A Job Well Done

“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. According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work. 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 39:32, 42-43

The Israelites were a loosely-structured tribal nation recently emancipated from a four-hundred-year stretch of brutal slavery in Egypt. Moses told Pharaoh again and again that God had said, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.” When God brought the people out of Egypt, they knew that they were headed for the Promised Land, but they probably didn’t realize that God had a job for them to do. One day Moses came down from the mountain with the instructions to build the tabernacle. The people began working right away. They were all involved in one way or another. They gave of their possessions and scoured the wilderness for the materials that they needed. They gathered, spun, dyed, cut, sowed, wove, hammered, carved, chiseled, and overlaid with gold. They did their very best because they were building a place to worship God. They labored over the tabernacle for about six months, and for their investment they had a place to worship that was in use for the next 450 years. As they continued their journey, they carried with them a sacred place where they would meet with God.