If you insist on a God that accepts a certain part of your identity
Then you worship that identity, not God
Identity as God
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.
Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 25:3-7
3 And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass,
4 And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,
5 And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood,
6 Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,
7 Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.
God had just offered the Israelites the opportunity to make an optional offering, and today we learn it was to be an offering of all the valuables of the world. Precious metals, stones, cloths, animal skins, wood, oil, and spices. Some of these things are precious for symbolic reasons, such as gold which is a pure metal and does not mix with other alloys. Some are precious for aesthetic reasons, such as spices that pleased the senses. Some are precious for their rarity, such as purple cloth, which was a notoriously difficult color to get dye for.
The people are being asked to give that which is rare, functional, beautiful, and symbolic. Of course, in many cases the value of these things is arbitrary. Whatever man decides to assign his greatest value to, those are the same things that he must be willing to part with. Gold is not required because it has great value to God, but because it has great value to man.
And why must man be willing to part with the things of greatest value? Because that is how we show what our highest ideal is. If we don’t give the most to God, then He isn’t actually our highest ideal. If, for example, we retain the best for our own selves instead, then there is nothing more important to us than the self, which precludes any genuine worship of God. Sacrifice of our greatest riches is a necessity for us to engage in worship of the almighty, just as sacrifice of His own Beloved Son was a necessity for God to engage in condescension to us.
Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 24:23-24, 26-27
23 And said, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee: is there room in thy father’s house for us to lodge in? 24 And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor. 26 And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the Lord. 27 And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.
The servant had marveled when he first met Rebekah. She seemed such a perfect match for Isaac, and everything was going according to plan. All that remained was the matter of her heritage, and now he discovers that everything is right in that regard as well. In all this land the very first young lady he happened upon was the very one he was looking for!
So now he bows and worships. Technically he has not gained the approval of Rebekah or her parents yet, but at this point he is convinced that this path was prepared before him by God, and so he is sure of success at the end of it.
Spiritual Wanderings 