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The LORD Makes You Holy
The LORD Makes You Holy Exodus 31:1-18 Key Verse: 31:12 “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.’” For the past several weeks we have been thinking about the instructions that God gave to Moses concerning the construction of the tabernacle, the surrounding courtyard and the priestly garments for Aaron and is sons. As I’ve noted time and time again, these instructions were extremely detailed. As I thought about them this week I was suddenly struck by an idea that I had not thought about before. I thought about the fact that these were God’s plans for his dwelling place. We know that when God creates, He doesn’t make mistakes, so these plans were not only detailed, they were perfect. This was probably why it to forty days for God to give these plans to Moses. After discovering that this was God’s plan and because of this it was necessarily perfect, I began to wonder how imperfect, sinful human beings could build a perfect tabernacle for God. Chapter 31 tells us how that can be done. In this chapter, we learn that God provided two overseers or managers for the work. God prepared them wisdom, understand and ability to construct the tabernacle in the way He wanted it prepared. It was God who prepared these people and it was God who made them holy; that is, it was God who set them apart for His special work. Not only did God provide these managers, He also provided many other skilled workers who could help them to carry out this work. God provided everything Moses would need to carry out God’s instructions. This is how God always works. He gives us work to do, that, if we think about it, is far greater than anything we could hope to accomplish on our own. However, if we take the time to look around us instead of only looking at ourselves and thinking about what we can’t do, we would see that God has provided us with a whole bunch of co-workers that he has chosen and set apart as holy to help us complete the work He has given us. May God bless our study of this passage and open our spiritual eyes so that we can see how he has chosen us, set us apart as holy, and surrounded us with co-workers so that we can complete the work that He has given us to do. First, two managers, Bezalel and Oholiab (1-11). Chapter 31 is the final chapter of this section of the book of Exodus. About forty days before this chapter took place, Moses had ascended to the top of Mount Sinai in order to get instructions from God. The instructions began with the Ten Commandments and some laws that would help the Israelites live together in a Godly community. These commandments and laws were followed by detailed instructions about how to build a tabernacle where God would dwell among His people, a courtyard where the people would worship God and offer sacrifices and how to make priestly garments for Aaron and his sons so that they might be properly honored as they performed their service for God and the people. These instructions were extremely detailed and apparently God showed Moses some type of model or pattern of what He wanted because God says over and over ‘make everything according to the pattern I showed you on the mountain.’ When I thought about the detail involved and God’s repeated warnings to do things exactly as He described them to Moses on the mountain I began to think about Moses state of mind. When God first called Moses, Moses was very reluctant to accept God’s mission. In fact, Moses tried three times to get out of it. Each time he made some excuse about how he was not qualified to carry out God’s work. He wanted God to send someone else. God, however, was insistent. He wanted Moses to do it. So God told Moses, ‘I will tell you what to say, and, more than this, because you don’t speak well I will provide for you someone who can speak the words I give you.’ God provided Moses with the co-worker he needed to speak clearly to Pharaoh. Thinking about all these details and the highly skilled labor that it would require to get it all done, I’ll bet Moses was saying to himself, “I can’t do this.” God knew Moses better than Moses knew himself, so God had a plan to help Moses finish the work that was given to him to do. Look at verses 1 and 2. “Then the LORD said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,” Look also at verse 6. “Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you. God knew that Moses couldn’t do all this work by himself, so he provided co-workers to help him complete the work. Moses had been trained to be a Prince in Egypt and princes were not trained to build tabernacles. After he had left Egypt he spent forty years training to be a shepherd. Here he may have learned how to make and set up a tent, but he surely hadn’t learned how to make crafts with gold, silver and bronze. Simply speaking, Moses could build this thing that God was commanding him to build. God’s work is always too great for one person to accomplish, yet that never keeps God from commanding one person to do it. Jesus has commanded each one of us to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. This command is far too great for any one person to carry it out, but it is still a command that God has given to each one of us. If we only think about ourselves, we will surely come to the conclusion that it is impossible so why think about it at all. However, if God commands us to do it then surely it can be done otherwise He wouldn’t have commanded it. So what God has done is to give this command to every Christian. In other words He has given this as a personal command to you and I, but He has also chosen many co-workers to help us carry it out. Still, with all these co-workers how can we reach the whole world? I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Well, if we look carefully at this passage, we will see that God has thought of that as well. First of all, we must realize that this was God’s plan for the tabernacle, courtyard and priestly garments, so the plan was perfect – God does not make mistakes when He is creating something. So how were Moses and these Israelites who were all flawed and imperfect supposed to make a perfect tabernacle for God? Once again, the simple answer was that on their own they couldn’t do this, but looking carefully at the text, we will see that they were not doing this on their own. Look at verses three to six carefully. It was God who chose Bezalel, Oholiab and the other crafts people, and it was God who, through His spirit, gave them the wisdom, understanding, knowledge and skill they would need to make everything just the way He commanded Moses to make them. The things that are needed to do God’s work cannot come from sinful man. God’s plans are always perfect and therefore fallen man cannot carry them out perfectly. In fact, we don’t have the wisdom, understanding, knowledge or the skill required to carry out God’s plans. What we do have is access to Jesus. As Christians, we have this access every day, twenty-four hours a day. In order to do God’s work we need to ask Jesus to teach us how. If we try to do it on our own, I guarantee you we will fail. Not only will we fail, but we will probably also make a mess of our life and hurt many other people in the process. The really beautiful thing about God’s plan is that because it is God’s plan we know that it will not fail. Even if we fail, God will not fail. But we don’t need to fail. We can do our part, by asking Jesus to help us. Jesus will never fail us. Jesus will always give us the victory and enables us to do what He commands us to do. This is His promise to us as Christians. The important thing to remember is to never act on your own, because as an imperfect, fallen human being you cannot carry out a perfect plan. Second, Keep the Sabbath day holy so that you may know the LORD and know that He has made you Holy (12-18). The final thing that God commanded Moses and the Israelites to do before He sent Moses back to the people was to observe a Sabbath day of rest. When giving orders or commands it is often the case that the most important thing is said last or, as in this case, repeated one more time before the orders are complete. This ensures that the most important thing is left on the hearer’s mind. In this case the final thing that God commands Moses is to observe a Sabbath day. It is also interesting to note how much care and detail God put into this seemingly simple command. God could have just said “Keep the Sabbath day holy,” but He didn’t. Instead he spent five long verse on this command. If you go back to the Ten Commandments you will see that the Commandment about keeping the Sabbath holy is the longest. There must be a good reason why God goes into such great detail and care concerning this commandment. I think this commandment is something that Christians tend to take far too lightly. I take this command too lightly. It appears that this command is not a small matter to God because He takes so much time to emphasize this point to Moses. Let’s look carefully at the reasons God gives for wanting the Israelites (and us) to keep this Sabbath day holy. Look at verse 13. “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.’” There are actually three reasons given in this one verse. The first reason is that it was to be a sign between God and all the generations of Israelites. A sign that they are God’s chosen people. A sign that they are somehow different from the other people around them. Back in my old neighborhood in Chicago it was a very clear sign that the Jews there were different from everyone else. They wouldn’t drive a car, they dressed in special clothes and they wouldn’t even use electricity – candle light only on Friday nights. When you saw an orthodox Jew on the Sabbath you knew that they were Jewish. By keeping the Sabbath day holy the Jewish people were to be a sign to the rest of the world that God exists and they are his people. Likewise, our lives must be a sign to the world that we are God’s chosen people in this generation and one simple way we can do this is to keep the Sabbath day holy. The second reason given in verse 13 is that they might know that God is LORD. The Sabbath is a day that we can set aside just to think about God. A day we are free from our other work so that we can set all of our attention on God himself. We can study the Bible. We can go to a worship service. We can share good fellowship with the co-workers He has provided for us. But most of all we can spend a lot of time in prayer, listening to God and learning about who He is. God has given us this day so that we can know Him on a very personal level. In fact, this is one of the reasons God commands us to keep the Sabbath. God wants His people to know who He is so He has given us one day a week that we can set aside just for that purpose. Look at the last four words of verse 13 “who makes you holy.” When we take time out of our busy schedule to pray to God and think about Him the wonderful thing is that we learn something about ourselves. What we learn about ourselves is truly amazing. We learn that God has personally chosen us for Himself. God has set us apart from the world and made us holy in His sight. On my own I am not holy at all – I’m just an ordinary human being full of mistakes and sins. But I’m not on my own. Jesus is with me. Jesus is in me working to change me. Jesus is making me holy. Because God is making me holy every day, I can do His work every day. Remember that great work that God has given each of us to do that is far too great for us even to think about doing, well on the Sabbath God promises us to show us that He has made us holy so that we can do that work. We need to be reminded every week that we are special because God Himself has made us special. We need to be reminded that we are set apart by God Himself to do His work. In verse 17 God give the final reason the Israelites were to keep the Sabbath day holy. God reminds Moses that in six days He did all the work of creating the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day He rested. God created the Sabbath day as a day of rest. We should work hard for six days and then rest on the seventh day. Of course, this means resting our physical body, but it means so much more than that. If you look at the three reasons given above, it also means finding deep spiritual rest in God. During those six days that we are working we shouldn’t just be working for ourselves and our families, we need to be doing that work that God has given us. That means we should be actively working to make disciples of all nations. It is not easy work and it requires every bit of mental capacity and strength that we have. If we do it properly for six days we will need this day of rest. God knows this so He has provided everything we need. I want to finish by going back to verses 14 and 15. As I mentioned above, I think Christians often take this command to keep the Sabbath day holy far too lightly. We don’t think this is really an important commandment, but apparently God does. God repeats this command to Moses right at the end of their meeting so that it will be fresh in his mind when he goes back to the people, but to emphasize its importance even further He says “Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. 15 For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of Sabbath rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death.” The penalty for desecrating the Sabbath is very severe. It requires the death penalty. If we think about it this means that keeping the Sabbath day holy is a matter of life and death in God’s eyes. It is a very serious matter and I think as Christians we need to keep this in mind. We shouldn’t just ‘blow this off’ and think that this command no longer applies to us. This command was to continue on throughout the generations and verse 19 uses the word forever. This command is for us and we need to really think about how we keep this day holy. Today we thought about God’s final words to Moses on Mount Sinai. We learned that even though God’s work and plan is perfect and much too complicated and big for any one person to complete, God has chosen co-workers for us who will help us complete the work He has given us. God personally chosen each of us and set us apart and made us holy. He gives us the wisdom, understanding, knowledge and the skill we need to complete the work. Most importantly, he has given us a Sabbath day as a sign for us, as a day to get to know him, to remember that He has made us holy and as a day to find deep rest in Him. |
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