Oct. 4, 2026 -- Exodus 36-39

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well, we're in the Book of Exodus. We're going to cover these three chapters from chapter 36 all the way through chapter 39, which leaves us one chapter left of Exodus, and it's going to take us two weeks to get through that one chapter. I'm sorry, it was just packed full of stuff to get through. And so I just want to catch us up with where we've been as we've storied through this book. Then the Book of Exodus begins with this small little people group who have found themselves in slavery in Egypt. And so they're there as this small people group, and yet God has given them a promise. He's given them this promise that he's going to make them into a nation, that he's going to. To bring them into their own land. And he's promised that they are going to be a blessing to all the other nations. And so he's given them this promise. And yet they're in slavery and going, like, God, where are you, God? You not hear us? And one of the things that we find through the Book of Exodus is [00:00:54] Speaker B: that the character of God is put on display of how he interacts with his people. [00:00:59] Speaker A: And so the book of Exodus tells us that God heard their cries and that he was moved with compassion towards them. And so he rescues them, and with his mighty hand, he brought them out of Egypt. And he lavishes all of these good gifts upon them, right, that they actually plundered Egypt. Egypt just gave them all this gold and silver and all of these things in order to just leave. They said leave, and yet God at the same time was rescuing them because Egypt was very fickle in changing their mind. And so then they chased after them, and God rescued them, brought them through the Red Sea, right, that he rescued them with his might out of Egypt. People then start to walk through the desert and quickly realize, like, our kids ate all of our snacks and drank all of our water, and we need something to eat and something to drink. And so they grumble and complain. They're like, what'd you do, bring us out here to die? And God graciously [00:02:00] Speaker B: provides for them water to drink, he provides for them food to eat, that he meets their needs. He knows their needs, that he's so patient with them. [00:02:11] Speaker A: And over and over and over, they grumble and complain, and God's so patient with them. We get to this place where God brings Moses up on the mountain, and he. He tells them, what is God's plan for your life? What is, if God could just Tell us what to do. I don't know if you've ever been there, where you've been in a place where you're like, I just wish God [00:02:31] Speaker B: would tell me what to do. [00:02:33] Speaker A: Are you like, you're in a fork in the road? Or you're. Maybe you're in a. You got opportunities and you're just in a place where you're like, I just wish God would tell me what to do. Have you ever been there? And then maybe he does tell you, and you're like, can we go again? [00:02:50] Speaker B: Right? [00:02:51] Speaker A: Like, I don't really want to do that, or I don't want to do it that way, or I don't want to obey right now. [00:02:58] Speaker B: And maybe he does speak clearly, and [00:03:02] Speaker A: maybe he has told us, and yet we see within our heart that we don't want to obey. We want to do it our way. The people of Israel, they disobey God. [00:03:14] Speaker B: They make a golden calf. [00:03:16] Speaker A: They disobey very clearly what he has commanded them not to do. And then they experience the consequences of their sin, the consequences of disobedience. That God's commands actually aren't a burden if they're obeyed. But there's a burden to sin. And yet God is gracious that after the people sinned, then God tells Israel and Moses who he is, that he [00:03:43] Speaker B: is a God, merciful and gracious, slow [00:03:47] Speaker A: to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, but who will by no means clear the guilty, that he's a just God, he's a patient God, he's a holy God, He's a gracious and forgiving God, that he forgives their iniquity and their trespasses and sins, that he's an incredible God. And so Moses comes back to the [00:04:11] Speaker B: people, and he has told them that God will graciously dwell with us, a [00:04:19] Speaker A: sinful people and a holy God, that God has made a way that he will dwell with us. And the way that he's going to do that is through this tent called the tabernacle, that God's presence is going [00:04:31] Speaker B: to dwell with them. [00:04:33] Speaker A: And the way that this has to happen, God has given a vision to Moses of what this tabernacle, this tent, is to look like. And we looked at that in chapter 25. And so now we get to chapter 36 through 39, and we actually see that the instruction that Moses was given is obeyed. And that's the theme of where we're [00:04:50] Speaker B: going today, is that God's people obey God's word. [00:04:56] Speaker A: Would you pray with me this morning and then we'll jump into our text. [00:05:05] Speaker B: God, we come to you, Lord, knowing that your Word calls us to obedience. And yet we are all so aware. Myself, I'm so aware of my own disobedience to your Word. And so, Lord, we ask that you would convict us of that, that we might repent of it. [00:05:27] Speaker A: But Lord, I pray and I thank you that your word doesn't leave us in despair, because it provides for us [00:05:34] Speaker B: the one Jesus who was perfectly obedient on our behalf, that we might experience the presence and the nearness of a holy God because of what Christ has done on our behalf. So, Lord, I pray that as we [00:05:50] Speaker A: look at this text in Exodus, Lord, you might convict our hearts of our own sin, that we might repent of [00:05:55] Speaker B: it and turn away, and that might encourage our hearts with what Christ has accomplished for us, that we might live lives of obedient worship to you, we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. [00:06:05] Speaker A: Let's look at our text as we jump into Exodus 36. I want to just read a little bit here to give us just the idea of how this text unfolds, that Exodus 36, verse 8 reads like this. It says, and all the craftsmen among the workmen made the tabernacle. And so there's kind of a summary, but here's how they did it. They made the tabernacle with 10 curtains, and they were made of fine twilled linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns with cherubims skillfully worked. The length of each curtain was 28 cubits. The breadth of each curtain was 4 cubits. And all the curtains were the same size. He's going to go on. And then he coupled the five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he coupled to one another. And he made loops of blue in the edges of the outermost curtain on the first set. And it just goes on in 50 loops of this. And then it was this size and there were clasps for this, and then they connected it this, and it was this color. And it just goes on. And there's a repetitive theme here where it says, he made this, and he made this, and he made this, and he made this. And it recounts everything that God had commanded Moses to make in Exodus 25. And so we get this repetitive nature that he made and he made, and he made and he made the he there is Beelzalel and Oholab, who are two craftsmen that God uniquely gifted to be able to do these things and to teach others to do this. And yet it just goes on and on. And maybe if you're an architect or maybe like the rest of us, that you're a LEGO person, you've ever built Legos? You're a LEGO guy or a LEGO gal, and you're like, this kind of looks like one of those LEGO booklets that's like, okay, how many dots are on this? And what color is it? And, okay, it needs to go here. And it connects to this one, connects to this one. And you begin to put these pieces together. And as you put these pieces together, then all of a sudden you start to see something start to take shape. And really, Exodus 36 through 39, 36 and 37 make a big emphasis on the making of all of these things. 37 goes into the making that Oholab was making all of the things specifically. And it's all the ark, and it's the table, and it's the lampstand, and it is the altar incense, and it's the burnt offering. And it's the same exact description of what God had showed Moses in Exodus [00:08:34] Speaker B: 25 and said, you shall make this. And so then we get this repetitive [00:08:40] Speaker A: after this, in between intermission, which was not so good for the people of Israel in their sin. [00:08:47] Speaker B: We get. God commanded it and the people obeyed [00:08:50] Speaker A: it, that they're doing exactly what he has said. [00:08:55] Speaker B: They're making the curtains, they're making the [00:08:57] Speaker A: framework, they're making the veil, they're making the altar, they're making the garments, they're making the ark, they're making the oil, they're making all of the things that God had said. And I just can't think that, man. There was maybe a moment where Bezalel, [00:09:11] Speaker B: he's working on something like this, and he's like, you know, I want to make this my way. [00:09:18] Speaker A: Like, I want to make this out of silver rather than out of gold. Can you imagine if he had done that? He would have messed everything up. If he would have said, like, I want to do it my way. I want to make my preferences my way. I want to obey how I want to. I think I could improve on God's design. I think I can improve on his skills. I could substitute just a little bit. It might not make a difference. Like, I mean, do I have to follow it exactly? What if I made it out of a different color rather than out of the blue or the purple? What if I made the cherubim facing a different direction? What if I. I don't really like that design, so I'm gonna Make it my way. Can you imagine the disaster of that? And yet the scripture is really clear, [00:10:05] Speaker B: that they did exactly what God had said. Their obedience [00:10:12] Speaker A: was exactly what God had said. That the people of God's responsibility was not to be creative in all of these things. It was simply to obey. [00:10:25] Speaker B: Catch this. Our responsibility to God is to obey. [00:10:34] Speaker A: But this obedience, if we just think about it for just a minute, this [00:10:38] Speaker B: obedience was incredibly mundane. [00:10:42] Speaker A: I mean, there was a lady, it tells us, that sat down at a loom and started to weave curtains. [00:10:51] Speaker B: Okay, I gotta get this thread, and I gotta put it in this shuttle, and I'm gonna make this. [00:10:58] Speaker A: That there was a guy who woke up and Israel had brought about 7,500 pounds of gold. [00:11:07] Speaker B: That's what the scripture records. That's what the gold that they brought to be able to make all these things. [00:11:14] Speaker A: And so they brought it in armlets and bands and earrings and necklaces and those things. And so they brought all of this. And so there's a guy who wakes up, comes out of his tent, and goes to a smelting fire. And his job of obedience, what it looks like for him to obey God, is to. [00:11:31] Speaker B: To sweat as he smelts gold. That's what obedience looked like. [00:11:38] Speaker A: That there's someone else that woke up. And because they've got these ram skins that were supposed to be tanned in the process of tanning this ram skin. And they would have gone through this process of having to scrape the hair off of these ram skins. And obedience to God looked like waking up and scraping the hair off of [00:11:58] Speaker B: a hide so that it could be tanned and it could be used for the building of the tabernacle. That's just everyday, mundane, ordinary obedience. [00:12:10] Speaker A: There's nothing flashy, there's nothing extravagant. There's nothing that you're writing home about. It's like, what'd you do today? [00:12:17] Speaker B: I obeyed God. That's what I did. Well, what do you mean? I got up, I went to work. I did it to the best of my ability, and I did it to the glory of God. And then I did it again and again and again and again. See, most Christian obedience looks very ordinary. [00:12:44] Speaker A: There's some times where there's some extravagant things. We've seen some of this in Exodus. Like, Moses gets to throw a staff down in obedience to God, and it turns into a snake. [00:12:54] Speaker B: We're like, whoa, that would be cool. Tell me to do that right? [00:12:58] Speaker A: Or he gets to touch his staff to a rock and water comes out of it. Like, that's some pretty Incredible, spectacular, like obedience. There's some obedience that the Christian life [00:13:12] Speaker B: is filled up with that it may [00:13:14] Speaker A: be fostering, it may be adopting, it [00:13:17] Speaker B: may be going to the mission field. [00:13:19] Speaker A: There may be some really cool, extravagant, [00:13:22] Speaker B: awesome, radical things that God calls you to in obedience. And you get to experience the blessing of obeying that. [00:13:29] Speaker A: But most of the time, I just [00:13:31] Speaker B: kind of made a list of what obedience looks like. [00:13:34] Speaker A: It looks like getting up and not being a sluggard. [00:13:36] Speaker B: That's what the scripture has called us to. It means wake up in the morning. All right? That's obedience. [00:13:45] Speaker A: Christian obedience looks like going to work. You have a job, and you should do that to the glory of God. And so you should be on time and you should work hard. You should do your job, go to work. That's what for a lot of us, [00:13:59] Speaker B: obedience to God looks like. [00:14:01] Speaker A: It looks like loving your spouse as we've been commanded in the scripture, that that's something that we are to obey God. He's, I wish God would just tell me what to do. He says, love your spouse. [00:14:12] Speaker B: And we go, ah. [00:14:14] Speaker A: Even when they're like that. [00:14:15] Speaker B: To me, [00:14:18] Speaker A: yeah, that's what everyday, mundane Christian obedience looks like. It looks like parenting your children again and again and again. And when they're great, you're encouraging them and you're shepherding their heart to the Lord. And when they're disobedient and it looks like disciplining them, and it looks like [00:14:37] Speaker B: parenting them, that's what obedience to God [00:14:40] Speaker A: looks like, that he's entrusted them to you. And so it's your responsibility that he has given you the talents and the skills that you would do that over and over, that you would read your Bible. Christian obedience looks like spending time in God's word. Christian obedience looks like spending time in prayer. Christian obedience looks like serving people, looking for people whom you can serve. Christian obedience looks like just simply telling the truth. You ever thought that just by pursuing [00:15:19] Speaker B: what's true and telling the truth, that's obedience. [00:15:24] Speaker A: That Christian obedience looks like forgiving people the little things or the big things. Christian obedience looks like turning away from bitterness and anger. Christian obedience looks like resisting temptation and saying those things cause me to sin, and so I want to resist that. It looks like fleeing temptation. It looks like putting things in your life to go, I want to obey God and please him, and so I'm going to eliminate some of these things because they cause me to sin. Christian obedience looks like opening up your [00:15:57] Speaker B: home and your life to show hospitality to people. That's just everyday ordinary Obedience looks like being kind. [00:16:10] Speaker A: It looks like giving generously, because God has been radically generous to us, and so we in turn, are generous towards others. Christian obedience looks like making disciples. [00:16:25] Speaker B: As Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations. [00:16:31] Speaker A: It looks simply like, how can I help people around me take a step of obedience to Christ? How can I make them look more like Jesus? How can I encourage them in that? [00:16:44] Speaker B: Who can help me do that? Maybe if we could just say it this way. Christian obedience looks simply like taking the next right step. That's it. [00:16:59] Speaker A: There was someone that woke up. [00:17:02] Speaker B: And my job today is to make a clasp. And I'm going to do it, because that's my job. I'm going to do it to the glory of God. That's just simple Christian obedience. [00:17:17] Speaker A: And so we see in this text that there's just this repetitive nature that he made this, and he made that, and he made this, and he made that, and he made this, and he made that, and he made all of these things. And then we get to chapter 38, and we get that Beelzalel made these things. And then we get to chapter 39, and there's a short that happens right here. He then begins to recount all of the things that he's just said that they made. But they summarize it again, and look at verse one. It says, from the blue and purple and scarlet yarns, they made finely woven garments for ministering of the holy places, and they made the holy garments for Aaron. And there's a phrase here. [00:18:00] Speaker B: As the Lord commanded Moses. [00:18:05] Speaker A: And so he switches from he made to now he tacks on this idea of as the Lord had commanded. So they're obeying exactly what God had said. We see it again in verse five, as the Lord commanded. We see it again in verse 21, as the Lord commanded Moses. We see it again in verse 26, as the Lord commanded Moses. We see it again in verse 29, as the Lord had commanded Moses. We see it again in verse 31, as the Lord had commanded Moses. We see it again in verse 43, as the Lord had commanded Moses. So they had done it. That we get this repetitive nature that they were obeying God, just as he had commanded. Now, again, let me just back us up and give us a bigger picture. What's the purpose of this tabernacle? The purpose of building this tent is not so that they have this awesome [00:18:57] Speaker B: building that people in the community go, man, cool. Building. [00:19:03] Speaker A: Now, the purpose of building the tabernacle was so that the presence of God [00:19:06] Speaker B: would Dwell with them. That was the purpose of it. [00:19:12] Speaker A: So that God's presence would dwell among them. They're part of something so much bigger which points us. Commentators would point out that the way that this is written, there's actually a [00:19:26] Speaker B: pointing back to what happened in Genesis. [00:19:30] Speaker A: That in Genesis, God created the heavens and the earth. And then out of that, then he pulls together this garden, and he fashions this garden. And it says that he spoke, he [00:19:45] Speaker B: made, and it was good that he spoke. [00:19:49] Speaker A: It was made, and it was good. He spoke, he made it, it was good, he spoke, he made it. It was good that there was a fashioning of a garden in which God [00:20:02] Speaker B: would dwell with man. And yet because of sin, and that was torn apart, that that relationship severed because of sin. And so the tabernacle, in the remaking of this tabernacle is a place where. Where a holy God is going to dwell with sinful man. [00:20:27] Speaker A: And how does that take place? [00:20:29] Speaker B: God's made a way. He's made a way through this, this [00:20:33] Speaker A: tent that he might dwell with his people. It then points us forward to Jesus, who John says came and dwelt among us. That that dwelt there is tabernacled. He came and lived among his people [00:20:50] Speaker B: in order that holy God and sinful man might dwell together. [00:20:55] Speaker A: And so this tabernacle is not an end in and of itself, but their [00:21:00] Speaker B: obedience is the means of experiencing the presence and the dwelling of God. Now I want to read from verse 32 all the way through 39. [00:21:12] Speaker A: It's going to be on the screen. [00:21:13] Speaker B: And. And it gets a little stick with me. [00:21:17] Speaker A: Verse 32. It says this. Thus all the work of the tabernacle [00:21:22] Speaker B: of the tent of meeting was finished. [00:21:24] Speaker A: And the people of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded. [00:21:29] Speaker B: Moses. [00:21:30] Speaker A: So they did. Then they brought the tabernacle to Moses. Now look at this. They're bringing all these pieces. They brought the tabernacle to Moses and the tent and all its utensils, its hooks, its frames, its bars, its pillars, its bases, the covering of tanned ram skins, the goatskins, the veil on the screen, the Ark of the Testimony with its poles and the mercy seat, the table with all its utensils and the bread of the Presence, the lampstand of pure gold and its lamps with the lamp set and all its utensils and the oil for the light, the golden altar, the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, the screen for the entrance of the tent, the bronze altar and its grating of bronze, its poles and all its utensils the basins and its stands, the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court, its cords and its pegs, and all the utensils for the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of the meeting, and the finely worked garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron and the priests, and the garments for his sons, and for the service of the priests, according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses. So the people of Israel had done all the work. Now, can you just imagine if we rewrote this? [00:22:43] Speaker B: And it said they did 90% of it. [00:22:47] Speaker A: Like there were a few people that wanted to do it their own way or that didn't want to do that work. [00:22:51] Speaker B: And so they got 90% of it done. Like, what a tragedy. [00:22:57] Speaker A: Well, there were some people that didn't like God's design, so they decided to change it up. [00:23:07] Speaker B: I would just be foolish. [00:23:10] Speaker A: Like, each of these individual pieces were made by individual people that then when they come together, there's this beautiful picture [00:23:22] Speaker B: of everybody having done their part to demonstrate through obedience the glory of God. [00:23:32] Speaker A: Look at where it keeps going. [00:23:33] Speaker B: Verse 43. And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it. They did what God commanded them and they obeyed in the right way. [00:23:44] Speaker A: They just simply obeyed. [00:23:46] Speaker B: That's it. [00:23:47] Speaker A: And look at what comes next. [00:23:48] Speaker B: I love this part. As the Lord had commanded, so they had done. And then look at the result. And Moses blessed them. [00:23:59] Speaker A: That's the change. That at the end of the obedience, then Moses just blesses them because of [00:24:06] Speaker B: their everyday mundane obedience. [00:24:11] Speaker A: Listen, if you want to experience the [00:24:13] Speaker B: blessing of God, it will not come by disobedience. [00:24:18] Speaker A: If you want to experience the blessing of God, it comes through every day, [00:24:23] Speaker B: mundane obedience to him. [00:24:26] Speaker A: He will not bless [00:24:29] Speaker B: those who disobey. [00:24:32] Speaker A: He just will not. And yet then we go to this place where we go, uh oh. If God won't bless those who disobey, I'm in trouble. Like me personally, I'm in trouble because I've disobeyed. [00:24:52] Speaker B: So where do I go? [00:24:54] Speaker A: How does a holy God dwell with a sinful people when obedience is required to experience his blessings? It's where we go to the cross and we go, God, I'm taking you at your word. And this is what the author of Hebrews would say in Hebrews chapter 5. He says this in verse 8. He says, although he, being Jesus was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect like Jesus, perfect [00:25:24] Speaker B: obedience, [00:25:27] Speaker A: he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God as a high priest [00:25:36] Speaker B: after the order of Melchizedek, that. [00:25:40] Speaker A: That the Scripture points us to the place that when we don't obey perfectly, we have a mediator who obeyed perfectly on our behalf, Jesus Christ, [00:25:51] Speaker B: who paid [00:25:52] Speaker A: the penalty of our disobedience with his [00:25:54] Speaker B: own life on the cross, and who [00:25:58] Speaker A: rose three days later from the grave [00:26:00] Speaker B: giving us hope of eternal life, that we too would rise with Him. [00:26:05] Speaker A: And he sits at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us [00:26:09] Speaker B: when he says, yeah, they didn't obey perfectly, but I did on their behalf, that we might experience the blessings of God through His obedience. It's eternal life. [00:26:27] Speaker A: It comes by faith in Jesus Christ. And so then, as those who are his people, how do we then live? Well, the scripture would say that then we live obedient lives to him, him. [00:26:39] Speaker B: And when we fail, we repent of it. And we turn around and we go again and we take the next right step. Everyday, mundane, ordinary obedience. [00:26:55] Speaker A: The challenge for us out of Exodus is that there were individual people that [00:27:01] Speaker B: made up the people of Israel. And those individual people made decisions to obey God. [00:27:08] Speaker A: And collectively then they became a people of obedience that obeyed God. And we'll see times when they obeyed, and we'll see times where they disobeyed. And we see the blessings of God as they walk in obedience to his will and his ways. And we see the consequences of their sin when they walk in disobedience and the discipline of the Lord to bring them back into obedience. [00:27:32] Speaker B: The question for us is Norris Ferry Community Church. We're a collection of people made up of individuals. But we want to be a people who is known for multiplication, multiplying, the glory of God. And the only way that's going to happen is by individuals making a decision that we will obey God in the [00:27:56] Speaker A: everyday, ordinary, mundane, not substituting His Word and His ways with our own preferences, not substituting His Word and His ways with cultural relevance, [00:28:12] Speaker B: but in choosing to obey him, that then we might collectively come together as a people demonstrating the glory of God as He dwells among us, demonstrating who he is in his character to the watching world. And listen, you want to be a part of something fun? Get in the middle of God's will and watch what he does. That we would be a people characterized by obeying His Word. Would you pray with me, God? We thank you that you are a God, merciful and gracious God, that in [00:28:57] Speaker A: your mercy and in your grace you made a way just like you made a way with the people of Israel to dwell in their midst that you made a way to dwell in our midst through Jesus Christ the sacrifice once for all the perfect obedience and fulfillment of the law satisfied in the life [00:29:18] Speaker B: of Christ or that by faith we [00:29:22] Speaker A: might be adopted in we might be partakers of that covenant that promise that you have made Lord, I pray that we might be an obedient people obedient in the mundane things of life of getting up, of going to work of loving our spouses of of parenting our children of serving one another of forgiving each other of bearing each other's burdens of encouraging each other to godliness of resisting sin of fighting temptations of glorifying you and being generous of heart Lord that we might be a people who make disciples of all nations for your glory because of what you've done in us. Lord, we pray that you would use [00:30:12] Speaker B: us [00:30:14] Speaker A: individually but collectively as your people [00:30:18] Speaker B: that we might experience your blessings we ask in Jesus name amen.