Exodus 38:21-31 Bible Study | Episode 645

March 29, 2024

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Exodus 38:21-31 Bible Study | Episode #645

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Alive, Applying God's Word to Your Daily Life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today.

In Jesus name. Good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We're in Exodus chapter 38, and we're in a passage that if you reading from your Bible, I'm going to make several observations today that I think are important, but I'm going to make. observations that I think will give you some insights about how to study the Bible or how maybe even not to study the Bible.

The first insight is that if you read the headline or the I guess the markings the name that they give to this passage in the Bible that I'm reading from the new King James, it says materials of the tabernacle. And. And just let you know that's not in the Bible.

And that's not inerrant. It's not inspired by God. It's just a way to categorize the Bible so that you can read it and understand it. It's not scripture, but oftentimes people will think of it that way, and I think if you do, sometimes it will lead you in a direction that maybe maybe scripture is not trying to lead you.

In fact, maybe that passage really doesn't want you to go in that direction, but your mind does because the headline is the headline and, in the news, that's what headlines are for too. It's to lead you in a direction or to attract you based off of information that's going to say it has, when it really doesn't.

This headline is actually true, and so it's not wrong. The, this is an inventory and in fact, verse 21 says that this is an inventory of the tabernacle. And what it does is it goes through the people who ma or the main builders of the tabernacle. And that's Gazelle's son of your, I will see that in verse 22.

The son of her, of the tribe of Judah, and in verse 23. You have Ahiliab the son of Hissamach, the tribe of Dan, and he was an engraver and designer, and a weaver of purple and blue and scarlet thread. We've got the two main artisans that are out there who made the tabernacle. Now, First of all, my first observation from this is there's not a lot you're going to get out of this as far as the numbers and things like that.

And the reason is because they're very unique numbers, large numbers that I'm not sure. I'm not sure what the meaning is now they're in scripture and God put 'em there. So I know they have meaning and purpose, but that doesn't mean that I'm always gonna come to those meanings. And I don't need to, I don't have to divine those meanings.

And I use the word divine for a reason, because off it comes from the word divination, meaning I'm trying to, in some ways figure something out in a in witchcraft. Meaning you come up with look and study and come up with some way. This number means something in scripture and numbers mean something in scripture.

If you've studied the Bible with me any period of time you know that I, I believe numbers have significance in scripture, but these numbers, I don't know that they have a significance that I can directly tie to another passage of scripture. The reason numbers have significance is because you find them over and over in scripture and they tend to.

They tend to point you in a direction. One always is, tends to point you to God. Two, always either points you to division, meaning two separate things, or the faithful witness, meaning there's there's a witness out there, you and the Holy Spirit to witnesses to, to an event. Tho those numbers mean something.

Three stands for the trying God, the the trying nature of who God is. Four. Always stands for the way the earth was made, the foundations of the earth. You have the four winds, the four seasons. All those things tend to point toward how God created the water, the earth five.

If you see five all throughout scripture and always is tends to make your mind think about the grace of God. Six is man. That man was made on the sixth day. And throughout scripture, you will just see the number six tending to point to man, seven is perfection or completeness, eight is the new creation nine tends to be a turmoil or a A negative, it's a negative number.

And 10 tends to indicate the holiness of God, which is the law. And as you go up there, the numbers 40 has a, has great significance, 50 has significance. They have significance 'cause they're in the Bible a whole lot. And the reason they have significance being in the Bible a whole lot is because you can begin to, those numbers tend to push you because they're, they almost always.

are pushing toward an understanding. I'm talking about this. I'm talking about the one true God. I'm talking about how God made the earth. I'm talking about completion. And so their health, very helpful to navigate and understand what scripture saying. That being said names in scripture are important.

Because. It's the Word of God. It's the eternal Word of God. And I think it's very neat to have your name mentioned in Scripture. And these guys were obviously very skilled men. They were very faithful men. And they did their job really well. And they get mentioned in Scripture.

And the Lady's Book of Life is about the work of Jesus Christ. Not only in the gospels, but in his church throughout history. And I believe that our names are written in that book. And that's important to be written in the annals of the works of Jesus Christ in the earth.

And whenever I run across the name, especially an obscure name, that's not used hardly ever in scripture. I always take note because, you that person got the. Got their name written in, in, in the word of God and just for me, it's always just neat to think about that and to consider it.

And so they, we've got we've got these men that's names are written in the book. And then we get to go into a long dissertation on the amount of gold and silver. And and other materials that were used in building the temple. And the reason I say that I don't want you to try to go in and divine it is because they're not really, they're not really units that are mentioned anywhere else.

They're not numbers. Take, for instance, 29 talents and 730 shekels, according to the shekel of sanctuary. Should I convert the talents into shekels and add them all up and see if that number is significant? Significant or maybe I should make it a fraction because the number of shekels mentioned Don't quite make a talent.

So would it be 29 point something? Talents or should I just Go with the number of shekels and it'd be thousands and thousands of shekels. The numbers don't seem to have significance. Now, I'm not saying that they're not going to be significant, and I'm not saying that at some point in time in the future, as you're studying through Scripture, God might lead you back here and give you an insight into His Word that is important.

I'm just saying that I'm not sure what these numbers mean, and I can't find or I can't tie them off anywhere. That gives me anything, and I really haven't read anybody that I thought made a significant or important argument about that. I think God is just telling you that there was a whole lot of gold given.

And you go why is that important? The reason it's important is because who gave the gold? The gold was given by slaves. People who had never had anything. And when they left Egypt, they plundered Egypt and they took all the gold and silver that they could carry. And you go why is that important?

It's important because they've never had anything for 400 years, and now they're willing to give up that much gold and silver to build the tabernacle. It's a understanding that the people here are understanding the importance of the presence of God, and they're willing to spend their treasure in making sure that place is the place it ought to be.

And they do that. They spend their treasure in creating a tabernacle that we're talking about 3000 years later, a tabernacle that we're thinking about and seeing God through, and actually, we're able to commune with God in the midst of this right now 3000 years later because of the sacrifice they made.

They gave silver and the silver of the congregation was 100 talents. So there's 100 talents and 1, 775 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. I'm going to just tell you, in my way of thinking, 1, 775 is important because that was around the American Revolution. But I promise you that has nothing to do with this passage.

I don't think it does. Maybe it does. I don't know. The whole point is the Holy Spirit's not leading me to give me an understanding or insight by this. And and even with me searching to maybe tie it off, I don't have an insight about it. It's a lot of shekels, but I do know 100 talents of silver is a lot of silver.

It's a lot of silver. And On top of the gold they gave probably about they gave they gave 3 times as much silver as they did gold. And maybe you can tie that off in some kind of monetary way and give the value that way. And it says a becca for each man. That is a half shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

So there, there was a lot of giving by the people who gave, and it says for everyone included in the numbering from 20 years old and above for 603,000, 603,550 men. There were 603,550 heads of households that gave money. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of people giving that's the the people of God deciding that this is important.

And as I read through it, I love it because it is, it's given us huge significant numbers. Now, if you search throughout scripture, do you find 603, 550 anywhere? I can tell you because I've already done it. The answer is no, it's not anywhere. So I don't know what that number. That's significant. There's a significance to that number in the sense of me being able to tie it off to something that's going to happen in the future, maybe able to.

Figure that out in that way. I probably not going to be able to do that. But I don't set aside and say that's, that just doesn't mean anything to me. I remember. Okay. In Exodus chapter 38, when God was talking about building the temple, he got very specific about the numbers of people and the numbers of talents and shackles of silver and gold that were given.

He got real specific about it because. It was important. Now, you go what does that matter? It does matter. It matters because people were given their treasure. And by the way, I think God is going to be a great accountant in heaven, accounting for the treasure that you build up in heaven.

And the way I know that is because he was a good accountant in Exodus. And so if you want to say what do you really draw from this? That's what I draw from this. God's not we're looking away and missing things that are going on in your life. He's intimately involved in your life. And he's intimately involved in how many and how much and what you are doing for him.

And he's intimately involved in the struggles that you have. And he wants to be involved in all of it. And when you choose to trust him, and when you choose to walk in his ways, He remembers it. He doesn't. He doesn't discount it. I think about when in, especially in the book of revelation, but throughout scripture when people cry and the teardrops that that they cry, I tend to think about that when I think about God and how each teardrop to him is important.

I think about when he talks about the number of hairs on your head. And for some of that, some of us, that's a lot. Some of that's not many. But for God, He knows exactly what it is. See, He's intimately involved in His creation. He's intimately involved in your life. And He knows the importance of the big and the minute.

And that may even lead me to think about how He created the universe. Physics is primarily in its beginning and its understanding back in the 16th century. And 17th century is as science began to take shape and then physics come along in the centuries after that it used to be mainly the physics of big things, but in the first part of the 20th century, scientists began to understand that there was a physics of the big things that that Newton had explored but then, We understood that there was a science of the little things subatomic particle theory came into place.

And so the little things mattered too, and we figured out that the science of the little things is just as important as the science of the big things. In fact, the science of the little things has a physics all itself, and the science of the big thing, big things have a physics all itself. And the effort to unite those two and understand how they work together.

Is the great effort of physics today. It's a unit, a unified theory of the universe that involves physical theory. And that is something that God is working on, that science is working on today. Because we realize now. That when God made the universe, he made the big things and he made the little things and somehow they all work together.

And oftentimes we think of the big things in the kingdom of God. And we fail to consider the little things that are just important. When I look at this passage, I say to myself, God is a God of the big things and the little things. God is a God who who understands the importance of not only the big things that go on around the world, but He understands the importance of the little things that go on in the individual's life.

And the little things that go on in the individual's life oftentimes accumulate. And so the little things that were going on in the lives of these 600 and 3, 550 men and their families ultimately culminated in his kingdom being advanced. He writes those numbers down. He keeps up with them. He knows who they are.

He knew each one of them by name, and he knows each of us. The offering of bronze was 70 talents, notice, and 2, 400 shekels. You go what does that matter? You've got a whole lot of royalty of God. You've got about a third of that given in silver, which is the blood price. And then you've got even less of the bronze, which is the picture of God's wrath and judgment against sin.

And remember God's royalty, his sovereignty is first. His atonement his payment for sin is second, and then lesser than those, and definitely lesser than those, he does not desire judgment and wrath against mankind. I often say many times I've said this in church, that hell was not built for man.

It was built for the devil and his angels. Now, that doesn't mean human beings won't be there. Quite clearly in scripture, the Bible teaches that there'll be many who are there. But God didn't create hell for us. He does not desire that human beings go to hell. He desires that each one of us have a relationship with him.

That's not going to happen, but he desires that. And understanding that God doesn't desire judgment. He desires grace and mercy. That in these numbers it's less and with it, he made the sockets in the doors of tabernacle of bonds and bonds grading for it. And we see that God's sovereignty and his royalty at work, his grace and atonement are at work and his judgment are at work because they're all aspects of who he is.

And that works itself out in the individual's life, and understanding that and knowing that and working in that is something you can take from this passage. I hope you've learned a lot just thinking through this with me. You've probably gotten an insight into how I try to study scripture, how I try to see God.

And how God has revealed himself to me. But the main thing I would say to you is that God is intricately involved and he knows every person that is His. He knows you too.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus' name.