Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 35:22-24

22 And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold: and every man that offered offered an offering of gold unto the Lord.

23 And every man, with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, and red skins of rams, and badgers’ skins, brought them.

24 Every one that did offer an offering of silver and brass brought the Lord’s offering: and every man, with whom was found shittim wood for any work of the service, brought it.

I mentioned yesterday how God trusted that there would be enough Israelites who joined this project that the tabernacle could be built. Part of us trusting the Lord is trusting His plan, and that even the parts which are dependent upon mortals will work out. We have to trust that enough of our brothers and sisters will come forward to make the vision a reality, and that God knew that they would do so because of His omniscience.

Over the next few days, we will read how emphatically positive of a response God’s invitation found among the Israelites. His plan was not in vain, and more than enough Israelites did, indeed, make a willful offering.

The record divides the contributions of the Israelites according to their various stations. First, we hear the contribution of the common men (verses 22-24), then of the common women (verses 25-26), and then of the rulers (verses 27-28). All brought forward according to their unique status and capability, each having their own part to play.

In today’s verses we cover the contributions of the men. They provided all of the raw materials. The wood, the precious metals, the skins, and the linen. These were things that men would chop, dig, and hunt for, the fruits of sheer brute labor. The contributions of the common man came “by the sweat of their brow.”

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 35:16-19

16 The altar of burnt offering, with his brasen grate, his staves, and all his vessels, the laver and his foot,

17 The hangings of the court, his pillars, and their sockets, and the hanging for the door of the court,

18 The pins of the tabernacle, and the pins of the court, and their cords,

19 The cloths of service, to do service in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest’s office.

Yesterday we got the first half of Moses listing out everything for the tabernacle and now we get the second half. As I said yesterday, the scope and grandeur of God’s idea for worship far surpasses the Israelite concept of a single golden calf.

Not only was God’s vision better in terms of size and decoration, but He also asked much more from the people in terms of expertise and craft. Presumably the golden calf had required the work of some skilled metalworker, but so far as we know, no special consideration after that. God’s vision required entire teams of metalworkers, woodworkers, needleworkers, and perfumers.

And that would just be for the initial labor. Then, after the place was finished, there would have to be a special priest class forever devoted to the management of the worship practice. Bread would have to be cooked, lamps trimmed, animals slaughtered and for the golden calf as well, but I assume it was on a much smaller scale given the simplicity of its subject.

Even today we seek idols that require less from us than the Lord. We want to work just enough to buy our vanities, without caring whether we are building something that actually matters. We want to virtue signal for social acceptance, without ever taking a position against majority wrong. We want to gain notoriety for doing something flashy before all the world, without doing good deeds that no one will see.

God does not call for a one-time or transactional effort from us. He calls us to become His hands, to do His labor, and to live His life. He was asking His chosen people not only to give their riches or temporary labor. He was asking them to give their whole selves to this worship. Previously, the people had a golden calf, but now they would be disciples of the Lord.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 3:17-19

17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Here Adam is told of a cursed earth, of hard labor and sweat before having any bread, of a war against the land just to live, and this description fits my native land perfectly. I live in central Utah, the middle of a desert, where it is possible to grow fruits and vegetables and trees…but it is not easy. Today we cheat and import richer dirt and foreign plants to help us out, but my progenitors extracted their lives from the land inch-by-inch.

And even in the more flourishing parts of the world there is still a strong sense of strife in nature. Consider the monarch butterfly, which has a symbiotic relationship with the milkweed plant. The monarch butterfly, when still a caterpillar, feeds exclusively on the plant’s leaves, and after transforming into a butterfly pollenates its flowers. Neither can live without the other.

But also each kills the other by the thousands! The caterpillars have a ravenous appetite, and consume and destroy vast numbers of the milkweed plants as they grow. They would overrun the species entirely if it weren’t for the fact that the plants lethally defend themselves. They secrete a sap that drowns massive numbers of the caterpillars when they are still young, cutting their numbers to a mere fraction! These two parts of nature may rely on one another to live, but there is still a great, mortal strife between them, and this is a common theme in nature: life, but only through a heavy, struggling burden.

In sorrow shalt thou eat. Thorns and thistles. We raise out of the dust, we struggle until we can struggle no longer, then we collapse back into the dust. It is a bleak life, to be sure, but it is still a life.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Sow and Then Reap- Summary

This was a smaller study, and kind of an offshoot from my previous one. That is the beauty of pursuing answers, one tends to find even more questions along the way. There is no shortage of truths to discover, and it is beautiful to see how they all combine into one whole and support and expand upon one another.
Also these truths can be found anywhere, and they can especially be found in nature, as in the case of this study. God has designed the basic pattern of our human survival so that it clearly teaches lessons of patience, faith, and reward.

Reaping What You Sow Can Be Either a Blessing or a Curse

There is a common pattern noted in many different cultures and spiritual teachings. Karma, what goes around comes around, get what you deserve, etc. Though in the moment life may indeed be unfair, over time things do tend to balance out.
This truth is a great condemnation to the wicked and a great liberator to the innocent. While some are crushed by its momentum, others are wise enough to use it to their advantage. Be patient and persevering in doing good, and soon enough nature itself will work for your triumph!
Galatians 6:7- Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Matthew 7:2- For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.

Cultivating a Soul Takes a Season

Nothing good comes easy. In other words, the measure of a thing’s value can often be found in the difficulty by which it was obtained. By that standard the purification of the soul must be the most precious treasure of them all!
Achieving this position is so difficult, in fact, that only God can do it for us. Not a single one of us can purify our own selves, we simply do not have the power to do it. What we do have the power to do, though, is stop God from cleansing us. He loves us too much to force any blessings on us that we don’t want. The more I interact with God the more I realize that all He needs from me is to stop shutting Him out and then He’ll take care of the rest.
Simple as that may sound, it takes everything I have to manage it. It takes constant effort. Every day I have to diligently water my “love of self,” I have to weed out any “feeling unworthy of forgiveness,” and I must carefully prune any “harmful exercises of free will.” I have to be diligent, and I have to do it for as long as this mortal field is mine. If I am faithful, though, God will make my garden grow.
2 Nephi 25:23- For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

We Are All Workers in the Field

As difficult as it may be to just work our own field, if that is all we do then we have not met our calling. We are meant to work in the fields of others as well. In fact, our own cultivation of the soul cannot ever be completed without the cultivation of other’s.
We are kindred spirits, and our fates are entwined. The Savior gave a clear warning that we were not to “hide our light under a bushel,” nor were we to “bury our talent.” Our injunction is to “Let [our] light so shine before men,” (Matthew 5:16). To be born of Christ is to be called to the work.
We are nearing the final harvest and there is still a great deal of reaping to be done. There is sufficient rest for all of us at the end of the season, for now we must lean into this work with all that we have.
Matthew 9:37-38- Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.