Wisdom International Devotionals

by Seth Davey

  Pressing Onward Exodus 40:36-38 Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.   What a poetic way for Moses to end this journal called Exodus, repeating once again the visual of God’s abiding presence in our lives as a cloud by day and a fire by night. That’s the Spirit’s work in our hearts, isn’t it? We as pilgrims don’t lead the way through the present wilderness—He does. We don’t blaze our own trails from our own insight, but we rely on His foresight. We listen to His voice and seek His face. And if we wake up tomorrow morning and find that He isn’t moving us to take that new job or sign that contract or start that ministry or move cross-country o...

  Unwritten Prayers Exodus 40:18 & 33 b Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid its bases, and set up its frames, and put in its poles, and raised up its pillars. … So Moses finished the work.   Conversations have taken place behind the scenes of this tabernacle construction between God and Moses that I wish Moses had recorded for us. Moses doesn’t just spontaneously start adding all these finishing touches. The broader context of Exodus 40 continually adds the phrase,  “Moses did it just as the LORD commanded him,”  which implies that somewhere along the way, God specifically commissions Moses to finish the work himself. And that’s the missing dialogue of Exodus 40.   In pondering how that dialogue might’ve gone, it strikes me that Moses spent a good portion of his early life living in the fineries of Pharaoh’s palace, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he shared David’s grand desire to build a house for God. And like David, I wonder if it stung him a little that ...

  Blood on Our Hands Exodus 40:12-13 & 15 b “Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and shall wash them with water and put on Aaron the holy garments. And you shall anoint him and consecrate him, that he may serve me as priest. … And their anointing shall admit them toa perpetual priesthood throughout their generations.”   That Aaron is the recipient of this holy commission after he sullied his hands with that golden calf is a remarkable act of divine mercy. But what if someone objects to this coronation in the days and weeks to come? What if someone walks up to Aaron in private, spits at his feet, and says, “How dare you use  those hands   that fashioned that idol to light these candles and clean these holy vessels and mop these floors! What gives  you  the right to stand here after what you did?!” If Aaron is still unrepentant, he might retort back a list of credentials: “Well, you’re forgetting a few things: th...

  Goodness: the Greatest Blessing Exodus 39:43 And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the LORD had commanded, so they had done it. Then Moses blessed them.   Time and time again, we’ve pointed out the way Moses chooses words and phrases that mirror the Creation account in Genesis 1, and Exodus 39:43 might be the clearest example yet. It reads as a mirror image to Genesis 1:31, which says,  “And God saw everything he had made, and behold, it was very good.”  Did you catch the significant difference though? It’s far from trivial. “Behold! It was very good,” Moses writes of God’s work. But he describes the people’s work differently: “Behold! They did it as the LORD commanded them.” That’s pivotal—literally, Moses pivots from his earlier language to describe a contrast between God and image-bearing man. For one, God’s work is good because  He   is good. Unlike us, He’s untainted by sin, undeterred by distractions, unhindered by mistakes; s...

  Shimmering in the Fire Exodus 39:32-33 Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished, and the people of Israel did according to all that the LORD had commanded Moses; so they did. Then they brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent and all its utensils, its hooks, its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases.   For the last thirty-four chapters Moses has been the one delivering divine gifts to the people. Everything from miraculous signs to Red Sea escapes to covenantal laws to streams of water from a rock to judicial systems; but now it’s their turn to return the favor. Effectively, God has allowed Moses to sit this one out thus far. I’m sure Moses has overseen the process; I’m sure he’s offered words of affirmation to the diligent women serving at the tent and given enthusiastic approval to the hardworking men abiding by Bezalel’s orders; but he hasn’t yet stretched out his miracle staff to complete the work himself. In fact, God is doing a fa...

  On Holy Ground We Tread Exodus 39:30 They made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote on it an inscription, like the engraving of a signet, “Holy to the LORD.”   From burning bush callings to Red Sea crossings to covenantal signings to tabernacle workings to priestly anointings, we can think of this memoir called Exodus as the plate on the holy crown of divine Scripture, bearing the inscription on every page, “Holy to the LORD.”   At first glance, that holiness has felt heavy at times, hasn’t it? It’s billowed from a mountain peak, thundered through thick, impenetrable clouds, swept through the city as a thief in the night to kill the firstborn of the impenitent, proclaimed death to Sabbath violators, demanded sacramental circumcisions and sacrifices and tithes, and more. Holiness has seemed fierce, like a tempest; not calm, like a peace that passes understanding. It’s seemed burdensome, like a load of bricks on a slave’s back; not easy, like a lover’s pend...

  You, Me, and Other Gemstones  Exodus 39:9b-13 They made the breastpiece doubled, a span its length and a span its breath when doubled. And they set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle was the first row; and the second row, an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; and the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; and the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in settings of gold filigree.   The church is a coat of many colors: a breastpiece of light-refracting gems that bathe the Father’s heart in a kaleidoscope of hues.    To even try to describe the effect that these gems produce under the light would be like trying to describe the Northern Lights from a Norwegian mountain and a summer sunset over the Grand Canyon and a circle of rainbows over Niagara Falls and a Caribbean view of a blue whale migration and the first snowfall over an Alaskan lake all at the same time! Even if our finite minds could so...

  Mirror, Mirror Exodus 38:8 He made the basin of bronze and its stand of bronze, from the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered in the entrance of the tent of meeting.   Can it be of little significance that Moses breaks up his typical narrative structure to tell us specifically where the bronze for this sacramental wash basic comes from? This is the only instance where he does this. Exodus 38:8 reminds me of the proverb that says,  “Beauty is fleeting, and charm is deceptive, but a woman who fears the LORD, she is to be praised.”  And of 1 Peter 3:3-4, which says:  “Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair or putting on gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”  And of 1 Samuel 16:17, which says:  “God does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but Go...

  Faith, Worked Out Exodus 37:1 a  & 10 a  & 17 a  & 25 a  & 29 Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood. … He also made the table of acacia wood. … He also made the lampstand of pure gold. … He made the altar of incense of acacia wood. … He made the holy anointing oil also, and the pure fragrant incense, blended as by the perfumer.   Exodus 37 chronicles the unprecedented work that Bezalel completes and supervises and administers, work that deserves the highest display in heaven’s echelon of marvels, yet the most exceptional aspect of this extravagant production is not that Bezalel achieved so much on his own, but that he performed his tasks exactly as God had prescribed.  “Not my will but Yours be done,”   said our Lord in His darkest hour.  “He must increase and I must decrease,”   said John the Baptizer to his disciples. There’s a simple formula for being remarkable in God’s eyes, and it’s this: work out God’s unique bluep...

  Love—in Excess Exodus 36:3 b -5 & 6 b -7 They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task he was doing, and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the LORD has commanded us to do.” … So the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.   Had this tabernacle construction taken place in a different era of Israel’s history, under a less stalwart leader, I can imagine Exodus 36 reading quite a bit differently. What if King Saul’s captains had rushed up to him and exclaimed, “Oh king, the melted gold and scarlet threads and acacia wood-beams are piling up out back—what do we do with the surplus?” I think Saul might’ve said, “Keep them coming!” And Gideon might’ve made an ephod out of the precious metals to add to his memorabilia. And Solomon might’ve built anot...

  A Hand-Me-Down Art Exodus 35:30-31 & 34 Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship. … And he has inspired him to teach, both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan.”   Moses repeats his earlier description of Bezalel almost verbatim, yet with one addition: “And he has inspired him to teach.” That’s seems significant to me, friend, because Bezalel can’t pass on his unrivaled genius to would-be craftsmen, of course; he can’t simply copy and paste his superior mental vision onto a parchment so that future innovators can share his mind. But he  can   demonstrate to all those with willing hands and serving hearts the basics of each craft so that they, too, expert or novice, can imitate their God through this good and holy creative endeavor....

  Gendered Language Exodus 35:22a, 25, 29 So they came, both men and women. … And every skillful woman spun with her hands, and they all brought what they had spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. … All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the LORD had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the LORD.   What I’m about to say would’ve been obvious to people reading this a hundred years ago, and I pray it will be just as obvious to people reading it a hundred years from now (not that there will be any of those), but such is the insanity of our present age that the fact needs repeating: “God made man in His image,  male and female   He made them.” To comprehend God’s image in mankind is to first recognize the distinction between masculinity and femininity, and then to behold what comes uniquely from the marriage of the two. Think of it like this: a man gr...

  The Afterglow  Exodus 34:29-30 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.   This ongoing response of fear that Aaron and the people express toward God’s glory continues to hamper their progression in holiness, but I’m more immediately struck by the fact that Moses doesn’t know his face is glowing. I see in this afterglow a principle for the way our own communion with God shines out across a watching world in ways that we, too, don’t quite see or understand.    This is where virtue is so imperative to our lives of faith. As my missionary grandpa used to say, “God can shine through a broken glass, but not a dirty one,” which is another way of saying that unconfessed sin ha...

  Moses and the Red Letters Exodus 34:27-28 And the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.   Let’s contrast Moses’ forty-day excursion on Mt. Sinai with Christ’s forty-day excursion in the wilderness and see what we can uncover.   Luke 4 relays the scene of our Lord’s endeavor in this way: “ And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live by bread alone.”’”   The first contrast I notice i...

  Exodus 34:6-7 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”   One of my all-time favorite literary classics is Dostoevsky’s redemptive tale called  Crime and Punishment , and I can still vividly recall the day on which I read it, and the way it transported my spirit from the dreary London smog to a sanctuary of sunshine. See, it’s trendy nowadays to speak of divine love and justice in the terms expressed here in Exodus 34:6, of God being merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and forgiving sin, but then comes the period. We don’t like to talk of punishment, do we?  Crime and Forgiveness —that’s the abridged version...

  Unbreakable Exodus 34:1 The LORD said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.”   One thing we learn time and time again throughout the ongoing chronicles of human history is that you can’t break the words of God. Think of some of those first words that started the whole drama, such as,  “Let there be light!”,   and  “Let the seas swarm with living creatures”,   and  “let their be stars in the heavens to mark signs and seasons.”  These words of genitive power have pulsated through the universe ever since, binding every atom, holding every molecule, connecting all things in perfect harmony and balance, and there’s nothing we can do to stop them. We can deny them of course—deny that God ever spoke the words, deny that these words are still speaking with perpetual potency. We can even craft theories of origin and pretend that the cosmo...

  On the Face of It Exodus 33:18, 20, 22-23 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” … He said, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live … I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”   If someone were to ask you the question today, “Why can’t we see God’s face?”, say that person was an inquisitive son or grandson, or maybe even a neighbor you’d been witnessing to who just started reading through the Bible for the first time, or perhaps an agnostic acquaintance who liked to stump you whenever the chance arose, how would you answer? Think about that for a moment. Ponder the mystery. Spin it around in your mind. What would you say?   This is the paradox of spiritual yearning. Like Moses, we long to see God’s undiluted glory; we wish so badly that we could gaze into the one face that has remained invisible for all of ...

  The Distinguishing Mark Exodus 33:14-16 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”   How marvelous that in a Pentateuch where Almighty God distinguishes His people through hundreds of sacramental expressions, touching everything from civil practices to food preparation to waste management, the spirit of these voluminous letters is clearly given in Scriptures like Exodus 33:16. Ultimately, the real distinguishing mark between believers and unbelievers is not in anything we put on or cut off or take in or deprive ourselves of, but in the presence of God throughout our lives of faith.    Maybe you’ve chosen to give up alcohol, friend, or you don...

  A Plot Twist Exodus 33:8-10 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the LORD would speak with Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door.   Why can’t the whole Book of Exodus just end right here after this verse? What a fairytale of redemption the story would be! Talk about a turnaround! This, to me, is every bit as dramatic and unprecedented as the conversion of Judah’s life we witnessed back in Genesis. Remember how Judah masterminded Joseph’s enslavement, profited from it, kept the lie hidden for years even to his father’s hurt, fornicated with a relative disguised as a prostitute and tried to kill her when she became pregnant? He was a coward...

  Sabbath Psalm (Revision of Frank Bottome’s hymn, ‘The Comforter Has Come’)   O spread the tidings round, Wherever man is found, Wherever human hearts and human woes abound;  Let saints’ and angels’ tongues proclaim the joyful sound: The Comforter has come!   The long, dark night is past, The morning breaks at last, And hushed the dreadful wail and fury of the blast, As oe’r the golden hills the day advances fast: The Comforter has come!   Lo, the great King of kings, With healing in His wings, To ev’ry captive soul a full salvation brings; And thru the vacant cells the song of triumph rings: The Comforter has come!   O boundless love divine! How can these words of mine Condense such Incarnation in so poor a line— That men of dust like me should in Your image shine! The Comforter has come!

  Come Away with Me Exodus 33:7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the LORD would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.   “Seek the LORD where He may be found,”   Isaiah calls to us, and God’s tent of meeting has always required a search of some sort. It draws us away from the hub of human innovation and worldly industry to places like a manger in the hill region stewarded by poor shepherds, and a cross on a ridge full of shadows, and an empty tomb during the twilight hours when most people are fast asleep. For me, this Exodus 33 vision of Moses disappearing with his shepherd staff over a hill to seek the Lord, and the repetition of phrases like ‘outside the camp’ and ‘far off,’ paint the principle that the path to divine communion is not a well-worn one. It’s more like a country backroad than a city highway. More like an overgrown trail th...

  A Critical Departure Exodus 33:1 a  & 3-4 The LORD said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt … Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.   Are you as surprised as I am by the people’s response here in verse 4? This is really good news! Aren’t these the same pilgrims who have clamored to go back to Egypt where they had food and comforts aplenty? Haven’t they preferred to keep God at a distance, too frightened to go with Moses into the deep darkness of holiness, content—no, adamant—to gaze into the cloud of Providence from afar? These are the sort of materialistic, earthly-minded, hard-hearted people I’d expect to jump at the chance of attaining the Promised Land without God being there to constantly chaperone them...

  Down with the Ship Exodus 32:30-32 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”   I could imagine a modern, cynical sort of journalist spinning the facts of this Exodus record into a narrative that casts a shadow over Moses’ achievements. The thesis would go like this: Moses’ privileged upbringing gives him a leg up among his brothers; he exploits his exalted position and fashions a plot to ‘deliver’ them from oppression; and the power he gains vaults him to a position of prominence that he hadn’t even known as a prince in Egypt. Conclusion: Moses represents a stale, patriarchal, toxic model of leadership that oppresses people rather than delive...

  The Good Fight Exodus 32:26-28 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the LORD’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you kill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell.   We shouldn’t just accept the encouraging parts of Scripture and avert our eyes from the devastating parts. That isn’t how we grow in our understanding of God’s heart, nor how we progress in our imitation of His character. Ultimately, that’s why I’ve felt compelled to include difficult passages in these devotionals, like the laws in Exodus 21 related to slave ownership, because if we effectively spend all our time dancing around the base of Sinai, never feeling the strain i...