2024: Resolving Grace

I want to write more in 2024. This post was sparked by our morning family bible reading this week. We read these words in Exodus 36:

⁸ All those who were skilled among the workers made the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by expert hands. ⁹ All the curtains were the same size—twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide. ¹⁰ They joined five of the curtains together and did the same with the other five. ¹¹ Then they made loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and the same was done with the end curtain in the other set. ¹² They also made fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other. ¹³ Then they made fifty gold clasps and used them to fasten the two sets of curtains together so that the tabernacle was a unit.

It goes on, and at first sight that may not look like the most exciting of bible readings. Especially as it is a near repeat of these words in Exodus 26:

 “Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim woven into them by a skilled worker. ² All the curtains are to be the same size—twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide. ³ Join five of the curtains together, and do the same with the other five. ⁴ Make loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and do the same with the end curtain in the other set. ⁵ Make fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other. ⁶ Then make fifty gold clasps and use them to fasten the curtains together so that the tabernacle is a unit.

You can play spot the difference if you like – but the differences are tiny. And chapters 35-40 of Exodus go on like this, repeating the same detail of Exodus 25-31. In Exodus 25-31 we get the detail of how the Israelites are to construct the tabernacle, and in Exodus 35-40 we get the details of how they did in fact construct the tabernacle. And each time, more or less, the details match. Take the bronze altar for example:

Exodus 27 gives the instructions:

“Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide. ² Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece, and overlay the altar with bronze. ³ Make all its utensils of bronze—its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans. ⁴ Make a grating for it, a bronze network, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the network. ⁵ Put it under the ledge of the altar so that it is halfway up the altar. ⁶ Make poles of acacia wood for the altar and overlay them with bronze. ⁷ The poles are to be inserted into the rings so they will be on two sides of the altar when it is carried. ⁸ Make the altar hollow, out of boards. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain.

And Exodus 38, the construction:

38 They built the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood, three cubits high; it was square, five cubits long and five cubits wide.² They made a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar were of one piece, and they overlaid the altar with bronze. ³ They made all its utensils of bronze—its pots, shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans. ⁴ They made a grating for the altar, a bronze network, to be under its ledge, halfway up the altar. ⁵ They cast bronze rings to hold the poles for the four corners of the bronze grating. ⁶ They made the poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze. ⁷ They inserted the poles into the rings so they would be on the sides of the altar for carrying it. They made it hollow, out of boards.

Exodus 39 summarizes it like this:
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.

As a modern reader it is tempting to ask the question. Why not just say Exodus 39:42-43? Why do we get all this detail. There are a number of different aspects to the answer. The aspect that struck me is that the details of the tabernacle construction are given after the Israelites apostasy in worshipping the golden calf, and Moses’ intercession for them, and the renewing of the covenant.

God has indicated that he forgives Israel – Exodus 34:9-10 – but the assurance of that forgiveness comes in the very practical, almost mundane world of Exodus 35-40. God’s forgiveness is shown by the way that the Israelites are allowed to build the tabernacle – which is how God will come to live among his people – just in the way that they were instructed before they had sinned.

Exodus 33-34 have had God talking about his grace and mercy. The chapters of tabernacle construction show us that grace and mercy in action. God’s grace forgives their sin, and gives them a completely clean start. That started back in Exodus 34 when God tells Moses to bring up 2 new tablets in place of the ones “you broke” because he is going to renew the covenant. It was the people who broke the covenant – God did not.

God’s grace is shown in that he does not change the plan for how he will live with his people. He will still give them a tabernacle which represents his presence with them. He will still provide a means for their sins to be forgiven and for a holy God to live in the midst of a sinful people. That grace has not changed. And it is shown all the way through Exodus 35-40 because at each stage we can turn back to the original plan and see that God is still committed to that plan despite his people’s sin.

So each moment of that tabernacle construction in all its painstaking detail and in all its intricate design whispers to the Israelites and to us of God’s forgiving grace. So we should read these chapters of Exodus and each time we see a detailed instruction, and then its exact fulfillment we should rejoice in the grace of God that enables that to happen. In the gifting of God to give the people and resources for the construction, and in the grace of God to give the chance for a new start after the falling away at the golden calf. That is quite a lot of reminders of God’s grace if we take the time to see it.

Somehow in my head this has dovetailed quite nicely with the bedtime reading for our youngest at the moment. Somehow they haven’t yet had all the Narnia stories, so we’re catching up and have just finished the Silver Chair. In the Silver Chair, the two human children, Jill and Eustuce, are given a task by Aslan. They need to remember and follow four signs to rescue the lost prince.

They constantly mess the signs up. They are distracted by promises of comfort and ease. They don’t follow as they should. None of the first three signs are followed as they should be. And yet they do get the chance to complete the quest. They do reach the fourth sign, and they do rescue the lost prince. Right at the end, out of Narnia and briefly in Aslan’s country Jill sees Aslan, and filled with shame at their misfollowing of the instructions have this encounter:
“Then the Lion drew them towards him with his eyes, and bent down and touched their pale faces with his tongue, and said: ‘Think of that no more. I will not always be scolding. You have done the work for which I sent you into Narnia.’”

We follow a gracious God. A God who forgives our sins and who weaves our failings into his plans. We live in a world that seems to have largely forgotten grace and forgiveness. But we have a God who gives grace without limits. Who gives forgiveness to all who turn back. We have a God who came to live among us. Who chose to live with us. And who chose the cross for us.

A God who picks up the pieces of our broken lives to give us a fresh chance. So for 2024 whatever New Years Resolutions we may or may not have made. Whatever the hopes and fears that we have for our year, the key resolution we should have is to remember that God is a God of all grace. When our resolutions and desires and hopes and schemes for self improvement lie in tatters, lets remember that God is a God of grace who stoops down to pick up the tattered pieces caused by our folly to weave them into a new start, to give fresh hope and to set us back on the way with him.

I’m going to close with a lengthy quote from John Newton – the slave trader turned clergyman best known for the hymn Amazing Grace – his insights into the Christian life are always worth reading – I think he really understood and grasped God’s grace, and it seems from all we know that this understanding was reflected in his pastoral care for his congregation and many friends who he wrote letters to. This quote is from one of those letters:

At my first setting out, indeed, I thought to be better, and to feel myself better from year to year; I expected by degrees to attain everything which I then comprised in my idea of a godly Christian. I thought my grain of grace, by much diligence and careful improvement, would, in time, amount to a pound; that pound, in a farther space of time, to a talent; and then I hoped to increase from one talent to many; so that, supposing the Lord should spare me a number of years, I pleased myself with the thought of dying rich in grace.

But, alas! these my golden expectations have been like South-Sea dreams! I have lived hitherto a poor sinner, and I believe I shall die one! Have I then gained nothing by waiting upon the Lord? Yes, I have gained, that which I once would rather have been without, such accumulated proofs of the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of my heart, as I hope, by the Lord’s blessing, has, in some measure, taught me to know what I mean, when I say, “Behold I am vile!”

And, in connection with this, I have gained such experience of the wisdom, power, and compassion of my Redeemer; the need, the worth, of his blood, righteousness, attention, and intercession; the glory that he displays in pardoning iniquity and sin and passing by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage—that my soul cannot but cry out, “Who is a God like unto you!” Thus, if I have any lower thoughts of myself, Eze. 16:63, and any higher thoughts of him than I had twenty years ago, I have reason to be thankful. Every grain of this experience is worth mountains of gold. And if, by his mercy, I shall yet sink more in my own esteem, and he will be pleased to rise still more glorious to my eyes, and more precious to my heart—I expect it will be much in the same way.

I was ashamed when I began to seek him;
I am more ashamed now;
and I expect to be most of all ashamed when he shall appear to destroy my last enemy.
But, oh! I may rejoice in him,
to think that he will not be ashamed of me.

John Newton

May that last line sink deeply into our hearts this year. May we live by that grace, out of that grace and in that grace in all our relationships and in all our activities this year.