing to worship you the joy to read your word it's a discipline Lord but it is a Grace it's an ordinary Grace and so we pray that your spirit and your Holy Spirit would make it extraordinary in our lives in Jesus name amen okay so this morning we are at uh Exodus chapter 38. verses 21 through 31 by the way if you know where my glasses are could you please tell me I don't know maybe I'll find him in the next couple hours of days I don't know okay Exodus chapter 38 verse 21. this is the inventory of the Tabernacle the Tabernacle of the testimony which was counted according to the Commandment of Moses for the service of the Levites by the hand of ithamar son of Aaron the priest so let's just get at this I'm going to do things a little bit differently right we're going to talk about things as we move through so this is all the stuff that was used to make the Tabernacle and it's going to give us lots of information and lots of weights and measures and stuff so it was given Moses is the one who commanded all of it to be counted right he wants to make sure there's accurate books and ithamar the son of Aaron one of the priests is the one who's going to be counting it so bezolo the son of URI the son of her of the tribe of Judah made all that the Lord had commanded Moses and with him was a holiyab the son of ahimach of the tribe of Dan an engraver and designer a weaver a purple blue and Scarlet thread and a fine linen all the gold that was used in all the work of the Holy place that is the gold of the offering was 29 talents and 730 shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary so people gave gold right the 29 talents 736 shekels I want to put this into a little bit of perspective for you that's 1900 and just about 31 pounds of gold let me and so 1929 talents is 1 930.8 pounds of gold plus 37 130 seconds is an additional 18.5 pounds of gold so almost 1900 50 1950 ish pounds of gold now if you want to do some real math go plug that into a calculator see how many ounces that is so take that 1950 or so and then put that into ounces last time I checked which is a long time ago gold was over thirteen hundred dollars an ounce this is big money people are donating that is not some small thing but it wasn't just gold verse 25 and the silver from those who were numbered of the congregation was 100 talents and 1775 shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary so here's a silver part that didn't just give gold they also gave silver 6658 pounds is 100 talents and 1775 shekels is just about 30 more pounds so just shy of 670 pounds of gold or silver sorry this is a silver so 1950 of silver just something like almost 6 700 pounds of silver right there's this is massive amounts of gold massive amounts of silver that people are donating to the Tabernacle right this is not just saying God we love you and we want to worship you and oh yeah by the way we're going to give you a shanty on this on on the outskirts of town they are building him a costly Royal home verse 26 so Becca for each man that is half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary for everyone included in the numbering from 20 years old and above for 630 603 550 men all right so let's let's just go over that 683 550 men 20 years and older that's how many fighting men there are for Israel and of the 100 talents of silver was cast sockets of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil 100 sockets for The Hundreds for the hundred talents 100 for each socket then from the 1765 shekels he made hooks for the pillars overlaid their capitals and made bands for them right this is a distribution list of what everything took to make it verse 29 the offering of bronze now this is a bunch the offering of bronze with 70 talents and 2 400 shekels so just over 4 700 pounds 4 700 pounds of bronze was given to make this Tabernacle can you imagine how heavy this is people have to move this this is a movable tint but this thing is massive right the very first thing you would have seen as you were entering into the Israelite camp if you were to to come in from a higher elevation down you would immediately see this Tabernacle it was huge compared to everything else around it there's no doubt what what's most precious who was most important in the camp of Israel and with it he made the sockets for the door of the Tabernacle of meeting the bronze altar the bronze grading for it and all the utensils for the altar the sockets for the court all around the bases for the court gate all the pegs for the Tabernacle and all the pegs for the court all around all right so bizal l and a holia listen to Moses if the Mars keeping track of everything that's commanded to to write all of this down know how much is going where because this is a huge undertaking This was meant to write down and give to posterity give to you give to me give to the children of Israel for decades and centuries to come God plundered the Egyptians the people willingly freely offered it up to God and he had a royal domicile God was in their midst God was important God was the central Focus piece the heartbeat the the the glue that kept this congregation together kept this people together it was God in their midst he was the royal one any opulence was to be given to their Royal Covenant King well I don't know what the best verse is to summarize that I'll let you tell me down in the comments what what stuck out to you is the best verse to summarize this the last seek calling what are we called to do well you know if I was a health wealth and Prosperity Gospel preacher I'd say so send in your money right now so your seed of a thousand dollars I'm not gonna tell you that type of stuff the lord loves a cheerful Giver you give whatever you want to to God's work but what I'm getting to you today is it's not about the silver or the gold if if any Pastor is about the silver and the gold they're missing the point I would be missing the point is God the central piece of our heart is the Lord the one who is gripping The Souls of the heart of his people is his presence longed for a loved for and cherished by his people we want him in our midst we want to honor him in our midst we want to bring him the glory in our midst we want him to be first and foremost in our midst is he so in your life do you love him with all your heart Minds full and strength that's what Jesus has called us to do to love him and to love others he's still our covenant King he's still the one that we live for his glory so go to Christ and live for Christ I'll see you next time bye thanks for listening to this week's message from God's word for you a Ministry of Sharon RP Church in rural Southeast Iowa we pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week if you'd like to get more information about us feel free to go to the website Sharon rpc.org we'd love to invite you to worship with us our worship time is 10 a.m every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue Morning Sun Iowa 52640 may God richly bless you this week [Music] thank you