January 29: Exodus 35:30
– 37:29
I
want to back up just a little bit and look at a verse from yesterday that is
echoed a bit today. Ex 35:21a “and everyone who was willing and whose heart
moved him came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the Tent of
Meeting…”
In
today’s reading, check out 36:2, “Then Moses summoned Bezalal and Oholiab and
every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to
come and do the work.”
I
have to wonder how many people WEREN’T willing! Was it the same percentage that
we often see in churches today when about 20% of the folks do 80% of the work*?
Did God actually gift people with the skills needed to create his tabernacle
knowing they wouldn’t use them for this project?
What
excuses did they make? Were they too busy collecting the day’s manna or dusting
sand off the top of their tents? I’m sure there were plenty of valid excuses –
momma’s who had to entertain a multitude of children and keep them out of
trouble, men who had to shepherd the sheep or watch over the cattle, or older
folks who were just too tired to work some days. What are our excuses when God
calls us to use our talents and we don’t really want to?
There
were obviously many who WERE willing to contribute to the effort because more
than enough materials were collected. It’s a good thing they had asked all
their Egyptian neighbors for plunder (Ex 12:36).
What
is God asking you to do today?
*this
isn’t a researched statistic – it’s an estimate created by a guy named Pareto
in a theory about percentages of workers in general.
TOMORROW’S
TEXT: Exodus 38:1 – 40:16
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