Scripture Daily

Context No. 3769 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 26:26-30: in context

26“You shall make bars of acacia wood: five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle, 27and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the tabernacle, for the far side westward. 28The middle bar in the middle of the boards shall pass through from end to end. 29You shall overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold for places for the bars. You shall overlay the bars with gold. 30You shall set up the tabernacle according to the way that it was shown to you on the mountain.

Amid the detailed instructions for the tabernacle, this passage describes the bars that held the framework together and ends with a principle that governs the whole project: you shall set up the tabernacle according to the plan for it that you were shown on the mountain. Nothing in God's dwelling was left to Moses's own imagination or preference; every part followed the pattern God had revealed.

There is an important truth here about how we approach God. The way we worship and draw near to him is not ours to design according to our own tastes; God himself shows us how he is to be approached. Moses was not free to improve on the pattern or substitute his own ideas; his task was faithful obedience to what God had shown. And notice the humble, hidden bars, the parts no worshiper would ever see, made exactly to specification: faithfulness to God's pattern extends even to the details no one notices. To follow God's revealed pattern, in worship and in life, down to the unseen details, is the way of true obedience.

Do I approach and worship God according to the pattern he has revealed, faithful even in the hidden details, rather than reshaping my devotion to my own preferences?

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