A Blessing on Obedience

Again and again in Exodus 35:30–39:31, we have been told that the Israelites followed exactly the instructions God had given for crafting the tabernacle and its associated elements (Ex. 25–31). Today’s passage gives us the reason that Moses could make such an evaluation. At the completion of the tabernacle, the people brought everything to Moses for his inspection (Ex. 39:32–43).

Moses was the only person on earth at the time who could verify that Israel had done a good job. After all, the Lord had conveyed the plans for the tabernacle to Moses, who then passed them on to the people. Moreover, as the covenant mediator, Moses stood between the Israelites and God, so he could deliver the word that the Lord approved of their work because they had done everything that they were supposed to. As John Calvin notes, Moses was an “excellent and unimpeachable witness that their labor was pleasing to God.”

That the Israelites successfully accomplished the task is explicitly stated in the text in Exodus 39:32, 42–43. Yet divine approval is also seen in that Moses blessed the people after inspecting the tabernacle components (Ex. 39:43). Moses does not tell us exactly what he said when he gave the blessing, but one commentator suggests that it was probably just a short prayer, perhaps even the Aaronic benediction recorded in Numbers 6:22–27 or a variation of it. In any case, the very fact of the blessing is yet another example of the general biblical teaching that blessing comes to those who obey the Lord (Deut. 28:14; James 1:25). Certainly, it can be hard to quantify these blessings, and on this side of glory, there is not always an exact one-to-one correlation between the degree of our obedience and what we might think is a “proper” degree of blessing. Still, we can affirm Matthew Henry’s comments on today’s passage that “those whom God employs he will bless, and those whom he blesses are blessed indeed.”

Finally, let us not miss how the approval of the work of the people was gracious condescension to the Israelites. The golden calf incident had occurred not long before this, and the people of God surely dealt with some lingering unease over their relationship with the Lord, since it had almost been irreparably broken (see Ex. 32–34). Divine approval through Moses of the Israelites’ work on the tabernacle gave them further assurance that they were back in a right relationship with the Creator and could move forward in confidence. Our Father loves to assure His people that they have been forgiven.