The "Jacob the Jeweler" of Israel

Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts- to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. – Exodus 31: 1-5


I used to think that all of these chapters at the end of Exodus and through Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were meant to be skipped. They seemed to be nothing more than exceedingly boring wastes of time.

But not anymore.

These verses above are interesting. For the last several chapters of Exodus God has been telling Moses how to construct the temporary holy place that God’s presence on earth will inhabit as He goes with Israel on their journey to the Promised Land.

It’s the fanciest tent ever.

When I was reading through all of the instructions (bronze this, gold that, pillar here, curtain there) I often wondered where they were going to get the stuff necessary to build this thing.

Ok so before they left Egypt they pillaged the folk of their jewelry.

Gold and Bronze... Check.

Wood… I guess they can cut trees along the way. Check.

Fancy fabrics… Maybe that was mentioned (someone step in and correct me please), but it’s not too far fetched to believe that when the Israelites asked for the jewelry they also got the fancy garb as well.

But… umm cherubs made of bronze, fancy gold plated beams? Did they bring a jeweler with them?

Well it seems like Bezalel was the “Jacob the Jeweler meets Martha Stewart” of Israel according to God. We don’t learn much about him but I imagine that he must have been a metal worker/craftsman/jack of all trades of some sort back in Egypt. And now those skills are going to be used for God.

Maybe that’s the same for us right now. We may not like our jobs now. I’m sure Bezalel wasn’t so keen on his job in Egypt. Or we may love our jobs but end up not liking them a couple years from now.

But the work that we do now is preparing us for our purpose even though that is hard to see at times.

So stay strong and keep taking steps forward.

I’m willing to bet that as long as we continue to walk in faith and do ALL that we can to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves; everything that doesn’t make sense now will make sense at some point in the future.



Today’s Reading: Exodus 31-33: Matthew 22: 1-22

In God We Trust

So... I watched the first part of the State of the Union address on TV the other day.

Upon immediately becoming bored to tears I started looking around at the scenery in the room. The House of Representatives must be so beautiful. The camera angles provided some interesting sweeping glances of the interior.

But I did notice one thing. There was this pretty ornate and powerful looking “In God We Trust” on the wall.

Interesting.

Of course this isn’t a foreign concept to me. It has been printed on of our money since the Civil War. But it is a pretty interesting statement to have it so prominently displayed in one of the central houses of government.

Actually, I just learned that it is the official motto of the United States of America.

Wow!!!

(The things you learn when you write a blog everyday… Thank you Wikipedia.)

This reminded me of an article I read several years ago about the state Supreme Court in Alabama that had a monument to the Ten Commandments. Someone sued and a federal judge ruled that the monument had to be removed.

Furious, the chief justice in that courthouse refused and he was removed from his post.

Dude was pretty gangsta for the cause.

I have no problem with him getting removed from his post and all of that but I do pause a bit when it comes to religious stuff entering government.

I can see both sides.

It’s not like this just started happening. There are references to God in America’s founding texts. It is impossible to completely separate a person from their faith so of course one’s guiding principles will find their way into whatever institutions that they create.

But this country was also founded on the idea of freedom (and specifically economic and religious freedom). As we continue to strive to be a more perfect union do things like “In God We Trust” and monuments to the Ten Commandments have a place in our governmental space? Or are they like Slavery and Jim Crow; relics of the imperfection that generations of Americans have strived to cleanse from our union?

Of course as a Christian I see in the Ten Commandments and the other laws of Moses the foundation for the laws that we live by. So these things don’t bother me as much as they might someone who does not share my faith.

But also as a Christian I see many people in power who use God and Jesus’ name to promote laws and measures that are contrary to my faith.

So I guess there is no easy answer here.

But for those of you who wonder why there is so much hype about the Ten Commandments here they are. Check the link. Read them over. It’s good to read through them once if you haven’t in a while.

If not for any other reason then to know what it is that people like the ex chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court are willing to forsake their careers over.

Enjoy

The Ten Commandments

Today’s Reading: Exodus 21-22: Matthew 19

So Ungrateful...

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD. They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"- Exodus 14: 10-12

Stop it!

These are some super ungrateful folk. They just witnessed a series of wild miracles, the last of which took the first born of all the households in Egypt. All of this was done for them, so they could be free. And now they’re about two steps out of back breaking slavery and already they’re talking about going back.

Where is their fight? They’re ready to forfeit their freedom this quickly?

Shameful.

Well… when I keep it real with myself it’s not all that crazy to me.

What they are really saying here is that they are more afraid of the unknown than where they came from. The fresh wounds of slavery feel better than the question mark that this present path resembles.

Have you ever stayed in a situation way too long? Maybe it was a job, or a relationship. Maybe you’re a pack rat and don’t like to give things away and your apartment looks like that old man’s spot with newspapers stacked to the ceiling.

Or perhaps you’ve become too afraid to open your heart to new joy and happiness because of the pain and hurt you have stacked away in your heart…

When we keep it real, I think pretty much everyone can relate to the Israelites here in this situation. Sometimes we see the past through rose colored glasses when we compare it to the uncertainty of the present and future.

It can be hard to remember that the past is the past for a reason.

But it is this new time, ripe with the possibilities of life, love and hope that will lead to all that we have dreamed of and more.

And when along this new path we come across a tree, or road, or hill that looks familiar; perhaps it is time to take inventory of things. Retrace your steps. Take a look around. Make sure that this place that looks familiar isn’t the SAME place where you once were.

Even if you can not see your footprints in the dirt, it doesn’t mean that you haven’t been there before.

This is a recurring theme in the Exodus story. The Israelites will struggle with this for entirely too long.

So don’t be surprised if you read something similar to this from me again, if not for any other reason than it is as good a reminder for me as it is for anyone else.

Today’s Reading: Exodus 14-15; Matthew 17

Yeast

"This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD -a lasting ordinance. For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel." - Exodus 12: 14-15

"Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." – Matthew 16:6

Today’s reading from the Old Testament is the first Passover. It is the preparation for the last and final event where the first born of each house hold, human and animal, will be killed. God gives the people specific instructions so that they will be passed over, and not affected by this plague.

Coincidentally the New Testament portion of the reading has Jesus coming down hard on the Pharisees and Sadducees (the religious elite of Israel during the time of Jesus). He warns his disciples of the “yeast” of The Pharisees and Sadducees.

Huh?

Then I thought more about it and was like hmmm… ok yeast must be bad… but what is the message here.

Then after doing some digging around on the internet (and among the cobwebs of my mind) I remembered a very important thing about yeast. It changes the nature of bread when it is added. A very small amount of yeast goes a long way.

What I get from this is that it is really important that we keep good council.

Most of us are flooded with information. I for one have more information that I can handle. In November I got the fancy Droid phone and now have my facebook, twitter, email, news, text, apps all in my pocket.

The nerd in me is dancing a jig.

But I came to realize that not all of this information is good information.

The most problematic source in my pocket is Twitter. There are all kinds of people giving their two cents about life in 140 characters or less. Rick Warren, Rev Run, and Paulo Coelho are all people that I follow. They say insightful things that challenge me, make me laugh and overall stimulate my growth.

And then there are other folk on there…

There are folk who always have something negative to say, or insist on being argumentative, or just like to tear others down.

The more that I started to use twitter the more I realized I had to cut some of these folk out.

Not everyone that has something to say is saying something good.

An even smaller amount of these folk consistently say great things that will be beneficial for your life.

When we let these naysayers, discouragers, detractors, and haters into our lives they end up chipping away at our faith.

The Pharisees were trying to bait Jesus into showing “a sign from heaven” but he would not do it. Their baiting seems to say “You can’t do it; you must not be who you say you are”.

I’m sure that his disciples wanted Jesus to do it; and when he didn’t, they may have felt a twinge of doubt.

“Can He do a miracle on command? Maybe those pitchers already had wine in them?”

Doubt is like yeast to our faith. Once it takes hold it will multiply and bubble up and flourish to the point where our once strong faith has been mutated into fear.

It is important then to make sure that the people we are close to, the sources of information we most cherish, and the environments that we put ourselves in nourish the faith that we need to live our lives to the fullest.

Misery loves company. Nothing good comes of kickin’ it with that clown.

Today’s Reading: Exodus 12-13; Matthew 16

The Viral Plague

Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you. Now forgive my sin once more and pray to the LORD your God to take this deadly plague away from me."

Moses then left Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD. And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt. But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go. – Exodus 10: 16-20

The past two day’s readings in Exodus have been the story of Moses getting the people of Israel out of Egypt. After reading about the crazy plagues my first thought was this.

Those Egyptians were GANGSTA.

Pharaoh’s magicians matched the first three plagues tit for tat.

Drop your staff and have it turn into a snake. Easy.

Turn the Nile and other water into blood. That’s cool.

Make frogs rise up out of the Nile and go everywhere throughout the country… Yeah we got that handled too.

(God did earn style points for having Aaron’s staff gobble up the magicians’ staffs though.)

After these three, God upped the anti something vicious. Killer hail, boils, gnats, flies, locusts, darkness for three days. But still Pharaoh wouldn’t give up.

I had to admire his hustle.

Have you ever had a foe with this much determination?

I recently did: a computer virus.

Ok fine, it didn’t turn my shower water into blood or make bugs start popping up under my sheets but geez it nearly finished my computer, not to mention my ability to blog this weekend.

The sneak attack commenced Friday at around noon just before my physical therapy appointment and lasted through this morning. I had no idea what to do about it. So at the risk of further infection I went to Google and found a site called Geeks to Go.

The expert assigned to my case knew exactly what to do. It did take a couple of days but with his help my computer’s health was restored and I am able to get back to the creation of this illustrious blog.

Perhaps I’m being a bit silly here, but I think I felt a small bit of what Moses and Aaron felt in front of Pharaoh. That virus had a clutch on my computer like Pharaoh had on the people of Israel. And like Pharaoh, that virus’s heart was hardened beyond belief.

Given my relative position of defeat, I thought about surrendering… I pulled out my old Windows XP disk and tried to delete everything and reinstall a fresh copy.

I couldn’t even do that! Ultra wack.

It sucks to be faced with an adversary that has rendered you powerless. I was forced to seek outside help.

Sometimes we are in situations that are way too big for us to handle on our own. In these situations we have to be humble enough to know that we can’t handle it and ask for help. Help may come in the form of a fantastic miracle. But other times God works the miracles that we need through the people we have around us.

Whether it is Geeks to Go blessed with the technological prowess to kill a computer virus, or medical professional blessed with the know how to kill a physical virus within our bodies, we cannot forget to stay connected and stay humble.

After all, that’s what friends and family and our community are for. We are stronger together than we are on our own.

And when others call on us, we have the opportunity to be that same blessing in someone else’s life.

Today’s Reading: Exodus 9-11: Matthew 15:21-39

Who's the Boss?

Well according to this scripture it’s definitely not Tony Danza.

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

God said to Moses, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' " – Exodus 3: 13-14

How dope an introduction is that? Here’s my 2010 New International Clarence Version.

Moses: Ay what’s your name?

God: I am.

Moses: You are what?

God: I am.

Moses: Okaaaaay….

I read that and couldn’t help but laugh in admiration of God’s gangsta. But then I thought about it for a minute and was like wow, that’s profound.

When we think about the word “am”, it signifies being and existing. So the way I read it God is really saying that he is the source of being, the source of existence.

This a priori nature of God is a powerful concept for me. In a strange way it provides me with comfort. I feel like man, if the thing that created existence itself is on my team, I can’t help but win.

The only way I can lose is when I try to do things on my own.

I have started to realize that when I am in one of those down moments or down times or when everything seems to be going wrong it tends to be the case that I have also in some way walked away from God.

In a previous post I attached a link to the classic poem “Footprints”. In it the writer describes having a dream where she is walking with God on a beach and moments in her life flash in the sky. She notices that in the toughest moments there was only one set of footprints instead of two.

This upset her and she asked God why… and God said that it was at these moments that He carried her...

I've been there.

Sometimes I struggle with this idea of God being this all powerful, all knowing, all being entity; especially when things happen that I perceive as bad or hurtful to myself and others.

But when I remember God’s position, “I am”, in relation to my position, an itty bitty speck of existence in the history of the universe, it becomes easier to stay in my lane, and focus on my purpose.

As I keep on saying… we just gotta do the best that we can with what we have been given. Let God handle the rest.

The other stuff is above my pay grade.

Today's Reading: Exodus 1-3; Matthew 14: 1-21