Day 27 -- Exodus 35-37

After the depressing incident of the golden calf and the chaos and bloodshed that follow upon it, today’s reading presents us with a much more positive picture of the people of Israel. Now that they have been disciplined and united by the leadership of Moses, the Community of the Promise is able to work together with a single will to build the tabernacle and to be what God has called them to be.
When Moses asks the people for a freewill offering to construct and furnish the tent of meeting in accordance with the LORD’s instructions, the response is immediate and overwhelming. “Let whoever has a generous heart bring the LORD’s offering,” Moses tells the people (Exodus 35:5), and “everyone whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing . . . , brought the LORD’s offering to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the sacred vestments” (35:21).
In these chapters we are given a wonderful description of a whole nation working together in unity and harmony to complete the sacred project. All the people are inspired to bring their treasures and to use their talents. “All the skillful women spun with their hands, and brought what they had spun” (35:25), we are told.
The text goes on to say that the LORD called by name one Bezalel and “filled him with divine spirit, with skill, intelligence, and knowledge of every kind of craft, to devise artistic designs. . .and inspired him to teach” those crafts and communicate those designs to all who were willing (35:30 and following). The artist becomes a charismatic prophet, using his skills to praise the LORD. And inspired by the Spirit, anonymous men and women carry forward the work of creation.
This is what human life is supposed to be.
After disobedience and lawlessness, everything is obedience and good order. The word “all” is repeated again and again, indicating that this work is truly communal. Everyone is involved. “All the Israelite men and women whose hearts made them willing to bring anything for the work that the LORD had commanded by Moses to be done, brought it as a freewill offering to the LORD,” the text says (35:29).
And the text makes clear that the impetus for all this selfless giving and working is a grateful response to God’s act of salvation in bringing the people out of bondage in Egypt. Thankfulness overflows in lavish giving. The response was so great that “the people had to be restrained from bringing; for what they had already brought was more than enough to do all the work” (36:6-7).
The account of the building of the tabernacle is really the climax of the Book of Exodus. The building is perfect, and the building of it perfects the people. Momentarily the people live up to their potential. Individual ego is overcome by communal praise. This is what God intended when he chose Israel as his own.