Scripture Daily

Context No. 1346 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 38:8-20: in context

8He made the basin of bronze, and its base of bronze, out of the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 9He made the court: for the south side southward the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, one hundred cubits; 10their pillars were twenty, and their sockets twenty, of bronze; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. 11For the north side one hundred cubits, their pillars twenty, and their sockets twenty, of bronze; the hooks of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver. 12For the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars, and their fillets, of silver. 13For the east side eastward fifty cubits, 14the hangings for the one side were fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three; 15and so for the other side: on this hand and that hand by the gate of the court were hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three. 16All the hangings around the court were of fine twined linen. 17The sockets for the pillars were of bronze. The hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver. Their capitals were overlaid with silver. All the pillars of the court had silver bands. 18The screen for the gate of the court was the work of the embroiderer, of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen. Twenty cubits was the length, and the height along the width was five cubits, like the hangings of the court. 19Their pillars were four, and their sockets four, of bronze; their hooks of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals, and their fillets, of silver. 20All the pins of the tabernacle, and around the court, were of bronze.

This passage records the making of the tabernacle's courtyard, its bronze pillars and silver hooks, its hangings of fine twined linen, its embroidered gate screen of blue and purple and scarlet. But it opens with a small, arresting detail. The bronze basin where the priests would wash, and its bronze base, were made from the mirrors of the ministering women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. The women gave up their mirrors, and out of them was cast the basin for the priests' cleansing.

That small detail about the mirrors is worth pausing on. A mirror in the ancient world was a possession of some value, a polished disc of bronze, and it was above all an instrument of looking at oneself, of attending to one's own appearance. The ministering women surrendered these, handed over the very things they used to regard themselves, and those mirrors were melted down and reshaped into the basin where the priests would wash before serving God, a vessel of cleansing. There is a quiet parable in that transformation. What had been devoted to self-regard became an instrument of purification; what was used for looking at oneself was given up and remade into something that served God and prepared others for his presence. It suggests a pattern for our own lives, that the things we cling to for the sake of self, our vanity, our self-absorption, the energy we spend on our own image, can be surrendered to God and transformed into something that serves and cleanses rather than something that only reflects ourselves back to us. The women could have kept their mirrors; they gave them instead, and their gift became part of the place where God was worshiped. What we surrender to God, even our instruments of self-regard, he can remake into something that serves his purposes.

What do I hold onto for the sake of my own image and self-regard, and could I surrender it to God as the women surrendered their mirrors, letting him remake it into something that serves him and others rather than only reflecting me back to myself?

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