Chapter 31
Oholiab and Bezalel given special knowledge to do the work in gold, silver, stone and bronze. Others to do the work also given abilities. God always enables us for the tasks to which be calls us. Those called have a God-given understanding of what is to be done that others may not recognize. When we read the precise and detailed instructions about how to build the tabernacle and its furnishings, we can't figure it out. But Oholiab and Bezalel knew exactly what was meant and how to carry it out. Remember this about preachers,missionaries, nursery workers...Those called by God will know what they should do.
Possible FB post.
"You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, 'Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord , sanctify you.
Exodus 31:13 ESV
Above all, keep the Sabbath. I think we severely underestimate what the Sabbath is about. The Bible says "Above all"...actually...it does not. The interlinear doesn't show anything that I find obviously to mean "above all". There is some word that is never translated into English that sort of makes sure you know what we're talking about, but as I read the definitions it does not imply "above all". So I just don't see that part here at all. Turns out that ONLY the ESV puts this kind of an emphasis on it. KJV and others translate it as something like "Verily, ye shall keep my Sabbaths". Or truly, or certainly, something like that. There is an emphasis on it, it is pretty important, it is more important than we make it today - blue laws were on the right track - but in my opinion, translating H389, "ak", as "above all" is adding interpretation to translation. BUT, vss 12-17 are ALL about the importance of the Sabbath. Sure makes you think we ought to observe it more. But it clearly says this Sabbath observance is a sign between God and Israel, not between God and all mankind always. It is like the sacrifices. Like observance of Passover. Like the morning and evening sacrifices every day in the Temple. The same phrasing is used - "throughout your generations". The Sabbath is about Israel, and though we need to observe it in some sense, we need to be careful of getting Pharisaic about it. There is so very much in the NT about how the Sabbath was over-thought.
It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'"
Exodus 31:17 ESV
God tells Moses about creation. Wants it remembered that He did it in seven days.
2024 - Instead of "are we still supposed to rest on the Sabbath" it might be more productive to ask why this was such a big deal? There was no Israel when God created the earth in six and rested on seven. God did rest that first time, but I don't think he told Adam that he should rest or Abraham that he should rest and do no work on the Sabbath. But when it comes to Israel, the rule is laid down, emphasized, and breaking it is punishable by death! It moves way up toward the very top of the list. It is the fourth commandment. It was spoken verbally to ALL the people, not just to Moses. We know that there will be Sabbath years also , and year of Jubilee to celebrate 7 7's. But it was never needed before...Was it because beginning with Abraham, God's people had always been wanderers but the plan for Israel was to stay in their own land, and cultivate their own food? I suspect it is something bigger, though that is likely included. God rested on 7...what more fundamental characteristic of God that we can emulate goes back further? We can never create something from nothing as he did. But we do work, we do our work as he did his. And if he rested from his work, then so should we. And perhaps it is simply a weekly reminder that God is creator of all, and that we need to stop our petty activities and remember him on a regular basis. Maybe it is no more than that.
2026 - So the fact that observance of the Sabbath is one of the 10 mitigates against my idea that the 10 are for all men in all times, that they are fundamental law for all. In fact, beginning somewhere in the NT, after the resurrection, we went to Sunday not Sabbath day. This is a pretty big blow to thinking the 10 are for everyone, but surely they did not all go the way of the sacrificial and dietary.
2026 - Note also that there is no provision for "play time" here. Work for six days, then take a day completely, fully, and wholly off from work. No provision for weekends at the lake. Or two weeks of annual vacation. Or "sabbaticals". Yet we are to enjoy our lives. God means for us to have joy. I think there are plenty of verses to demonstrate this. Makes you wonder if work is/was ever supposed to be about getting rich but was instead always about fulfilling ambition, purpose and meaning.
And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
Exodus 31:18 ESV
God doesn't make as big a deal of the stone tablets as Cecil B. DeMille did. So Moses is up on the mountain now. Aaron is not there as we will see in the next chapter. God has spoken the Ten Commandments directly to the people, but then he called Moses up to give him the tablets, to add additional instructions, and to give him these stone tablets. It would be worthwhile to go back and see exactly when Moses had gone up. Chapter and verse. 2023 - He goes up "into the cloud" in 24:18 and stays for 40 and 40. It is during this time that Moses gets all the instructions for the tent of meeting and the furnishings that go in it, and ALSO, the written version of the 10. The Ten were already known, the people had already sworn to follow them, BEFORE they were written down on those stone tablets.
2023 - Two tablets, four sides, written on both sides as we shall see below. There is no reason to believe that ONLY the 10 were on those tablets. Could be that all the instructions for the tent of meeting were on those tablets. There could have been drawings and diagrams on them as a guide for construction and assembly. Just how thoroughly has Cecil B "entrenched" a wrong understanding of these events on GENERATIONS of Western Christians!!?!?
2026 - All this in 31, and maybe back before, was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. All the Temple designs, and the admonition about the Sabbath to top it all off. God "rewrites" the two stone tablets. So...maybe the first tablets had nothing on them but the 10, and that's all that would have been necessary for Israel. But they broke most of those by the time Moses got them down off the mountain. So the second time, much was added. The sacrificial/ceremonial laws and the priesthood. The first time it was just about how to behave The second time it was how to behave and how to worship and where to worship and who's in charge of worship.
2026 - And from here on, we will see the addition of dietary law and much much additional behavioral law. These were perhaps a lot more about civil, government, nation of Israel law than the fundamental behavior and worship requirements written on the tablets. The four sides of the second tablets were about God's expectations on behavior worldwide, and about how God wanted to be worshiped on the planet. All these things came from Sinai - the Mountain of God.
2026 - The original 10 were direct to all the people, and 10 is all there were. The next set of tablets were given by God to Moses for transmittal to the people, and set up the "indirect" worship system, with intermediary priests and all-inclusive sacrifices and atonement, always through the priests, not direct. THIS is what changed from the 10 to the 10-plus! And then all those other laws that are still to come...that's how you run a country, a nation. That is why all these others kind of drop when there is no longer any Israel as a nation. The ceremonial and priestly dropped when Christ fulfilled all that, and worship became something we do in spirit and truth, where ever we are, and back to speaking directly to God in spirit instead of through the priestly tribe.
2026 - Wow. I think this makes good sense.
2026 - BUT...no it doesn't...not quite. The first time, the 10 were spoken to all the people. Now those 10 and the Temple construction and priesthood rules are written down on stone to be delivered to the people through Moses. It is these tablets that will be broken by Moses in anger.
2026 - Spoken left much room for individual interpretation. This set was written and would be interpreted, judged, enforced by the priesthood. Everything else - since Israel was a theocracy until Saul - was national business. So...thought I had it categorized and easy to explain. Now not so sure. Keep trying!