EXODUS 31
This is an important chapter, for it shows how provision is made for the carrying out of all that had been commanded. We do not get here the making of the tabernacle; that comes later in the book; but we see here the calling and competency by which it could be made. That is, we see here, typically, the assembly as a divinely called company of intelligent persons having wisdom and spiritual ability by which every feature of that which was set forth in the [p. 266] tabernacle can take form so as to be available for the service of God.
That there are such persons is the fruit of divine calling, and the names introduced here — like Old Testament names generally — are very suggestive. Bezaleel means “God is protection”. It is only as under divine protection that anything can be worked out in this world to a spiritual result that is pleasurable to God. Every saint and servant, and every bit of spiritual exercise and labour, is under divine protection. If it were not so, how quickly would the enemy get rid of it all! Whatever the lawlessness of the world may be, everything connected with the service of the true tabernacle will always be under divine protection. Then Uri — “Enlightened” — and Hur — “Purity” — indicate two great necessities in connection with that service. Aholiab means “The Father’s tent”; it speaks of the Father’s care in wilderness conditions. And Ahisamach is “A supporting brother”; this, too, is an element which must be present if things are to be worked out in a practical way.
Judah and Dan are brought together; the royal tribe, and the tribe that was to take the lead in apostasy. Such a selection speaks of divine sovereignty. God has taken pains to show by many examples that He acts from Himself, and that He does not find His motive in the character, conduct, or genealogy of those whom He blesses. It is a comfort to see that a man comes in from Dan as well as from Judah. It shows the principle on which all really come in; that is, as “vessels of mercy”.
Everything is to be brought about in the power of the Spirit of God. “I have called by name Bezaleel ... [p. 267] and have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge”, etc. I do not know anything more wonderful than the fact that provision is made for all the saints to be filled with the Spirit. So that we are exhorted to be filled (Ephesians 5: 18). The widow’s pot of oil never stayed until every vessel was filled. There is a vast supply available, so that the question may well be raised in each heart, Why am I not filled with the Spirit? It is a matter for real exercise. In connection with the tabernacle it is not a question whether we have great natural abilities or not, but have we the Spirit of God? And are we cultivating and exercising our spiritual abilities? To be “wise-hearted” is to have the affections controlled by the Spirit of God, and furnished with the preciousness of Christ.
In connection with the Spirit there is great diversity “in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in every work”. There is capability to handle every precious thing (see also Isaiah 11: 2). There is never anything unintelligent about what is of the Spirit. The simplest saint walking in the Spirit would be intelligent; he would not go beyond his depth, nor talk about what he did not know. The man in John 9 was, as we should say, a very young convert — a babe in Christ — but he made no mistakes. He did not go beyond what he knew. If it was only “one thing”, he held to it. And as one ray of light after another came to him, he walked in it; he took steps in light.
The teaching of this chapter is that God makes provision for the working out of all that He has before Him, and of all that He puts before us, so that it may [p. 268] take form in the intelligent affections of His saints so as to be for His pleasure in them. He provides all the material; He enriches His people with Christ and the Spirit — with all that the gold, silver, copper, etc., speak of — so that it may be given back to Him as found in the affections of a willing-hearted people. But now all has to be fashioned through the skilful labour of those who are “wise-hearted”, so that it may take the form under their hands which it had in the pattern shown on the mountain — that is, as it was in the mind of God.
There is a wondrous system of heavenly things, of which the tabernacle was “the representation and shadow” (Hebrews 8: 5), all connected with Christ as having come in flesh, and as having died and risen and gone to heaven as a glorified Man, and as having His saints identified with Him whether in privilege God-ward or in testimony man-ward. The tabernacle was “an image for the present time” (Hebrews 9: 9).
The pattern shown in the mountain is the whole system as seen in divine purpose. The wondrous types we have been considering may be looked at as representing what is true in Christ personally, or in the system of heavenly things viewed abstractly. But when we come to the making of them there is an added thought. It suggests Christ, and all that stands in relation to Him, as having taken form through holy exercises, and in the power of the Spirit, in the affections and spiritual intelligence of His saints down here. That this would practically exclude all fleshly and worldly elements is obvious, and it would result in a suited dwelling-place for God.
I think we can see in the apostles a God-given competency which corresponds with that conferred [p. 269] upon Bezaleel and Aholiab. They had their own special place in relation to the making of things in a spiritual sense. “And he has put in his heart to teach, he and Aholiab” (chapter 35: 34). The mind of God in regard to Christ and to the saints took shape in the souls and in the ministry of the apostles. They ministered what had been indelibly impressed on their souls in the power of the Holy Spirit. What precious conceptions of Christ were made good in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John! And all put together, too, in divine order in their souls, so that they could minister it, and write it, in perfect accord with the divine mind! You may say that their writings were inspired! Undoubtedly they were; thank God for it! But they wrote what they knew; they wrote what had really taken form by the Spirit in their minds and hearts. And why did they write? That the very apprehensions of Christ which they had might be in your soul and mine through divine teaching, and in the power of the Spirit of God.
Then take the Epistles! I suppose none of us doubts that what the five writers of the Epistles wrote had been made good in their own souls in the power of the Spirit of God! If we could have known Peter we should have seen and heard a man in whose heart and spiritual intelligence the things which he wrote were a living reality in the power of the Spirit of God. Those things characterized the man, and gave their impression to everything in his life and service. And it was so also with James and Jude and Paul and John. And they ministered, whether by word or pen, that Christ and all the precious things connected with Him might take definite form in the affections and spiritual intelligence of the saints — in [p. 270] those to whom they ministered, and in us and all saints.
The ascended Christ has given gifts “for the perfecting of the saints; with a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ; until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”. The saints being brought to this would answer, in a way, to the construction and putting together of the tabernacle.
But it is not only apostles and special gifts who can make things; there is definite work for “every one that is wise-hearted”. “And in the heart of every one that is wise-hearted have I given wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee”. This would, in principle, include every one who has the Spirit, for such are viewed in Scripture as “intelligent persons” (1 Corinthians 10: 15). God has many wise-hearted ones endowed with ability to make things — to give definite form to precious spiritual realities. There is great variety in the distribution of the Spirit. “There are distinctions of gifts, but the same Spirit ... . But to each the manifestation of the Spirit is given for profit. For to one, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; and to a different one faith, in the power of the same Spirit”; etc. (1 Corinthians 12: 4 - 11). It is to wise-hearted ones that Paul says, “Let the word of the Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another” (Colossians 3: 16).
There is work for sisters, too, for “every woman that was wise-hearted spun with her hands, and brought what she had spun” (chapter 35: 25, 26). Sisters may not minister the word publicly, but they can do much to draw together the different fibres of divine teaching in souls, so that things may be strengthened in view of all being woven together. The great thing is that in our intercourse with one another what is of God should be confirmed and consolidated. We should always be working on spiritually constructive lines — spinning and weaving, not pulling to pieces!
Each one of us has to make something for the tabernacle. One might say, How can I know what my bit is? Well, you arrive at it by way of the exercises outlined in chapter 30. One who holds himself as ransomed, and keeps his hands and feet clean at the laver, and gives place to the anointing, and who prays in the Holy Spirit, will not lack intelligence as to what he should make. It is indicated to us by our exercises in relation to what comes before us as divine light, and by being “filled with the full knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so as to walk worthily of the Lord unto all well-pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing by the true knowledge of God” (Colossians 1: 9, 10). This comes through prayer; the fact that it takes that form in Scripture indicates the way to arrive at it. “The full knowledge of his will” would include every part of the tabernacle.
It is in the making of the things that we are tested as to the state of our hearts, and as to whether we have wisdom by the Spirit. The end in view is that what is before the mind of God should come into being in such a way that it affords pleasure to God as formed in the souls of His saints, so that they can [p. 272] serve Him in relation to all the precious spiritual realities of which the tabernacle types were a figure. But what this chapter presents is not exactly the making of the things, but that there is divinely given competency to make them. The actual making comes later in the book.
In the seventh and closing section of this part of Exodus (verses 12 - 17) we come to the sabbath, the appropriate conclusion to which all tends. Provision having been made for giving effect to everything that was in the will of God, the thought of divine rest is introduced. The sabbath contemplates the making of all that God could delight in — the completion of the whole tabernacle according to the heavenly pattern. It was after “in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth” that “on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed”. But the sabbath of Exodus 31 is greater than that of Genesis 2: 1 - 3. For this sabbath comes in consequent upon the thought of the whole will of God as set forth in the tabernacle being brought into effect. When all is made there can be a holy rest. God can rest, and His hallowed people can rest with Him.
There is that being made now in which the perfect rest of divine love will be secured. The saints “are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood”. “All the building fitted together increases to a holy temple in the Lord”. All that was in the mind and will of the blessed God is being made good in His saints in the power of the Holy Spirit that the whole system of grace and glory which was figured in the tabernacle may be brought into being for His pleasure and rest.
All that God has in His mind for Israel and the [p. 273] nations, and their service to Him, will be carried out in a coming day so that there may be a sabbath of holy rest. But it will be carried out in the light of what is heavenly, and all that is heavenly is being brought about now through spiritual labour and exercise in the assembly. The tabernacle was “the representation and shadow of heavenly things”, but we have to do with “the heavenly things themselves”. As they take form in our souls by the power of the Spirit of God we can serve God in relation to them, and conditions will be brought about suitable to His dwelling.
I think it is in the light of the tabernacle system, and of its taking form for the pleasure of God, that He adds the words — “and was refreshed”. God was refreshed because even in the material creation He was forming a sphere where all His own blessed thoughts of grace and glory in Christ could be worked out. Those thoughts first came to light in a definite, though figurative, form in the tabernacle, and in the light of them all being brought into effect God could, as it were, carry back into Genesis 2 a secret not before revealed. When God made the heavens and the earth He had “the holy universal order” of the tabernacle in His mind. He was making a material universe, and this in itself could not afford Him refreshment. But He was making it so that it might be the scene for the introduction of “the holy order of the tabernacle, which represented the vast scene in which God’s glory is displayed in Christ” (see note in New Translation to Hebrews 9: 1). And in view of the introduction of this He “was refreshed”.
As all that comprises the order and furnishing of the tabernacle takes form with us in a spiritual sense,
[p. 274] there is rest and refreshment for God, and His people participate in it. It means that the wealth and blessedness of Christ, and of the will and glory of God in Christ, have taken form in the affections and spiritual intelligence of His saints. Every bit added to that affords God pleasure. It is the working out of what He has given, by persons divinely called for this very purpose, and in a power and competency that is wholly of Himself. In result God will “rest in his love”.
The sabbath speaks of things being brought to completion, so that there is no more work to be done; all is finished, and there is holy rest for God and for His people. We have not yet reached the sabbath, but we are going on to it, and every bit of work for the tabernacle is in view of it. In the meantime it is a refreshment for God to see His blessed will in Christ getting more place with us, and taking definite shape. The work is going on; the earthly being displaced by the heavenly; the natural by the spiritual; what is of self and of the mind of man giving place to what is of Christ and of the Spirit!