Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor. Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest.
Exodus 28:2-3
Not everyone can do everything. We live in a Hollywood, comic strip fantasy world that has created the illusion that there are select few who are the heroes who will save us from the overpowering enemy. These super-heroes are invincible. They can withstand any opposition and conquer any enemy. The battle might be in doubt at times but they always win. Sometimes we think that is what a really spiritual believer is to be – invincible! They can live by the motto that God will never allow anything to happen to us that they can’t handle. They are rock solid in the worst of times and never flinch no matter what.
The obvious problem with this is that is not the way the Christian life works… at all! God’s power is perfected in our weakness, which does mean that God (always) changes us from being ordinary people to being super-human like Sampson. When our weakness exposes our vulnerability then God’s grace is sufficient for us (2 Cor.12:9-10). Our triumph is not showing our invincibility, but that the power is from God and not ourselves (2 Cor. 4:7). Our faith is not about our self-sufficiency, but our dependence upon God. Our faithfulness is anchored to walking in the Spirit, not a self-directed legacy.
Exodus 1-18 – Israel’s deliverance; 19-24 – God’s new covenant with Israel after their deliverance out of Egypt; 25-27 – the building of the tabernacle; 28-29 – God constitutes the High priests and consecrates them. Within the creation of this High Priestly role God commands garments that are designed for “dignity and honor”. The ESV states it a little differently saying these garments are for “glory and beauty.” (v. 2).
What it tells us is that when we are serving the Lord and he asks us to serve Him, he deserves the best of what we can do. There is often an idea in ministry that if it is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. In other words if it really is worth doing and God calls us to do it, we need to do it no matter how badly we stumble through it. I certainly get the point – if God calls us to do something and we have no skilled people who “really know how to do it” then our best efforts with the best people is worth doing even if comparatively speaking, it is not great. When Ezra rebuilt the temple we are told the older men wept while others sang praise. The older ones had seen the glory of Solomon’s temple and this was not it. And yet because that which was destroyed was now back in place, they celebrated God’s goodness.
But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
This does not mean that we commit to using the most inept people to carry out responsibilities so that we force God to step in and prove his sufficiency. Notice God’s statement: “Tell all the skilled workers to whom I have given wisdom in such matters…” I believe we have to work with the people God has given to us. That being said, it is good to use the best skilled people to do certain kinds of ministry. Why? Not because we are trying to be professional, but we are trying to honor God. It is ok for us to find those to whom God has given a certain skill set to honor the Lord with not only what we do but how we do it.
Pastor Brad
