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December 2004 Table of Contents
In Spirit And Truth
Moses
By Steve Phifer
Worship Arts Pastor
Word of Life International Church
Springfield, VA
stphifer@aol.com
Worship Arts Resources
 All the artisans were finished. There was no more fabric to be formed into tents, no more wood to be hewn into pillars and furnishings, no more gold to be beaten into altars and capitals. All the work for God's dwelling place was finished. Again the Lord spoke to Moses, "On the first day of the month you shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of meeting." Perhaps Moses wondered what would happen when the tent was assembled. He had been there on the mountain when God manifested His holy presence. He had stood on the rock and had seen the glory of the Lord. He saw the Lord write the Law on the tables of stone. All the people saw was smoke and lightning. Moses heard the voice of God and the people heard only thunder. The prophet descended Mt. Sinai with the words of Yahweh in his very hands only to find the people worshiping a golden calf of their own making and materials, disgracing themselves in every lewd perversion of worship one could imagine.
But, then, these same people, so recently ascended from slavery, had pooled their hard-earned skills and worked together to build this beautiful portable sanctuary and its furnishings. They had given of their new found riches until Moses had to stop them from giving. Their gold had gone to cover the ark of God instead of a pagan idol. Now the moment had come to see what all their cooperative labor had produced. This collection of poles, clasps, boards, bars, and pillars, and these sections of fabric and animal skins, and all these utensils, garments, vessels, altars and tables were laid at Moses’ feet. It was time to bring order out of chaos. Moses blessed them and they got to work. These were skillful people and soon the sanctuary was taking shape. Moses guided them as they assembled the habitation of God in the earth, the place where He would dwell in the midst of them. When the work was finished, the breeze must have stirred the fabric walls as a deep silence sank into each heart as the people and Moses looked at what they had done.
Moses placed all the furnishings in their exact positions and anointed them. He took the oil and anointed everything the people had made, setting this work apart to be God’s dwelling place. It was to be the tent of meeting. Here man would meet God. Creatures would come before the manifest presence of the Creator to worship. Sins would be confessed, forgiven, and cast away. Healing for diseases of body and soul would be administered. Direction would be found for the elders as they led the people of God. The works and words of God would be recorded and taught to generations to come. This tent of meeting would be the center of the camp, the nation, the heart of the people.
So Moses finished the work at last. Now even the breeze was still. No one moved, not even the children. From somewhere a cloud came, not the forbidding storm of Sinai, this was fabric of a friendlier sky. No one shrunk back from this inviting presence. Each face glowed as with an inner fire. The cloud filled the house they had made with their own hands and resources. No one, not even Moses could enter the tabernacle because of the cloud. God had inhabited their praise. Jehovah was now enthroned upon their offerings of worship. Unlike the worship at the golden calf, no one was debased here. No one was used or abused. All were exalted by the presence of a Holy God, His presence resting upon and within the work of their hands. Eventually the cloud lifted enough for the priests to enter.
For the next generation, when the cloud moved the people moved. When it stayed, they stayed. At night the cloud was a friendly flame reminding them of the indwelling and the sovereignty of their God. It would be so, until they came to the land of their promise. Wander though they might, He would always be there, dwelling in the house they had built for Him.
From Worship that Pleases God
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