I had to stop myself reading this passage the same way I read something like The Lord of the Rings. When I am reading something descriptive, I skip through the passage to find the key points and the essential information and I rarely stop to admire the view. This is either a result of my job, or why I was good at it! Now I just find it something I need to be aware of and guard against when I am reading certain types of writing.
In the same way, I struggled with the detail, I also marvelled at it. I mean, God’s people are in the wilderness. Still, He gives detailed instructions for every aspect of the tent of meeting and tabernacle and all of the elements inside it. Gold filigree, precious stones mounted on a breastplate, acacia wood, bronze, silver and gold, fine linen.
All of this was made by the Israelites in the wilderness according to God’s instruction. A number of days ago I referred to the preparations the Israelites made before leaving Egypt. Not your normal road trip preps. Certainly not a minimalist event either. Not only did they have all of the raw materials for the building of the tabernacle and tent of meeting (although I am assuming the acacia wood was sourced from where they were located) but they also had the means to produce all of the required items. I think I find the filigree so surprising because it is so detailed and ornate. As a child growing up I watched my Dad silversmithing with all his modern equipment and machinery. I cannot imagine how these obviously very skilled craftsmen created the objects and scenes described here.
As we think about the concept of ‘church’ and what we might consider the first ‘church’ here and the massive building project that it was - I contrast this with what we have now. What is required of us now. What we need, now. Where God resides, now. When we think of the veil in the temple being torn in two, we are reminded that the tabernacle and tent of meeting specified by the Lord to Moses is part of the old covenant. In fact as I was thinking about the Israelites with their ‘mobile church’ that seems more substantial than some of the mobile homes or buildings we use today, I mused that they were definitely not ‘travelling light’.
Travelling light is something I like to think about, and as I read, I contrasted this journey with Jesus sending out the twelve:
3 He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.
Luke 9:3
Our churches now take all shapes and forms. They vary with permanence. Some ‘churches’ worship in sports halls, school halls or other hired spaces. Other churches are ornate and have been designed with much attention to detail and spiritual significance. Once, we were part of a church that merged with another congregation and between us, our congregations redesigned and rebuilt one of the buildings to become our ‘new church’. That was a very interesting project.
It is important to remember that the building, of itself, does not have the same importance as here in Exodus. I am bookmarking for myself another time to study and understand this design more and why God was so specific. However, remembering now that the church is the Body of Christ, we are not confined to our building, and nor should we be so attached to it (have you ever sat in someone else’s seat?!) is essential.
Let us discern what God is calling us to be, how rooted or itinerant that is to be, and what we are to have with us on the journey. If we feel a little stuck in our ways: perhaps we can take inspiration from the Israelites:
36 In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; 37 but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. 38 So the cloud of the Lord was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the Israelites during all their travels.
Exodus 40:38