Author: John Tillman

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Exodus 39 Listen: (5:24) Read: Luke 21 Listen: (4:18)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Exodus 40 Listen: (4:07) Read: Luke 22 Listen: (7:58)
Read: Leviticus 1 Listen: (2:37) Read: Luke 23 Listen: (6:39)

Scripture Focus: Exodus 39.8-14

8 They fashioned the breastpiece—the work of a skilled craftsman. They made it like the ephod: of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen. 9 It was square—a span long and a span wide—and folded double. 10 Then they mounted four rows of precious stones on it. The first row was carnelian, chrysolite and beryl; 11 the second row was turquoise, lapis lazuli and emerald; 12 the third row was jacinth, agate and amethyst; 13 the fourth row was topaz, onyx and jasper. They were mounted in gold filigree settings. 14 There were twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.

Reflection: The Breastplate and The Cross

By John Tillman

Who is “near your heart?”

Westerners picture the heart as the seat of our emotions, identity, and self. When someone is near to our heart, their wellbeing is connected with ours. Our heart beats sympathetically with their sufferings. Our heart races with theirs in celebrations. Our heart aches for them when sin darkens their heart, turning them away from joy to bitterness, cynicism, anxiety, or abuse.

Most of scripture’s authors centered emotions in the bowels or diaphragm. We use these metaphors too, speaking about “gut feelings” or something “moving us” or “taking our breath away.”

Aaron’s jeweled breastplate covered his torso. The jewels represented Israel’s tribes. He bore the people near his heart. The breastplate was a tangible reminder of his task, to carry the people with him, representing them before God. Its weight reminded Aaron that he bore their sins and the responsibility to lead them towards righteousness. The gems reflected light from the lampstands in God’s presence, as Aaron and the people were to reflect God’s light to the world.

Who do you carry near your heart? Your spouse? Your family? Your friends and other loved ones? Carrying someone near to your heart is a priestly duty. But there is another wrinkle to our “priestly garments.”

Christ is our high priest, not Aaron. Christ’s holy of holies, where he made atonement was Calvary. Jesus bore no breastplate. He bore the cross for us while we were ungodly. He demonstrated love for us while we were sinners. He died for us while we were his enemies. He prayed, “Father forgive them” over his persecutors.

Our priestly duty goes beyond those for whom we already bear affection. (Luke 6.27-35) As priests under Christ, our enemies must also be on our hearts. We must bear the cross to love, sacrifice, pray for, and seek the good of our enemies as well as our loved ones.

Seeking an enemy’s good doesn’t mean seeking their success in doing evil. The greatest good we can seek for them is to know Christ and repent. Following that, we can pray that they “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly” (Micah 6.8) with God. Failing that, we can pray that their evil will fail to accomplish its purpose.

In your heart, set apart Christ as Lord (1 Peter 3.15) and carry all people, both loved ones and enemies, before him with heartfelt prayers.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; we bless you from the house of the Lord. — Psalm 118.26

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Garments of Peace — Guided Prayer

Aaron’s heart felt the weight of Jacob’s children…May our hearts be weighted with loving concern for our communities.

Read more: Enemies Becoming One People

When you even talk about loving your enemies, you can be called a traitor. “Don’t you understand how dangerous they are? You are enabling them!”

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Exodus 38 Listen: (4:23) Read: Luke 20 Listen: (5:07)

Scripture Focus: Exodus 38.21

21 These are the amounts of the materials used for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the covenant law, which were recorded at Moses’ command by the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron, the priest.

Reflection: Counting God’s Plunder

By John Tillman

Why is Ithamar’s account of gifts to the Tabernacle in the Bible? What’s holy about a spreadsheet?

Ithamar wasn’t crediting the people’s generosity. He was counting God’s plunder.

Israel didn’t mine gold for the Tabernacle. They didn’t purchase it or trade for it or find it in their desert wanderings. The Egyptians gave it to them.

As Pharaoh’s heart hardened, God softened ordinary Egyptians’ hearts toward their Israelite neighbors. Faith-filled Israelite women obeyed God and asked their Egyptian neighbors for silver, gold, and clothing. When Israelite women asked, Egyptians gave freely. God described this as “plundering” the Egyptians. God’s blessings passed through female hands. (Exodus 3.21-22)

In the film, The Princess Bride, the man in black pursues Vizzini and his captive princess. Vizzini accuses the man in black of “trying to kidnap what I have rightfully stolen.” Jesus described himself as a thief, tying up a “strong man” in order to plunder his house. In the Exodus, God proved himself stronger than all the Egyptian gods, tying them up with his plagues. Then he plundered Egypt, liberating both people and possessions. When God steals, he liberates that which does not belong to those who hold it. Christ kidnaps what Satan has rightfully stolen.

In Christ, we are liberated from a kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of light (Colossians 1.13) and gifted with blessings we did not earn. (2 Corinthians 8.9) What the world gives us is not from the world anymore than what the Egyptians gave the Israelites was from Egypt. Neither spiritual nor material blessings belong to us. They are God’s plunder.

When was the last time you accounted for the blessings, the plunder, of God? Like Ithamar, you may need a spreadsheet.

Accounts of God’s blessings often contain moments of actual accounting. Biblical authors regularly note the numerical facts of miraculous events in both the Old and New Testaments. The water jars that were turned to wine held up to thirty gallons. (John 2.6) Over 4,000 people were fed. (Matthew 15.38) 3,000 people were added to their number. (Acts 2.41)

You carry God’s plunder. Have you accounted for it? What are you doing with it? (Luke 19.13)

With God’s plunder, Israel built the Tabernacle—an embassy of Eden where the sovereignty of heaven overlapped and overruled the sovereignty of the world. Put God’s plunder to work as his ambassadors to the world. Make holy space from which God’s blessings flow to all nations and in which slaves can find freedom.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you: O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not worship a foreign god.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and said, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” — Psalm 81.8-10

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

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Read more: The Gospel Heist

What has sin taken? What traps you? Are you blind, deaf, or dumb? Lame, leprous, or lifeless? Jesus comes to steal you back and set you free.

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Exodus 36 Listen: (4:47) Read: Luke 18 Listen: (5:27)

Scripture Focus: Exodus 36.2-6

2 Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. 3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. 4 So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing 5 and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.” 6 Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, 7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.

Reflection: When Is It Enough?

By John Tillman

Talking about money is intimidating, so ministers tend to deflect with humor.

Pastors often joke about this passage, saying: “It’s the only time in the history of God’s people when leaders had to tell people to stop giving instead of begging them to start giving.”

Faithful ministers don’t want to be associated with flamboyant huckster prosperity gospelers who abuse people and wealth. We also feel the lingering influence of the early pilgrims and Puritans. They viewed Europe’s ornamented cathedrals as a gateway to idolatry and adopted an austere aesthetic that remains stuck in the American consciousness.

Whenever a church or ministry does something “big,” such as a new building, production, film, or advertising campaign, Americans question the cost. “Shouldn’t they have fed the poor with this money?” (John 12.4-6)

Americans call ministers greedy if their salaries are similar to leaders of similarly-sized organizations. If they show signs of affluence or success, we question their character.

Because of this, ministers fear perceptions of materialism when asking for money. I fall into this trap too. I don’t talk often enough about our ministry’s financial needs.

The reality is that the ministries and ministers that you know live in the same economy you do. Their housing, food, transportation, and energy costs are comparable to yours. Ministries need cash flow, just like you. The church can’t pay its electric bill with handshakes. Websites don’t run on high-fives.

Bezalel stops the people’s giving because he recognizes when he has enough to do the job. The people were asked to give “from what you have” (Exodus 35.5), and “everyone who was willing” contributed. (Exodus 35.21) The people would never have given if they didn’t realize what they had was more than enough. How do you define enough?

I have seen Bezlel-like leaders say “enough” when giving campaign goals were met. I’ve seen projects built without special giving because the church had already given enough. But many ministries have unmet financial needs or work that is paused due to lack of funds.

Generosity and good leadership require the ability to recognize when we have enough. Do we recognize when we have enough? As individuals? As communities? As ministers? As leaders? Or will we just keep consuming, spending, upgrading, endlessly?

God does not require austerity. He promises abundance. Are we living and giving from abundance? Or are we forcing others to operate in austerity because we can’t say, “I have enough”?

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; wash me, and I shall be clean indeed. — Psalm 51.8

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Work, Ministry, and Generosity

Which church are you? Are you receiving ministry funded by others or are you supporting ministry to others in need?

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Exodus 32 Listen: (5:47) Read: Luke 14 Listen: (4:36)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Exodus 33 Listen: (3:49) Read: Luke 15 Listen: (4:19)
Read: Exodus 34 Listen: (5:48) Read: Luke 16 Listen: (4:27)

Scripture Focus: Exodus 32.1-6

32 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” 2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,  Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

Image Credit: Moses Indignant at the Golden Calf, painting by William Blake, 1799–1800

Reflection: Golden Calves

By John Tillman

The Golden Calf, Goliath, and the Good Samaritan are biblical stories that are fully integrated into our cultural vernacular.

These phrases embody cultural messages with metaphorical power. Sometimes these messages are not entirely biblically accurate or miss the point of the biblical narratives from which they are appropriated.

In the case of the Golden Calf, the cultural and biblical meanings are similar. Merriam-Webster defines “Golden Calf” as a noun, meaning “an object of materialistic or unworthy worship.” In our culture, this worship is not necessarily religious in nature.

In 1912, political cartoonist Joseph Keppler’s drawing of the Statue of Liberty replaced by a Golden Calf critiqued politicians for pursuing wealth and materialism. It wasn’t the first time Keppler used the image. In 1880, Keppler depicted former president Grant as the Golden Calf with Republicans clamoring for him to seek a third term.

The Golden Calf lesson applies to worship, politics, wealth, power, traditions, leaders, and other areas. Anytime a person or group betrays their principles or bows down to something or someone not worthy of admiration, the Golden Calf image appears and is applicable. (Exodus 32.24) It’s extraordinarily difficult to not think of the Golden Calf when some people or their followers literally build or share images of them as a golden statue…

Golden Calves are useful to the powerful. Centuries after Sinai’s Golden Calf, following Israel’s rebellion against Judah, Jeroboam made Golden Calves to prevent worshipers traveling to Judah. (1 Kings 12.26-28) Jeroboam’s politically-motivated calf idols repeated the cycle of replacing God with “worship.”

The worship was real. The object was false. There are still politically-motivated and religiously-motivated Golden Calves in our world.

Sometimes, like Moses, we must speak out to confront the calf worshippers. We also must examine ourselves to see if we are repeating the sins of Aaron or the people.

Like Aaron, are we caving to the crowd? Are we blessing or tolerating idolatry that enriches or empowers us? Are we lying (just a little) to avoid responsibility?

Like the people, have we given up on God or godliness? Are we impatient with the intangible? Are we replacing the spiritual with the political? Are we willing to worship a comfortable lie? Are we pressuring leaders to give us the god we want in place of the God of the Bible?

Watch out for Golden Calves in every part of your life. When (not if) you find them, grind them to dust.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught the people, saying: “Now sentence is being passed on this world; now the prince of the world is to be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself.” — John 12.31-32

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Lasting Revivals and Normal Idols

The idols of a culture don’t always dress up in flamboyant costumes. They often hide in normality and ubiquity.

Read more: Slavery to Maturity

There will be false prophets and deceptions. We pressure our leaders to make Golden Idols and they, like Aaron, do so.