David Bahn – Reflections

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These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Exodus 38-40; Psalm 56.

Exodus 40:17-34

In the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. ¹⁸ Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid its bases, and set up its frames, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars. ¹⁹ And he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁰ He took the testimony and put it into the ark, and put the poles on the ark and set the mercy seat above on the ark. ²¹ And he brought the ark into the tabernacle and set up the veil of the screen, and screened the ark of the testimony, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²² He put the table in the tent of meeting, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil, ²³ and arranged the bread on it before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁴ He put the lampstand in the tent of meeting, opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle, ²⁵ and set up the lamps before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁶ He put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the veil, ²⁷ and burned fragrant incense on it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ²⁸ He put in place the screen for the door of the tabernacle. ²⁹ And he set the altar of burnt offering at the entrance of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, and offered on it the burnt offering and the grain offering, as the Lord had commanded Moses. ³⁰ He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar, and put water in it for washing, ³¹ with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet. ³² When they went into the tent of meeting, and when they approached the altar, they washed, as the Lord commanded Moses. ³³ And he erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work.

³⁴ Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 

Some time ago, a large condominium building in Florida failed — and I don’t mean financially. Its foundation gave way, and part of the structure collapsed in the middle of the night, killing 98 people. Only four were pulled alive from the rubble. The cause was determined to be long-term degradation in the reinforced concrete support of the parking garage below.

I thought of that tragedy while reading the detailed instructions for the building of the Tabernacle. Moses and the skilled workers were not constructing a high-rise condo, but they were building something far more significant — the dwelling place of God’s holy presence among His people. And it was designed to move with them through the wilderness.

God already knew they would wander for forty years. So this was no ordinary tent. It was portable, yes — but carefully constructed, richly appointed, and structurally precise. Every ring, hook, curtain, pole, and covering was described by God to Moses and then to the craftsmen.

Imagine if, upon first erecting the Tabernacle, they discovered the rings were misplaced or the courtyard curtains too short. Those would not be minor punch-list corrections. They could have undermined the entire project. “Well, Lord, we’ll have to redesign things before You can come down and meet with us.” That would not do.

Why so many details? Certainly logistics played a role. But more than that, the Tabernacle gave God’s people a visible place to look — for mercy, for guidance, for help. It was where heaven met earth.

John tells us that Jesus is the Word made flesh who “tabernacled” among us. The symbolism is hard to miss. He was not built from blueprints and specifications — yet He was God in the flesh. He moved from place to place, dwelling among His people for a time, just as the Tabernacle did before giving way to Solomon’s Temple.

Yet even the Temple did not last forever. It has given way to a new living temple – not made with hands. When Jesus completed His work, He sent the Holy Spirit, who now builds us into a living temple formed by grace. We are being shaped into a dwelling place for God, built to give Him glory and point people to the grace and truth of Jesus.

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Exodus 35-37; Psalm 55.

Exodus 36:1-7

“Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.”

² And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work. ³ And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, ⁴ so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, ⁵ and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.” ⁶ So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing, ⁷ for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.

A friend once asked me, “You’ve got a big operation here. What do you do when someone doesn’t pay?”

I explained that we receive offerings — not payments. Scripture teaches that those who worship are to support the ministry where they are fed. But no one is paying for services rendered.

Over the years I’ve seen families who feel little compulsion to support the church financially. Some carry the weight of past financial mistakes. Some are simply stretched thin raising families. Sadly, some withhold for selfish reasons. One woman once told me she didn’t have to give an offering “because my daddy gave offerings to the church.” She was in her 60s. I didn’t quite know how to respond.

But I’ve never had to say, “Enough! Don’t bring any more offerings!”

Moses did.

The situation in Exodus was unique. The people were bringing materials for the Tabernacle — the tent that would house the visible sign of God’s holy presence among them. Rings, curtains, utensils, basins, pegs, cords — so many details that my eyes glaze over reading them. But this was not fundraising for a project. It was worship flowing from redemption.

God’s people brought freewill offerings — gold and silver, blue and purple and scarlet yarn, fine linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins (Exodus 35:23). There was no assessment. No invoice. No billing statement. They heard the call, and they responded — so generously that Moses had to restrain them.

Some churches operate with assessments, required pledges, or subtle coercion. That is not the way of God. “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

Why?

Because all that we have comes from Him. Life. Breath. Daily bread. Forgiveness. Salvation. Grace upon grace.

The Israelites gave because they had been brought out of slavery. We give because we have been brought out of something far worse. In Christ, we have been redeemed from sin and death. We are not purchasing God’s favor; we are responding to it.

Generosity is not payment. It is gratitude — the glad response of those who have been redeemed.

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Exodus 32-34; Psalm 54.

Exodus 32:7-14

And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. ⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” ⁹ And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.”

¹¹ But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’” ¹⁴ And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.

I once visited an AA Open Meeting. I was very impressed with the clear admissions I heard around the table: I’m Joe, and I’m an alcoholic. I’m Rober, and I’m an alcoholic. I’m Tom, and I’m an alcoholic. On and on it went for the 20 or so men around the tables in the meeting room. When my turn came, I said, “I’m David, and I’m not an alcoholic, but I am impressed.” And I was very impressed.

Then came the talk. The man who spoke said that you have to turn your life over to a higher power as you understood it, if you were to stay sober. “I don’t care if it’s that light bulb up there. If that’s your higher power, turn your life over to it!”

Well then I was impressed in a different way. I guess he had a point. But I can’t accept the idea that just any god will do. Just any god won’t do. And this section of the Exodus account makes that point so clearly.

God is about to wipe out the Israelites in the middle of the wilderness, and start over with Moses and make him a great nation. But Moses intercedes. “Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people,” he says. Moses gives several reasons God should not do this:

God had brought them out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand

The Egyptians would have cause to impugn God’s character if he wiped them out in the desert.

God had sworn that he would multiply the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.

God had promised them offspring who would inherit the land.

Why Moses had to intervene, I don’t know. Was God simply testing him to strengthen him for his role in leading God’s people? Whatever the case, Moses reminded God of his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel). And God does relent.

Not just any god would do this. Not just any god would rescue a group of people from slavery in Egypt. Not just any god would make a promise to make a nation from so few people and keep it. Not just any god would put up with a rabble like Israel and their leader, Moses, who also had his share of shortcomings.

Not just any god would redeem his people at the cost of his very own Son. But this is our God: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God who sent his Son to save us; the God who hears our prayers, comforts us in our sorrows, heals our diseases, and sustains us through life and death. Not just any god will do – only the God who promises things purely out of his fatherly divine goodness and mercy – totally apart from any goodness or worthiness in us.

He is the God who has done great things, and whose name is greatly to be praised!

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Exodus 23-25; Psalm 51.

Exodus 24:1-8

Then he said to Moses, “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. ² Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.”

³ Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do.” ⁴ And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ And he sent young men of the people of Israel, who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. ⁶ And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” ⁸ And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

When I read this passage recounting how Moses “told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do,” I chuckle. And perhaps it’s actually a sad chuckle. It’s like a contrite son – after he’s been punished – promising to obey mom and dad no matter what.

Some of that confidence surely has to do with being afraid of being punished again. But some of it is simply naiveté. They have no idea of the challenges or temptations ahead. They don’t have a clue of what it will be like in 2 months, 2 years, or 20 years. What difficulties will they face? When will it be inexpedient to obey all that Moses has told them of God’s laws?

Then I think of Peter’s comments to the Jerusalem council: “Why would you lay on them a burden that you nor your fathers could not bear?” (Acts 15:10). As you read on in Exodus – and especially in Leviticus you certainly begin to understand why Peter asked that question. How could you possibly keep up with all those laws and rules? There are just too many! And some of them seem quite obscure and arbitrary: “Don’t boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” Really!?!

OK, in that regard, Ancient Near Eastern texts (especially from Ugarit) suggest that boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk may have been associated with: agricultural magic, fertility rites, or ritual attempts to manipulate crop productivity. If that’s true, then the commandment is essentially: Do not imitate the religious practices of the nations.

Having said that, however, there is only one who has kept the law of God perfectly. He did so from the depth of his heart to the end of his skin. Jesus did what we could never do. And he didn’t do it just to show us it could be done. Jesus fulfilled all righteousness for us. And he elevated it beyond outward does and don’ts.

Now we are called to fulfill a different kind of law – the law of love. And though we will never love perfectly, the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead is at work within us. What once stood over us as accusation now grows within us as fruit. The law of love is not a ladder to climb, but the life that begins to bloom in those who have been redeemed.