Daily Lesson for February 11, 2020

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 36 verses 1 through 7:


Bezalel and Oholiab and every skillful one to whom the Lord has given skill and understanding to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary shall work in accordance with all that the Lord has commanded.
2 Moses then called Bezalel and Oholiab and every skillful one to whom the Lord had given skill, everyone whose heart was stirred to come to do the work; 3 and they received from Moses all the freewill offerings that the Israelites had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, 4 so that all the artisans who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task being performed, 5 and said to Moses, “The people are bringing much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.” 6 So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing; 7 for what they had already brought was more than enough to do all the work.

The work of building the Temple does not belong to just one person. It is the labor of myriads of people, and even generations. The people come with their offerings. Some among the people are endowed by the LORD to then take those offerings and use them for the building of the edifice. Sometimes the laborers are less than what the people imagine. Expectations must be managed and someone must have the wisdom to say, “Enough.”  In the end, it shall be a Temple on earth, but not the Temple of Heaven.

Last week the theologian James Leo Garrett, Jr. passed away. He wrote the history of the first 100 years of Broadway Baptist Church. It is titled, “Living Stones”, a metaphor for a building that Paul used to compare it to the building of the church body and which is referenced on the Foundation Stone of the Church. I quote Dr. Garrett’s Preface, as it is an apt reflection on the building of Broadway Church in the same tradition of the chronicler of the building of the Temple in the book of Exodus.

From the Preface to”Living Stones: The Centennial History of Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas, 1882-1982:

“The history of Broadway Baptist Church is not a triumphalist story that moves from one triumph to another without trauma or reversal. It is a story of faith, commitment, loyalty, struggle, and service on the part of a host of persons — the  “living stones”, many of whose names do not appear in this lengthy volume.  It is a succession of seventeen regular pastorates, and numerous deacons, staff members, teachers, committee members, musicians, and the like. For its first eight decades its people statistics revealed a pattern of increase, whereas during the last decades those statistics have manifested a pattern of decrease. But throughout the century the blessings of God have been evident.”

NOTE: We’re reading the whole Bible this year. tomorrow’s Daily Lesson will be from Exodus chapters 39-40.