We are just nearing the end of our Exodus study, we’re just around the corner from the final few verses, we’re going to take ourselves just about up to the end very end tonight, and appropriately the lesson for tonight is called “Finish The Work.”

We have been through this whole series of Exodus, and the whole point of course was to get them out of Egypt so they could go and do what? Worship God. So they’re instructed to build this tabernacle out in the desert and they’re getting it all ready for this grand worship service that will then take them on to the next many years of their life. They’re getting it all constructed, and tonight we’re going to look at finishing the work. This is “payday” for Moses and for you, too. If you’re working on a project for God, I want to encourage you to keep going and press on through that last step and enjoy the time when you get to finish the work and see the completion of all that you’re worked for.

We’re going to start reading here in the room, back in Chapter 39, starting in verse 32.

32 So all the work on the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, was completed. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD commanded Moses. 33 Then they brought the tabernacle to Moses: the tent and all its furnishings, its clasps, frames, crossbars, posts and bases; 34 the covering of ram skins dyed red, the covering of hides of sea cows [f] and the shielding curtain;

35 the ark of the Testimony with its poles and the atonement cover; 36 the table with all its articles and the bread of the Presence; 37 the pure gold lampstand with its row of lamps and all its accessories, and the oil for the light; 38 the gold altar, the anointing oil, the fragrant incense, and the curtain for the entrance to the tent; 39 the bronze altar with its bronze grating, its poles and all its utensils; the basin with its stand; 40 the curtains of the courtyard with its posts and bases, and the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard; the ropes and tent pegs for the courtyard; all the furnishings for the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting; 41 and the woven garments worn for ministering in the sanctuary, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when serving as priests.

42 The Israelites had done all the work just as the LORD had commanded Moses. 43 Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the LORD had commanded. So Moses blessed them.

1 Then the LORD said to Moses: 2 "Set up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the first month. 3 Place the ark of the Testimony in it and shield the ark with the curtain. 4 Bring in the table and set out what belongs on it. Then bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps. 5 Place the gold altar of incense in front of the ark of the Testimony and put the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.

6 "Place the altar of burnt offering in front of the entrance to the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting; 7 place the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar and put water in it. 8 Set up the courtyard around it and put the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard.

9 "Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy. 10 Then anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils; consecrate the altar, and it will be most holy. 11 Anoint the basin and its stand and consecrate them.

12 "Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water. 13 Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest. 14 Bring his sons and dress them in tunics. 15 Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests. Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue for all generations to come." 16 Moses did everything just as the LORD commanded him.

17 So the tabernacle was set up on the first day of the first month in the second year. 18 When Moses set up the tabernacle, he put the bases in place, erected the frames, inserted the crossbars and set up the posts. 19 Then he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering over the tent, as the LORD commanded him.

20 He took the Testimony and placed it in the ark, attached the poles to the ark and put the atonement cover over it. 21 Then he brought the ark into the tabernacle and hung the shielding curtain and shielded the ark of the Testimony, as the LORD commanded him.

22 Moses placed the table in the Tent of Meeting on the north side of the tabernacle outside the curtain 23 and set out the bread on it before the LORD, as the LORD commanded him.

24 He placed the lampstand in the Tent of Meeting opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle 25 and set up the lamps before the LORD, as the LORD commanded him.

26 Moses placed the gold altar in the Tent of Meeting in front of the curtain 27 and burned fragrant incense on it, as the LORD commanded him. 28 Then he put up the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.

29 He set the altar of burnt offering near the entrance to the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, and offered on it burnt offerings and grain offerings, as the LORD commanded him.

30 He placed the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar and put water in it for washing, 31 and Moses and Aaron and his sons used it to wash their hands and feet. 32 They washed whenever they entered the Tent of Meeting or approached the altar, as the LORD commanded Moses.

33 Then Moses set up the courtyard around the tabernacle and altar and put up the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard. And so Moses finished the work.

We’ll stop there right before God shows up in all his glory.

There’s a lot of detail here and you could skip over this and think it’s rather dull, but anybody who’s done a building project - Jamie, you’re in the middle of building a house, right? - and when you’ve got all that wood out there and all that stuff, the foundations and you have to put it all together, then finally you get to the end where you can set it up and get everything just the way you want it. And those are actually very beautiful days! Those are really, really exciting, and wonderful days!

And so, even though it sounds like a lot of detail, and maybe boring stuff, I’m sure this was not boring to them. Can you imagine they just carved all these beautiful things, just guilded all this stuff with gold, they created these beautiful works that have never been seen again, and then they start bringing them all forward to Moses and they start putting them all together and standing them up and getting them erected and put in place. They light the incense and put the testimony into the ark, and wow! That must have been a pretty powerful kind of scene.

Look back with me at 39, verses 2 and 3, and what does it say there that the people did? The Israelites did everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses. They finished it all off. Then down in verse 42 and 43 of that chapter, what does Moses do? Moses inspected the work himself that they had done it just as the Lord commanded, so Moses blessed them. So Moses’ role is to inspect everything, he looks over everything, makes sure it’s all right, done according to plan, and then he blesses the people. He blesses them all.

And he does this anointing service, doesn’t he down in verse 9 of chapter 40. What does he do there? He anointed basically the tabernacle and everything in it, so it would be holy. And then in verse 12, 13, 14, 15? He takes the anointing oil and anoints everything in the tabernacle, including the priests. He blesses them, he anoints them and blesses everything in there. And what day does he do this on? The first day of the first month of the second year.

So this has been just about a year, from the time that they left Egypt to the time when they got to their big worship service. We had our prayer and anointing service earlier in the series when we talked about preparing all of the materials for the anointing. We prayed and anointed the people and computers and the things that we were launching the new website with. There were people on the Internet from Latvia, and Denmark and around the States that participated in that and it was a great time to come together and see the work completed on the new website to minister to more people, and to pray for all those people and for those who were in the room.

We this study a year ago, a year’s worth of study, if you did one a week, if you’re following the same timeframe as they were, and it’s a long haul. A lot’s happened in our lives in a year.

That struck me that they put the bread on the table, which is the same thing we do in our Christian service. That we do in our communion. That’s a long haul. It was called bread from heaven, born in Bethlehem which is the house of bread. That theme just keeps going and going

I remember taking a college class and thinking about the myths we studied, there was some Greek mythology, and things. It was taught by a Christian professor, and each week he would talk about these stories that talked about the death and resurrection of one of these gods, or he talked about a virgin birth, or he’d talk about a different thing that has happened in different cultures. I remember going to him after a class one time with a friend, asking him how he reconciles that, how he feel about his Christianity when all these other religions do similar things?

And he said it only reinforces it for him, that the One Truth, that God has proclaimed is so strong that it pervades all kinds of other religions, that other people stumble onto it. There are flood stories in other religions, there are death and resurrection stories in other religions, there are virgin births in other religions, and it’s all based on the One Truth that we’ve all seen and known.

This (the Bible) is the longest recorded history we have of the world. The recordings we have covering the last 6,000 years is longer than any of the Chinese writings, longer than any Japanese writings, longer than any Indian writings, longer than Islamic writings, of course some of that’s carried over from here.

But this one, going back to Adam and Eve is the longest history we have. To me it could be in the category of all those other myths, but once I found out that certain key parts of it were true, it’s like that unlocked everything for me and I believe all of it’s true! I see it replicated in religion after religion, so rather than diminishing us, it strengthens us.

The thing that gives it power is the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. The fact that He died in our place, you know, if I were Muslim, I would still have to pay for my own sins. If I were Hindu, I would still have to pay for my own sins. If I were Buddhist, I would still have to pay for my own sins. Because Mohammed, as great as he might have been, did not die for my sins. Buddha did not die for my sins. Krishna did not die for my sins.

When you put your faith in Christ and He forgives you of those sins, that just gives you such a whole new life, a whole new experience. I know for me, on that day when I finally put my faith in Christ, He gave me an entirely new life. It was like a Damascus Road experience that Paul had, starting from that day on and it changed everything about my life.

The next day, it wasn’t that there was this dramatic difference externally. People wouldn’t know. I told people I became a Christian and they said, haven’t you gone to church all your life? They didn’t understand. But I knew that I had been going this way all my life, and God picked me up and put me on a path going this way. From that day on, everything that has happened since then has been a playing out of that decision to turn around. People didn’t see it when I was spinning on the dime there. But that was when I was working a secular job, living in some sinful relationships, doing stuff that I shouldn’t have been doing on the side.

I didn’t think I was that bad! I was having a great time! But when I turned, now I’m in full time ministry, I’m married to a woman that I never thought I’d be married to, I have six children that I never would have thought I would have, we homeschool our kids, we’ve been teaching them the faith of Jesus Christ. Everything related to my life, everything that I do now, is based on that decision back then. There is a power when you put your faith in Jesus Christ that doesn’t come from anything else. It might come in some sort of form or semblance. I know of Muslims who have come to a conclusion when they say they finally believe in the Koran and just what a lift that gives them. And yet they’re still going to have to pay for their own sins when it’s over. It may give you a lift for awhile, but it doesn’t give you that lift forever which is what you need to really take off.

Jamie: We as humans don’t have that power to stay away from those things. When you give your life to the Lord, you die, so He can enter your life and only He has the power to change your ways. As humans we can’t.

It makes me think of how Jesus is alive still. He said He wouldn’t leave us alone and He sends His Holy Spirit to live in us and empower us to do the things that we need to do. There are so many things that are distinct about the Christian religion that carries forward in a way that others can’t. Buddha’s dead. Krishna’s dead. It’s a fact. And yet Jesus still helps us.

I encourage you, if you have questions about that, to look in this book (the Bible) for yourself. Read it for yourself. Ask God to reveal the truth, ask Him to show it to you.

Rob, I’m going to put you on the spot. What difference has Christ made in your life this last year? If Christ wasn’t real and alive?

Rob: If Christ wasn’t real and alive, oh gosh, I don’t know where I’d be. It would be a whole different life. It wouldn’t have been good.

Eric: You wouldn’t have been hanging on to hope, however miniscule it might be, of God doing miraculous works in your life. You wouldn’t be holding onto a hope of the future, you wouldn’t be holding onto the hope of a marriage, you would be, maybe somewhere else.

Rob: I’d be reading a whole lot of different stuff I guess. I mean the answers that I’ve received in the last year, really truthfully in the last three months, they’re not always the answers that I’m wanting to hear, but then they’re the answers that God has, and they’re in His time. In some respects that’s frustrating, it’s kind of like, just give it to me now, give it to me now, and I guess I’m just not ready for what He’s wanting to give to me yet. It’s a journey. I just don’t want it to take 40 years, that’s all. But each and every day, you wake up and you have to learn to trust and to have faith. I get through each day, then get into the next one, then go to the next one. When I look back, I look at where I’m at today and I think back to three months ago or six months ago, and I’m better. I’m not where I want to be, but I’m better. And so, to look back two years ago, I’m immensely better than I was two years ago. And so I’ve learned more about how to trust Christ completely, to surrender everything. I don’t think I’ve figured that out quite yet, but I’m figuring it out. It’s something that I’m learning and growing through. And to search, the Bible talks about seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and I don’t think you will ever find it completely. But I think that you can grow closer to it. And as long as you continually search out and seek to know Christ more intimately, than you did the day before then you’re heading on the right path.

Father, thanks for this time together and letting us see how Moses was able to finish the work, and help us to finish the work you’ve given us as well. In Jesus’ name, Amen.