Moses

by NEEDHAM, J. | Category: Builders For God | Jan 2008

It takes a team of experts to bring the vision of a designer into a completed reality. From the moment the architect draws up the first plan until the surveyor finally certifies completion of a building, engineers, planning consultants, quantity surveyors, contractors and lawyers all play a part using their expertise. It can be a long and complicated process, and will only be a success if the whole team works together to agree the process and construct the building - all in line with the plans and specification.

It is a very different picture when God commissions His servants to build something for Him. When God called on Pharaoh to �let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness� (Ex. 7:16), He had in view a building which the children of Israel would construct for Him and which would be central to their service as God's holy nation. No team of experts would be required to input into the plans, for this building had a great design and a supreme Designer, one admired by Abraham who himself looked forward to a future work by the same Architect (Heb. 11:10). In this wilderness building, God would be the Architect, the Designer and the Occupier; its design and composition were by Him and for Him. The responsibility for overseeing the work of building it was placed into the hands of one man prepared for the task: Moses.

Commissioned for the work

As Israel camped at the foot of Sinai, Moses mediated between God and His people (Deut. 5:4-5). There in the mountain, Moses received from God the promise to Israel of covenant relationship (Ex. 19:5-6), and the Law to regulate that relationship, to which they pledged their obedience (Ex. 24:3,7). The covenant having been confirmed by the sprinkling of the blood of sacrifice (Ex. 24:8), God called Moses to return to the mountain, where he waited for six days. It was on the seventh day, perhaps the day that spoke of divine rest (Gen. 2:2), that God began to tell Moses of a building essential to the covenant, in which He would find His rest amongst His people (Ex. 24:16).

It was there that God expressed to Moses His desire to have a dwelling-place in the midst of His chosen people: �let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them� (Ex. 25:8). The instructions Moses received for the building of the Tabernacle, and for the clothing and consecration of the priests who would serve in it, were precise and complete. The design and pattern for the building were all of God, and Moses was to oversee the work in strict conformity with what God had revealed: �see to it that you make them according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain� (Ex. 25:40).

The singular importance of this principle is confirmed in its repetition to Moses on two further occasions (Ex. 26:30; 27:8), and its reference by the Holy Spirit a further three times throughout the Scriptures (Num. 8:4; Acts 7:44; Heb. 8:5). When it came to God's design for His house, there was no room either for human intervention or variation. God had drawn up the plans; Moses' task was to ensure that the building met the pattern in every detail. And to make certain that in no part of the work would Moses have to apply his own interpretation, not only was the pattern described to Moses but it was also physically shown to him: �our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Moses to make it according to the pattern that he had seen� (lit. 'seen with his eyes', 'stared at') (Acts 7:44).

Moses' faithful service

Moses knew the importance and the care with which these instructions were to be handled. Although he had experienced God speaking to him �face to face, as a man speaks to his friend� (Ex. 33:11), Moses did not allow any sense of familiarity to impede the humble and reverent obedience demanded by the God of the house of God (Gen. 31:13), before whom even Moses said, �"I am exceedingly afraid and trembling"� (Heb. 12:21). It was in this spirit of faithful service that Moses oversaw the work of construction, ensuring that the artisans of Israel should channel the use of their gifts to accomplish not what was in their own minds, but only what God had designed and revealed: �"I have put wisdom in the hearts of all who are gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you � According to all that I have commanded you they shall do"� (Ex. 31:6,11).

Moses carried out his commission, overseeing a work which satisfied God in every respect (Ex. 39:32,42-43). God's appreciation of Moses' faithfulness was demonstrated on the first new year's day since the children of Israel had left their bonds in Egypt, when, as the Tabernacle was reared up, the divine endorsement of the work was given as �the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle� (Ex. 40:34).

The importance of the pattern

Why was careful compliance with God's revealed pattern so important? The writer to the Hebrews gives the reason: the Tabernacle constructed under Moses' supervision was �the copy and shadow of the heavenly things ... the sanctuary and � the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man� (Heb. 8:5,2; 9:11,23). The connection made at the house of God between heaven and earth, having first been revealed to Jacob at Bethel in the great revelation of the fundamental principles associated with God's house (Gen. 28:12,17), was maintained in the Tabernacle, for what Moses was building was to reflect on earth a dwelling-place which already existed, created by the divine hand in heaven.

An application for today?

So Moses' faithfulness to God's pattern was rewarded as the glory of the Lord filled the building, and was ratified by his commendation as a servant �faithful in all His house� (Num. 12:7; Heb. 3:5). Is there still an application of Moses' faithfulness to be found today in believers on the Lord Jesus Christ seeking to serve Him in the way He desires? The answer must be an emphatic, "Yes!" as we turn to Hebrews again for the remarkable statement that the Tabernacle, with its priesthood and services, was �symbolic for the present time� (Heb. 9:9). The record of Moses' faithfulness is no mere history recorded for curiosity's sake; it is a record of the faithfulness of a man in the service of God, faithfulness to be replicated in His servants today who seek to serve Him in the place where He dwells.

God's house today is no longer a physical dwelling-place, it is a house made up of believers on the Lord Jesus Christ gathered together to be built up according to God's design having as chief cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (1 Pet. 2:5-6). He, by His person and teaching (embodied in the apostles' teaching (Acts 2:42; 1 Cor. 14:37), gives the divine standard to which the entire structure must relate and the blueprint to which those seeking to emulate Moses must build. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, spoke of their having �obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered� (Rom. 6:17). In the original language, the word 'form' means a mould � it was as if they had been poured into the apostles' teaching, known also as 'the Faith', having their characters and service shaped by it to fit them for service in God's house according to His design.

As in the days of the Old Covenant, God still has His design for the place where He dwells. It is the only design, and He looks for people willing to build faithfully according to the pattern revealed from heaven, unblemished by human interpretation. Listening to the one who is faithful as a Son over God's house (Heb. 3:6), may we strive to conform to the pattern of teaching �once for all delivered� (Jude 3) that, as servants like Moses, we too may be accounted by God �good and faithful� (Mat. 25:21).

(Bible quotations from NKJV)

For further study:

1. What significance is there in the fact that God 'dismisses' his creation of the stellar heavens in a couple of words, but devotes chapter upon chapter to the construction details of the small portable structure known as the tabernacle? What is the present-day impact of stating no less than six times that it was according to the pattern?

2. Why was the building of the tabernacle essential to the covenant of Exodus 19-24?

3. Later, Psalm 132 shows how seriously David entered into God's desire for Zion. How can we show we are taking God's desire for a dwelling place as seriously as Moses (Ex. 25:8) and David (Ps. 132)?

4. How are we to replicate Moses' faithfulness?

NEEDHAM, J. | Jan 2008
Builders For God