Season 3 - Episode 24

To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.

Good Morning Covenant Family. Today is the final Covenant Week for this season. I’ll be taking a break from the regular messages throughout the summer. I may share some emails or even podcasts with special updates or messages, but there won’t be Covenant Weekly’s shared. We’re scheduled to look at an Old Testament story today. And in light of our announcement of the start of our Accessibility Project Fundraising Campaign, I thought I’d look at an interesting and often skimmed-through portion of the Old Testament. It is from way back in the book of Exodus. I’ll offer some context, but only read a few verses from Exodus 25 in this Covenant Weekly for June 25, 2024.

The book of Exodus tells the story of God leading the Jewish people out of Egypt and beginning to establish them as his chosen ones. He gives them laws and commands. There are instructions for worship and many stories of their struggles. The part we’re going to read today is on the heels of God giving them what we know of as the 10 Commandments and several other instructions about how to shape themselves into a society that aligns with God’s love and justice. After much of this has been given to them, they agree as a community to shape themselves in the way God desires. After they agree, God calls Moses up a mountain to receive God’s instructions as inscribed on some stone tablets. A huge part of what God tells Moses while on the mountain is how to build the thing that will symbolize and house God’s presence among his people.

Because they were a nomadic people at this time, the dwelling place of God among his people wasn’t going to be in a temple like it was for the gods of the Egyptians, Philistines, Phoenicians, and other peoples in their area. The instructions Moses receives are for how to build a tent. A special tent, for sure, but a tent nonetheless. We call it a tabernacle. But that’s just a fancy way of saying a tent dwelling or a tent house.

So, the setting for Exodus 25 is that the Jewish people, freshly freed from bondage in Egypt, have agreed to a covenant with Yahweh. God is about to give instructions on what his dwelling place among the people should look like, but they will need the stuff to build the tent. Here is what Moses is told in Exodus 25:

The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the people of Israel to bring me their sacred offerings. Accept the contributions from all whose hearts are moved to offer them. 3 Here is a list of sacred offerings you may accept from them:

gold, silver, and bronze;
4 blue, purple, and scarlet thread;
fine linen and goat hair for cloth;
5 tanned ram skins and fine goatskin leather;
acacia wood;
6 olive oil for the lamps;
spices for the anointing oil and the fragrant incense;
7 onyx stones, and other gemstones to be set in the ephod and the priest’s chestpiece.

8 “Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.

Here is what I love about this. Because of their commitment to the way God had called them to live, they were invited to - told to - build this place where they could meet with God. This is a developing nation which would soon have deeply developed sacrificial systems to help provide for people and expectations for annual and special tithes that would pay for things. These expectations - commands for contributions even - would be coming. But here, for the construction of the Tabernacle, there was no such demand.

Moses is told to, “Accept the contributions from all whose hearts are moved to offer them.” There was a trust that things they needed would be provided through the people who were committed to their connection with God. A few chapters later, in Chapter 31, we read about craftsmen being set aside to use their God-given skills to construct the tent. But the raw materials were to be given by those whose hearts were moved to offer them.

For those who weren’t able to engage with our service yesterday, we announced that we are beginning fundraising for Phase 1 of an Accessibility Project on our building. The estimated cost will be $350,000. The project will provide us with a new entrance off the side of our current building towards our parking lot. The entrance will be on ground level there will be no need for a ramp. In the expanded lobby, there will be a three-stage lift to help people access both the upper and lower levels. We will need to get final congregational approval for this once the board has determined which company we would like to use. But in the meantime, we are starting to raise the funds so that we will be able to begin work on the project as soon as possible.

We hope that everyone connected with Covenant will prayerfully consider how they may be led to contribute to this project. But we aren’t trying to guilt or shame or “command” anyone to participate in any way. We want to “Accept the contributions from all whose hearts are moved to offer them.” And we’re trusting that through people (whether they know they are partnering with God or not) God will provide all that is needed.