Exodus 25:23-30 (ESV)
“You shall make a table of acacia wood. Two cubits shall be its length, a cubit its breadth, and a cubit and a half its height. You shall overlay it with pure gold and make a molding of gold around it. And you shall make a rim around it a handbreadth wide, and a molding of gold around the rim. And you shall make for it four rings of gold, and fasten the rings to the four corners at its four legs. Close to the frame the rings shall lie, as holders for the poles to carry the table. You shall make the poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold, and the table shall be carried with these. And you shall make its plates and dishes for incense, and its flagons and bowls with which to pour drink offerings; you shall make them of pure gold. And you shall set the bread of the Presence on the table before me regularly.
The phrase And you shall make occurs so many times in this book it is hard to count. The word for make in the Hebrew is used over 3,500 times in the Old Testament and 650+ of them it is translated make. They are told to make, in this section, the Table for the Show Bread. But the focus of this post is more on this notion of the nation of Israel being told to make all these things from the Mercy Seat to the Tent to the Ark of the Covenant to the Curtains, etc.
To put this in perspective, they are living in tents in the wilderness. They are moving from place to place. Their enemies are all around them. They are gathering mana from heaven each morning for food and drinking water that, at times, has to be brought out of a rock. In the midst of all this they are told to make all the items for the Tabernacle and there is not Home Depot for centuries.
This is an absolute miracle of God as He instructs them, provided for them when they left Egypt (with the goods the Egyptian showered with them when they left), and provided talented people with skills in these crafts to created this magnificent Tabernacle in the wilderness. It could be disassembled in a moment and transported over rough terrain, only to be reassembled and up in operation upon arrival to its next location.
Many miracles are recorded in the Bible. This is probably not one that is often referred to when we count them. But where God calls, He equips. Where God demands we make He provides the ability to do so. Nothing God calls us to do is every absent God’s power to do it.
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