Shemot (Exodus)
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Meaning
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Day Three
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Haftara
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B'rit Hadashah
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1 Our Father, we receive Your Words and hide Your commandments with us; 2 we incline our ear unto wisdom, and apply our hearts to understanding; 3 We cry after knowledge and lift up our voices for understanding; 4 we seek it as silver; and search for it as for hidden treasures; 5 We declare that we shall understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. Declaration of Proverbs 2:1-5
Exodus 39:33-43 (NASB)1
33 They brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent and all its furnishings: its clasps, its boards, its bars, and its pillars and its sockets; 34 and the covering of rams' skins dyed red, and the covering of porpoise skins, and the screening veil; 35 the ark of the testimony and its poles and the mercy seat; 36 the table, all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence; 37 the pure gold lampstand, with its arrangement of lamps and all its utensils, and the oil for the light; 38 and the gold altar, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the veil for the doorway of the tent; 39 the bronze altar and its bronze grating, its poles and all its utensils, the laver and its stand; 40 the hangings for the court, its pillars and its sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court, its cords and its pegs and all the equipment for the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of meeting; 41 the woven garments for ministering in the holy place and the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests. 42 So the sons of Israel did all the work according to all that the LORD had commanded Moses. 43 And Moses examined all the work and behold, they had done it; just as the LORD had commanded, this they had done. So Moses blessed them.
The snowstorm finally arrived. The school buses were taken off the roads early Monday morning but the schools remained open. This is a practice that was never done when I went to school. The buses ran in all weather. It seems that now they see a snowflake and the bus consortium says, "Okay, we're not going out today." Yesterday, they canceled all the morning runs but did go out to bring school children home at half-three. When I think about it, the bus system is much different than it was in the decade of the sixties. When my grandchildren started school, it had become a bus "consortium" and as I recall, there were a lot more rules and stipulations even to have your child able to board a bus for school. So much has changed over and above the school bus system!
Snowflakes appear to be falling half-heartedly today. It's as if they're falling only because "old man winter" refuses to leave, but they're part of that season and they have to "go to work" anyway. Sometimes my anthropomorphism takes me to new heights when I imagine the inanimate weather manifestations as having sentient 'feelings'. We had a brief 'tease' of spring there for almost a week, but that's nothing unusual. It happens most years. Our winters began to arrive later and later. When I was a child it was the end of October and during November that winter reached out with icy fingers and declared, "I'm Heeeere!" It would generally make a retreat at the end of March. These years now, it begins in fits and starts in late November and December and leaves only after many fits and starts halfway through April. In 2014, there was still snow left on May 2, when we moved here. So much has changed with school buses and the weather!
My weather, "oh my how things have changed" lament must come to a close. I've officially reached the age where I almost constantly compare the "old" days with the "present" and how things have changed. It's almost an innate process and all I can say is that now I understand my father's last ten years of frustration when he openly contemplated all the things that change brought in his lifetime. He was born in 1903 in a very rural setting and passed from Edwardian horse and buggy days to the space age when man supposedly landed on the moon in 1969. (I hear that is in debate now as being a huge 'cover-up'.) He made his first trip to a laundromat when he was in his late seventies. If I had five minutes with him now, I think I would just give his shoulder a loving pat and assure him, "It's alright, Dad. Now I understand why you were so crabby back in the day!"
After ten-plus years of retirement, I have the laryngitis malady that once visited me at least once a year when I was working full-time. I seem to recall suffering from it periodically in retirement because I remember stating in Torah copy that I sounded like “Three Fingers Louie from the mob”. This morning it wasn't even Louie from the mob. A hoarse whisper is it. So, for the next forty-eight hours, I shall be missing in action from all outside activities and will be snacking on bone broth, chicken soup, and R & R, which for me is: Rest and Radio Silence! Looking in on Moses and the crew, it appears that the work on all that basic and splendorous work is done.
32 Thus was all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation finished: and the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did they. 33 And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses, the tent, and all his furniture, his taches, his boards, his bars, and his pillars, and his sockets, Exodus 39:32-43.
It seems it came together rather quickly doesn't it, when we read it in just over one and a half weeks in the record? Add to that, they finished it timely even taking that Sabbath break! Could their boredom with the routine dailies of life boost their work productivity? I think I know about that sort. Sometimes, I will see a piece of material come out of a box, and even though it's just a yard or two with no shape or form, my mind looks at it and says, "Curtains!", "hot pads for kitchen", or "a baby cot quilt!" I had accumulated so many boxes of denim scraps and one day three years ago, decided, "Denim rag quilts!" I'm set to finish the last two sides of the border on the second one in the next forty-eight hours. I figure that since I'm side-lined, I'll have plenty of time for the finish. All I know is that sometimes when inspiration comes, it jump-starts a flurry of activity to bring the final product into reality. All the carpenters, metal workers, and sewists in Israel were jump-started into a flurry of activity. The sabbath rest was a nice break to cause eagerness to return to the work at hand.
A contribution to the Biblical Illustrator by E. F. Willis, M.A. sums it up for us:
"The Tabernacle itself: — The Tabernacle held an important position in the divinely-appointed worship of the Jewish Church. No less than thirteen chapters in the Book of Exodus (25-31; Ex 35:35) are devoted to the account of it; an account twice repeated, extending to the minutest details of shape, size, material, colour, and workmanship. Special stress is laid upon the fact that it was made after a heavenly design exhibited to Moses during the forty days of his mysterious communing with Jehovah on Mount Sinai (Ex 29:9,40; 26:30). The smallest details are included in this heavenly pattern (Ex 27:8; Nu 8:4). This heavenly pattern of the Tabernacle is twice referred to in the New Testament (Ac 7:44; Heb 8:5). Not only was the Tabernacle made after a heavenly pattern, but divinely-inspired artificers carried the design into execution (Ex 31:1-6; 35:30-35; 36:1). We see from these passages that, in matters which concern the worship of God, the minutest details as to the colour, shape, material, and make of the ornaments of Divine service, and of the ministers of it, are not thought unworthy of a special Divine revelation as to their design, and of a special Divine inspiration for the carrying of that design into effect. At the close of the work we are told, in words that carry our thoughts back to the blessing bestowed upon the first creation (Ge 1:30), that Moses recognized its exact accordance with the heavenly pattern which he had seen (Ex 39:43)."
Indeed. Our God is a God of detail! I did an interesting rabbit trail when searching the bio of E. F. Willis. He was a priest "on the Catholic side of the Church of England" and a bit of a rebel according to others in the Anglican church due to his belief and support of the rites of Catholic Eucharist, Confession, and the 'sacrifice' of the 'Mass'. I had no idea that there was a "catholic side of the Church of England". The history of denominations turns up yet another faction of disunity. But regardless of the controversy E. F. Willis stirred, he did a very good summary of the Tabernacle in his writing. After reading his summary in the Illustrator, I thought that I should have reckoned something odd about the Tabernacle statement: "in the divinely-appointed worship of the Jewish Church". I don't know that I've ever heard of the phrase "the Jewish Church" before. Then I went down another rabbit trail to see where "church" originated. The Fausset Dictionary was most helpful:
"From the Greek kuriakee, "house of the Lord," a word which passed to the Gothic tongue; the Goths being the first of the northern hordes converted to Christianity, adopted the word from the Greek Christians of Constantinople, and so it came to us Anglo-Saxons (Trench, Study of Words). But Lipsius, from circus, from whence kirk, a circle, because the oldest temples, as the Druid ones, were circular in form. Ekkleesia in the New Testament never means the building or house of assembly, because church buildings were built long AFTER the apostolic age. It means an organized body, whose unity does not depend on its being met together in one place; not an assemblage of atoms, but members in their several places united to the One Head, Christ, and forming one organic living whole (1 Corinthians 12). The bride of Christ (Eph 5:25-32; 1:22), the body of which He is the Head."
Now here is confirmation of what I heard Dr. Michael Lake express one day in one of their podcasts that the word church had origins from 'circus'. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia added that:
"Throughout the Greek world and right down to New Testament times (compare Ac 19:39), ekklesia was the designation of the regular assembly of the whole body of citizens in a free city-state, "called out" (Greek ek, "out," and kalein, "to call") by the herald for the discussion and decision of public business. The Septuagint translators, again, had used the word to render the Hebrew qahal, which in the Old Testament denotes the "congregation" or community of Israel, especially in its religious aspect as the people of God. In this Old Testament sense we find ekklesia employed by Stephen in the Book of Acts, where he describes Moses as "he that was in the church (the Revised Version, margin "congregation") in the wilderness" (Ac 7:38). The word thus came into Christian history with associations alike for the Greek and the Jew. To the Greek it would suggest a self-governing democratic society; to the Jew a theocratic society whose members were the subjects of the Heavenly King. The pre-Christian history of the word had a direct bearing upon its Christian meaning, for the ekklesia of the New Testament is a "theocratic democracy" (Lindsay, Church and Ministry in the Early Centuries, 4), a society of those who are free, but are always conscious that their freedom springs from obedience to their King."
I think I shall leave this here and you can decide to accept or not about the theocratic or democratic stuff. All I will say is that in all my experience in the denominational "church" settings from the Catholic to the Protestant, and especially in what evolved into a Charismatic seminar on spiritual warfare led by a self-purported descendant of Charles Finney, I believe that I've seen some of the aspects of 'circus' in my time. The teaching component of the seminar was accurately supported by much Scripture, but the worship component was not so much. There was only myself and the man operating the sound system for the event that did not go 'forward' to later manifest 'holy laughter', excessive sobbing, and a host of very strange physical posturing. But, I move on.
42 According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work. 43 And Moses did look upon all the work, and, behold, they had done it as the LORD had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them. Exodus 39:42-43.
We could discuss historical aspects of "the church" or "the ekklesia" for days, and in our assemblies, sometimes we've touched on that. But the single most important thing about what we read in Torah is that Israel did the work "as the LORD had commanded". There is nothing like simple 'obedience' that pleases Yah!
Snowflakes appear to be falling half-heartedly today. It's as if they're falling only because "old man winter" refuses to leave, but they're part of that season and they have to "go to work" anyway. Sometimes my anthropomorphism takes me to new heights when I imagine the inanimate weather manifestations as having sentient 'feelings'. We had a brief 'tease' of spring there for almost a week, but that's nothing unusual. It happens most years. Our winters began to arrive later and later. When I was a child it was the end of October and during November that winter reached out with icy fingers and declared, "I'm Heeeere!" It would generally make a retreat at the end of March. These years now, it begins in fits and starts in late November and December and leaves only after many fits and starts halfway through April. In 2014, there was still snow left on May 2, when we moved here. So much has changed with school buses and the weather!
My weather, "oh my how things have changed" lament must come to a close. I've officially reached the age where I almost constantly compare the "old" days with the "present" and how things have changed. It's almost an innate process and all I can say is that now I understand my father's last ten years of frustration when he openly contemplated all the things that change brought in his lifetime. He was born in 1903 in a very rural setting and passed from Edwardian horse and buggy days to the space age when man supposedly landed on the moon in 1969. (I hear that is in debate now as being a huge 'cover-up'.) He made his first trip to a laundromat when he was in his late seventies. If I had five minutes with him now, I think I would just give his shoulder a loving pat and assure him, "It's alright, Dad. Now I understand why you were so crabby back in the day!"
After ten-plus years of retirement, I have the laryngitis malady that once visited me at least once a year when I was working full-time. I seem to recall suffering from it periodically in retirement because I remember stating in Torah copy that I sounded like “Three Fingers Louie from the mob”. This morning it wasn't even Louie from the mob. A hoarse whisper is it. So, for the next forty-eight hours, I shall be missing in action from all outside activities and will be snacking on bone broth, chicken soup, and R & R, which for me is: Rest and Radio Silence! Looking in on Moses and the crew, it appears that the work on all that basic and splendorous work is done.
32 Thus was all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation finished: and the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did they. 33 And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses, the tent, and all his furniture, his taches, his boards, his bars, and his pillars, and his sockets, Exodus 39:32-43.
It seems it came together rather quickly doesn't it, when we read it in just over one and a half weeks in the record? Add to that, they finished it timely even taking that Sabbath break! Could their boredom with the routine dailies of life boost their work productivity? I think I know about that sort. Sometimes, I will see a piece of material come out of a box, and even though it's just a yard or two with no shape or form, my mind looks at it and says, "Curtains!", "hot pads for kitchen", or "a baby cot quilt!" I had accumulated so many boxes of denim scraps and one day three years ago, decided, "Denim rag quilts!" I'm set to finish the last two sides of the border on the second one in the next forty-eight hours. I figure that since I'm side-lined, I'll have plenty of time for the finish. All I know is that sometimes when inspiration comes, it jump-starts a flurry of activity to bring the final product into reality. All the carpenters, metal workers, and sewists in Israel were jump-started into a flurry of activity. The sabbath rest was a nice break to cause eagerness to return to the work at hand.
A contribution to the Biblical Illustrator by E. F. Willis, M.A. sums it up for us:
"The Tabernacle itself: — The Tabernacle held an important position in the divinely-appointed worship of the Jewish Church. No less than thirteen chapters in the Book of Exodus (25-31; Ex 35:35) are devoted to the account of it; an account twice repeated, extending to the minutest details of shape, size, material, colour, and workmanship. Special stress is laid upon the fact that it was made after a heavenly design exhibited to Moses during the forty days of his mysterious communing with Jehovah on Mount Sinai (Ex 29:9,40; 26:30). The smallest details are included in this heavenly pattern (Ex 27:8; Nu 8:4). This heavenly pattern of the Tabernacle is twice referred to in the New Testament (Ac 7:44; Heb 8:5). Not only was the Tabernacle made after a heavenly pattern, but divinely-inspired artificers carried the design into execution (Ex 31:1-6; 35:30-35; 36:1). We see from these passages that, in matters which concern the worship of God, the minutest details as to the colour, shape, material, and make of the ornaments of Divine service, and of the ministers of it, are not thought unworthy of a special Divine revelation as to their design, and of a special Divine inspiration for the carrying of that design into effect. At the close of the work we are told, in words that carry our thoughts back to the blessing bestowed upon the first creation (Ge 1:30), that Moses recognized its exact accordance with the heavenly pattern which he had seen (Ex 39:43)."
Indeed. Our God is a God of detail! I did an interesting rabbit trail when searching the bio of E. F. Willis. He was a priest "on the Catholic side of the Church of England" and a bit of a rebel according to others in the Anglican church due to his belief and support of the rites of Catholic Eucharist, Confession, and the 'sacrifice' of the 'Mass'. I had no idea that there was a "catholic side of the Church of England". The history of denominations turns up yet another faction of disunity. But regardless of the controversy E. F. Willis stirred, he did a very good summary of the Tabernacle in his writing. After reading his summary in the Illustrator, I thought that I should have reckoned something odd about the Tabernacle statement: "in the divinely-appointed worship of the Jewish Church". I don't know that I've ever heard of the phrase "the Jewish Church" before. Then I went down another rabbit trail to see where "church" originated. The Fausset Dictionary was most helpful:
"From the Greek kuriakee, "house of the Lord," a word which passed to the Gothic tongue; the Goths being the first of the northern hordes converted to Christianity, adopted the word from the Greek Christians of Constantinople, and so it came to us Anglo-Saxons (Trench, Study of Words). But Lipsius, from circus, from whence kirk, a circle, because the oldest temples, as the Druid ones, were circular in form. Ekkleesia in the New Testament never means the building or house of assembly, because church buildings were built long AFTER the apostolic age. It means an organized body, whose unity does not depend on its being met together in one place; not an assemblage of atoms, but members in their several places united to the One Head, Christ, and forming one organic living whole (1 Corinthians 12). The bride of Christ (Eph 5:25-32; 1:22), the body of which He is the Head."
Now here is confirmation of what I heard Dr. Michael Lake express one day in one of their podcasts that the word church had origins from 'circus'. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia added that:
"Throughout the Greek world and right down to New Testament times (compare Ac 19:39), ekklesia was the designation of the regular assembly of the whole body of citizens in a free city-state, "called out" (Greek ek, "out," and kalein, "to call") by the herald for the discussion and decision of public business. The Septuagint translators, again, had used the word to render the Hebrew qahal, which in the Old Testament denotes the "congregation" or community of Israel, especially in its religious aspect as the people of God. In this Old Testament sense we find ekklesia employed by Stephen in the Book of Acts, where he describes Moses as "he that was in the church (the Revised Version, margin "congregation") in the wilderness" (Ac 7:38). The word thus came into Christian history with associations alike for the Greek and the Jew. To the Greek it would suggest a self-governing democratic society; to the Jew a theocratic society whose members were the subjects of the Heavenly King. The pre-Christian history of the word had a direct bearing upon its Christian meaning, for the ekklesia of the New Testament is a "theocratic democracy" (Lindsay, Church and Ministry in the Early Centuries, 4), a society of those who are free, but are always conscious that their freedom springs from obedience to their King."
I think I shall leave this here and you can decide to accept or not about the theocratic or democratic stuff. All I will say is that in all my experience in the denominational "church" settings from the Catholic to the Protestant, and especially in what evolved into a Charismatic seminar on spiritual warfare led by a self-purported descendant of Charles Finney, I believe that I've seen some of the aspects of 'circus' in my time. The teaching component of the seminar was accurately supported by much Scripture, but the worship component was not so much. There was only myself and the man operating the sound system for the event that did not go 'forward' to later manifest 'holy laughter', excessive sobbing, and a host of very strange physical posturing. But, I move on.
42 According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work. 43 And Moses did look upon all the work, and, behold, they had done it as the LORD had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them. Exodus 39:42-43.
We could discuss historical aspects of "the church" or "the ekklesia" for days, and in our assemblies, sometimes we've touched on that. But the single most important thing about what we read in Torah is that Israel did the work "as the LORD had commanded". There is nothing like simple 'obedience' that pleases Yah!
43 And Moses did look upon all the work, and, behold, they had done it as the LORD had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them. Exodus 39:43.
1 NASB www.lockman.org for daily reading and KJV in commentary unless otherwise specified
Rev E F Willis (chradams.co.uk)
Rev E F Willis (chradams.co.uk)
Daily Torah Bites ©
anne@anchorchurchsufside.com