Passage: Exodus 35-40
The Big Idea
The One who began a good work in you will carry it to completion (Philippians 1:6). Exodus 35-40 repeats almost word for word the tabernacle plans of chapters 25-31, now carried out. What God plans in heaven, He accomplishes on earth. No matter how much sin and failure He’s confronted with, His grace overcomes it all.
The End of a Long Book
Exodus is a long book to study. At some point you might think, “This will never end!” But it does. And that’s the point.
Chapters 35-40 are nearly identical to chapters 25-31. Why would God repeat it all? To show that what’s planned in heaven will be accomplished on earth. His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
And what is God’s heavenly plan for your life? Your sanctification. That’s His will (1 Thessalonians 4:3). It’s going to happen. You can ride with it or resist it, but you know how the story ends.
Let’s look at the order God sets things in.
1. Rest First (Exodus 35:1-3)
Six days of work, and then the seventh day was to be holy, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord (Exodus 35:2).
Before anything is built, God reminds them of the Sabbath. We rest in the Lord first. We receive from God first.
Then what comes next?
2. Then Give (Exodus 35:4-29)
Moses told the people the Lord was inviting an offering, from anyone with a willing heart: gold, silver, bronze, colored thread, linen, skins, wood, oil, spices and stones. And everyone whose heart was stirred and whose spirit was willing came and brought the Lord’s offering (Exodus 35:4-29).
Receive first, then give. It always works that way.
- Moses simply told the people God would accept their offering.
- He didn’t pressure or manipulate them.
- The order matters: first they delight and rest in God, then they give freely. Never out of obligation or duty, but as a privilege and a joy.
When we spend time resting, actively remembering and trusting what Jesus has done, giving flows from the heart instead of feeling like a burden. Those affections are drawn out of us as we rest in Him.
About giving
- It has to be spontaneous, from the heart, never from outside pressure.
- So many people have been hurt by churches and leaders who forgot this. Raising money is never our job.
- Where God guides, He provides.
- Moses simply announced that God was ready to receive. And the people gave more than enough. God moved their hearts.
- The church is never responsible to scrape together the means for ministry. We ask God. If God is in it, He’ll put it on His people’s hearts to give.
3. Then Serve (Exodus 35:30-35)
Moses announced that the Lord had called Bezalel by name and filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, understanding, knowledge and every kind of craftsmanship. God also gave him and Aholiab the ability to teach others (Exodus 35:30-35).
First rest. Second, the freewill offering from hearts that love God. Third, service. Service always follows relationship.
Remember Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). Martha was busy serving; Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. Jesus said Mary chose the better part. Abide with God first, and you’ll abound in His work later.
God made the work work. He was behind its success. He never took a shortcut that skipped the relationship.
“More Than Enough” (Exodus 36:5-7)
The craftsmen came to Moses and said the people were bringing much more than was needed for the work. So Moses sent word through the camp for everyone to stop (Exodus 36:5-7). The people had to be restrained from giving.
When God is behind something, it gets done.
Moses Blessed Them (Exodus 39:42-43)
Moses inspected all the work and saw they had done everything exactly as the Lord commanded. And Moses blessed them (Exodus 39:42-43).
One day Jesus will look over our works and reward us (1 Corinthians 3:12-14; 2 Corinthians 5:10).
Think about that. He sources the work. He inspires it. He commands it. Then He rewards us for it? Crazy grace.
The Glory Fills the Tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-38)
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle so completely that Moses couldn’t even enter (Exodus 40:34-38). Whenever the cloud lifted, Israel moved on. When it stayed, they stayed. Cloud by day, fire by night, all their journeys.
The tabernacle was finished, and God had made a place to dwell with His people that was still holy and worthy of His glory.
That’s completed in the New Covenant too:
- God has made a way to dwell with us, and in us (John 14:23; 1 Corinthians 6:19).
- Just as Moses placed the tablets of the Law inside the ark, God has written His law on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10).
- Our hearts are where the reality behind the cloud and fire now lives.
We’re the blessed people who get to experience everything Exodus foreshadowed.
What Does Exodus Teach Us?
The One who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).
In the end, no matter how much sin and failure God faces, His grace overcomes it. Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more (Romans 5:20).
Sin is a huge problem. Grace is a bigger solution. Sin is destructive and vile. Grace is more than able to fix it.
We need to grasp this deeply. Over the years, many of us have had hard conversations, sharing our failures, grieving over sin, broken over mistakes, worried that we’ve failed God for the last time. That we’ve finally gone too far. That we’ve proven we’re not really saved, because no real Christian could be this lustful, this selfish, this arrogant, this ______. (Fill in the blank with whatever you curse yourself for in the mirror.)
In Exodus we’ve seen God accomplish everything He set out to do with His people, even though they failed at every step. Every one of His plans became reality through the work of the mediator, Moses.
That’s why this book has always been about redemption. God redeemed His people through the blood of the lamb. Then He made a completely new kind of nation: a people who know God. A people who serve Him.
That’s God’s work, and it’s more beautiful than anything else He made: taking a rebellious nation of slaves and transforming them by His own power, faithfulness and love into His very own people.
And the mediator is the one God used to do it all. It foreshadows the perfect Lamb of God and our own Mediator, Jesus Christ, who picks us up in our failure, washes us off, and presents us to His Father as people who truly know God and glorify Him.
“But I don’t glorify God in how I live”
If you trust Christ and abide in Him, you do glorify God. And that reality will begin to show up in your life like fruit appearing on a tree in the right season. Give it time. Cling to Him moment by moment.
When you’re doing well, and when you sin, run to Him. Run to Him. Never let the enemy trick you into running from Him.
He doesn’t want a break from you. He’s not angry at you. He already poured out His anger on Jesus for you. God’s righteous wrath was fully exhausted on the cross. So run to your Advocate, your Savior, your Messiah, your God.
The End of the Story
The end of Exodus reminds me of the end of the Bible.
John hears a loud voice announce that God’s dwelling is now with people. He will live with them, they will be His people, and He Himself will be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death, mourning, crying and pain will be gone, because the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:3-4).
Eye hasn’t seen what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9). But we know this: a loving relationship with God, through His true Tabernacle, Jesus, is what will fix everything broken. I don’t know exactly how. But He promises: all wrong will be made right, and everything broken will be fixed.
I am my Beloved’s, and He is mine (Song of Solomon 6:3). Though I’ve been the worst of sinners, He made me a saint through His love and His blood. Though I’ve failed, He has mediated for every need and will forever be my Hero, my God, my Redeemer.
“But What Do You Want from Me?”
“That sounds good, but I don’t know what to do.”
Here it is. Everyone on this planet has been invited into God’s family. We lost that divine life when we sinned. But God, in perfect grace, paid the price our sin earned. God became a man and let us torture and kill Him on a cross. He even let the Father pour out His wrath on Him. So the worst event in history became the very thing God uses to save us. If God has punished Jesus for your sin, He can forgive you freely.
I don’t want anything from you. I just want you to understand clearly that you can be forgiven of all your sins. It’s all or nothing. Either God forgives you through the blood of Jesus, or we face our own judgment in the end.
When you ask Jesus to forgive you, He does. You become one of His sheep, part of His family. And then your job is simply to follow His voice. Listen to His Spirit through the Bible. He’ll lead you, guide you, heal you and use you.
Grace Takeaway
What God starts, He finishes. He started with slaves in Egypt and ended with His glory filling a tent among them. He started a good work in you, and He will complete it. Rest first, give from a full heart, serve from His strength, and whenever you fail, run to Him.