The tailors and craftspeople did the work to make the vestments for Aaron to wear in his work as high priest (Exodus 39:1). This included making gold thread by beating gold into thin sheets, and then cutting these into fine strips that could be embroidered into the material (39:3).

The text includes extensive description of how particular stones were set into place, each of them engraved with the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel (39:10-14). The text provides details regarding the making of decorative gold cords and rings on the ceremonial breastplate (39:15-18), and the placement of decorative cloth pomegranates and gold bells on the hem of the robe (39:24-26). All of this exacting work needed to be done “as the Lord had commanded Moses” (39:1, 5, 7, 21, 26, 29, 31).

When everything was complete, Bezalel and Oholiab and all their helpers brought everything to Moses for his inspection: the tabernacle, the tent, the ark and the other furnishings, and the vestments for the priests (39:32-41). They “had done everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses” (39:32), the text says; and indeed it insists that this was so: “The Israelites had done all of the work just as the Lord had commanded Moses. When Moses saw that they had done all the work just as the Lord had commanded, he blessed them” (39:42-43).

This is such a contrast to our ordinary attitude, where we don’t generally expect that we need to obey nearly that scrupulously. We seem to be quite confident that God will be happy if we are more or less in the ballpark of what the directions said – and if we don’t even manage that, we seem quite confident that God will be happy enough just to forgive us anyway. Yet what would it be like, if we set ourselves to do the work exactly as our Lord commanded, and then found that we had indeed succeeded in fulfilling that purpose?

*****

You are the Lord, the king of the universe! And I am not. I am only a minor servant in your kingdom, O God, and surely it is my place to live and act and ponder in accordance with your will, rather than shrugging and supposing my ideas might be better than yours. Teach me diligence; teach me obedience: that I may fulfill your purpose with all my heart and soul and mind and strength.