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Exodus Chapter
Thirty-one
Exodus 31
Chapter Contents
Bezaleel and Aholiab are appointed and qualified for the
work of the tabernacle. (1-11) The observance of the sabbath. (12-17) Moses
receives the tables of the law. (18)
Commentary on Exodus 31:1-11
(Read Exodus 31:1-11)
The Israelites, who had been masons and bricklayers in
Egypt, were not qualified for curious workmanship; but the Spirit who gave the
apostles utterance in divers tongues, miraculously gave Bezaleel and Aholiab
the skill that was wanting. The honour which comes from God, is always attended
with a work to be done; to be employed for God is high honour. Those whom God
calls to any service, he will find or make fit for it. The Lord gives different
gifts to different persons; let each mind his proper work, diligently
remembering that whatever wisdom any one possesses, the Lord put it in the
heart, to do his commandments.
Commentary on Exodus 31:12-17
(Read Exodus 31:12-17)
Orders were now given that a tabernacle should be set up
for the service of God. But they must not think that the nature of the work,
and the haste that was required, would justify them in working at it on sabbath
days. The Hebrew word /shabath/ signifies rest, or ceasing from labour. The
thing signified by the sabbath is that rest in glory which remains for the
people of God; therefore the moral obligation of the sabbath must continue,
till time is swallowed up in eternity.
Commentary on Exodus 31:18
(Read Exodus 31:18)
The law was written in tables of stone, to show how
lasting it is: to denote likewise the hardness of our hearts; one might more
easily write on stone, than write any thing good on our corrupt natural hearts.
It was written with the finger of God; by his will and power. God only can
write his law in the heart: he gives a heart of flesh; then, by his Spirit,
which is the finger of God, writes his will in the heart, 2 Corinthians 3:3.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Exodus》
Exodus 31
Verse 2
[2] See,
I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of
Judah:
See I have called Bezaleel|, the grandson of
Hur, probably that Hur who had helped to hold up Moses's hand, Exodus 17:10-12, and was at this time in
commission with Aaron for the government of the people in the absence of Moses.
Aholiab of the tribe of Dan is appointed next to Bezaleel, and partner with
him. Hiram, who was the head-workman in the building of Solomon's temple, was
also of the tribe of Dan, 2 Chronicles 2:14.
Verse 3
[3] And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in
understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
And I have filled him with the spirit of God;
and Exodus 31:6. In the hearts of all that are
wise-hearted I have put wisdom. Skill in common employments is the gift of God;
It is he that puts even this wisdom into the inward parts, Job 38:36. He teacheth the husbandman
discretion, Isaiah 28:26, and the tradesman too, and he must
have the praise of it.
Verse 13
[13]
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall
keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye
may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.
It is a sign between me and you — The institution of the sabbath was a great instance of God's favour, and
a sign that he had distinguished them from all other people: and their
religious observance of it, was a great instance of their duty to him. God, by
sanctifying this day among them, let them know that he sanctified them, and set
them apart for his service, otherwise he would not have revealed to them his
holy sabbaths to be the support of religion among them. The Jews by observing
one day in seven, after six days labour, testified that they worshipped the God
that made the world in six days, and rested the seventh; and so distinguished
themselves from other nations, who having first lost the sabbath, the memorial
of the creation, by degrees lost the knowledge of the creator, and gave the
creature the honour due to him alone.
Verse 14
[14] Ye
shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that
defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein,
that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
It is holy unto you —
That is, it is designed for your benefit as well as for God's honour; it shall
be accounted holy by you.
Verse 15
[15] Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy
to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be
put to death.
It is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord -
It is separated from common use, for the service of God; and by the observance
of it we are taught to rest from worldly pursuits, and devote ourselves, and
all we are, have, and can do, to God's glory.
Verse 16
[16]
Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath
throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
It was to be observed throughout their
generations, in every age, for a perpetual covenant - This was to be one of the
most lasting tokens of the covenant between God and Israel.
Verse 17
[17] It
is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the
LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was
refreshed.
On the seventh day he rested — And as the work of creation is worthy to be thus commemorated, so the
great Creator is worthy to be thus imitated, by a holy rest the seventh day.
Verse 18
[18] And
he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount
Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of
God.
These tables of stone, were not prepared by
Moses, but probably by the ministry of angels. They were written with the
finger of God - That is, by his will and power immediately, without the use of
any instrument. They were written in two tables, being designed to direct us in
our duty, towards God, and towards man. And they were called tables of
testimony, because this written law testified the will of God concerning them,
and would be a testimony against them if they were disobedient.
──
John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Exodus》
31 Chapter 31
Verse 6
In the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom.
The danger of accomplishments
There are persons who doubt whether what are called
“accomplishments,” whether in literature or in the fine arts, can be consistent
with deep and practical seriousness of mind. I am not speaking of human
learning; this also many men think inconsistent with simple uncorrupted faith.
They suppose that learning must make a man proud. This is of course a great
mistake; but of it I am not speaking, but of an over-jealousy of
accomplishments, the elegant arts and studies, such as poetry, literary
composition, painting, music, and the like; which are considered, not indeed to
make a man proud, but to make him trifling. Of this opinion, how far it is true
and how far not true, I am going to speak. Now, that the accomplishments I
speak of have a tendency to make us trifling and unmanly, and therefore are to
be viewed by each of us with suspicion as far as regards himself, I am ready to
admit, and shall presently make clear. I allow that in matter of fact,
refinement and luxury, elegance and effeminacy, go together. Antioch, the most
polished, was the most voluptuous city of Asia. But the abuse of good things is
no argument against the things themselves; mental cultivation may be a Divine
gift, though it is abused. An acquaintance with the elegant arts may he a gift
and a good, and intended to be an instrument of God’s glory, though numbers who
have it are rendered thereby indolent, luxurious, and feeble-minded. But the
account of the building of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, from which the
text is taken, is decisive on this point. How, then, is it that what in itself
is of so excellent, and, I may say, Divine a nature, is yet so commonly
perverted? Now the danger of an elegant and polite education is that it
separates feeling and acting; it teaches us to think, speak, and be affected
aright, without forcing us to practise what is right. I will take an
illustration of this from the effect produced upon the mind by reading what is
commonly called a romance or novel. Such works contain many good sentiments (I
am taking the better sort of them); characters, too, are introduced, virtuous,
noble, patient under suffering, and triumphing at length over misfortune. But
it is all fiction; it does not exist out of a book which contains the beginning
and end of it. We have nothing to do; we read, are affected, softened, or
roused, and that is all; we cool again--nothing comes of it. Now observe the
effect of this. God has made us feel in order that we may go on to act in
consequence of feeling; if, then, we allow our feelings to be excited without
acting upon them, we do mischief to the moral system within us, just as we
might spoil a watch, or other piece of mechanism, by playing with the wheels of
it. We weaken its springs, and they cease to act truly. For instance, we will
say we have read again and again of the heroism of facing danger, and we have
glowed with the thought of its nobleness. Now, suppose at length we actually
come into trial, and, let us say, our feelings become roused, as often before,
at the thought of boldly resisting temptations to cowardice, shall we therefore
do our duty, quitting ourselves like men? rather, we are likely to talk loudly,
and then run from the danger. And what is here instanced of fortitude is true
in all cases of duty. The refinement which literature gives is that of
thinking, feeling, knowing and speaking right, not of acting right; and thus,
while it makes the manners amiable, and the conversation decorous and
agreeable, it has no tendency to make the conduct, the practice of the man
virtuous. The case is the same with the arts last alluded to--poetry and music.
These are especially likely to make us unmanly, if we are not on our guard, as
exciting emotions without insuring correspondent practice, and so destroying
the connection between feeling and acting; for I here mean by unmanliness the
inability to do with ourselves what we wish--the saying fine things and yet
lying slothfully on our couch, as if we could not get up, though we ever so
much wished it. And here I must notice something besides in elegant
accomplishments, which goes to make us over-refined and fastidious, and falsely
delicate. In books everything is made beautiful in its way. Pictures are drawn
of complete virtue; little is said about failures, and little or nothing of the
drudgery of ordinary, every-day obedience, which is neither poetical nor
interesting. True faith teaches us to do numberless disagreeable things for
Christ’s sake, to bear petty annoyances, which we find written down in no book.
And further still, it must be observed, that the art of composing, which is a
chief accomplishment, has in itself a tendency to make us artificial and
insincere. For to be ever attending to the fitness and propriety of our words,
is (or at least there is the risk of its being) a kind of acting; and knowing
what can be said on both sides of a subject is a main step towards thinking the
one side as good as the other. With these thoughts before us, it is necessary
to look back to the Scripture instances which I began by adducing, to avoid the
conclusion that accomplishments are positively dangerous and unworthy a
Christian. But St. Luke and St. Paul show us that we may be sturdy workers in
the Lord’s service, and bear our cross manfully, though we be adorned with all
the learning of the Egyptians; or, rather, that the resources of literature and
the graces of a cultivated mind may be made both a lawful source of enjoyment
to the possessor, and a means of introducing and recommending the truth to
others; while the history of the Tabernacle shows that all the cunning arts and
precious possessions of this world may be consecrated to a religious service,
and be made to speak of the world to come. I conclude, then, with the following
cautions, to which the foregoing remarks lead. First, we must avoid giving too
much time to lighter occupations; and next, we must never allow ourselves to
read works of fiction or poetry, or to interest ourselves in the fine arts for
the mere sake of the things themselves; but keep in mind all along that we are
Christians and accountable beings, who have fixed principles of right and
wrong, by which all things must be tried, and have religious habits to be
matured within them, towards which all things are to be made subservient. If we
are in earnest we shall let nothing lightly pass by which may do us good, nor
shall we dare to trifle with such sacred subjects as morality and religious
duty. We shall apply all we read to ourselves; and this almost without
intending to do so, from the mere sincerity and honesty of our desire to please
God. We shall be suspicious of all such good thoughts and wishes, and we shall
shrink from all such exhibitions of our principles as fall short of action. Of
all such as abuse the decencies and elegancies of moral truth into a means of
luxurious enjoyment, what would a prophet of God say? (Ezekiel 33:30-32; 2 Timothy 4:2-4; 1 Corinthians 16:13). (J. H.
Newman, D. D.)
The wise hearted ones
Who are the wise hearted ones?
1. They are those who prove themselves as having ability to do useful
work. Work done, and well done, though it be in itself of trifling value, is
the determination of wisdom.
2. The wise hearted are they who reach beyond present ability to
perform. No true workman is satisfied to simply repeat his last job.
3. The wise hearted are they who, at Christ’s call, enter His
kingdom, there to labour under the influence of the purest, strongest motives.
(C. R. Seymour.)
Grace and genius
I. Natural gifts
are often discovered by grace.
II. Natural gifts
are directed by grace.
III. Natural gifts
are heightened by grace.
IV. Natural gifts
are sanctified by grace. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The method of Providence
God would have everything built beautifully. What an image of
beauty have we seen this Tabernacle to be through and through, flushed with
colours we have never seen, and bright with lights that could not show
themselves fully in the murkiness of this air! He would make us more beautiful
than our dwelling-place. He would not have the house more valuable than the
tenant. He did not mean the worshipper to be less than the Tabernacle which He
set up for worship. Are we living the beautiful life--the life solemn with
sweet harmonies, broad in its generous purpose, noble in the sublimity of its
prayer, like God in the perpetual sacrifice of its life? Not only will God
build everything beautifully; His purpose is to have everything built for
religious uses. His meaning is that the form shall help the thought, that
images appealing to the eye shall also touch the imagination and graciously
affect the whole spirit, and subdue into tender obedience and worship the soul
and heart of man. What is the Tabernacle for? For worship. What is the meaning
of it? It is a gate opening upon heaven. Why was it set up? To lift us nearer
God. If we fail to seize these purposes, if we fail of magnifying and
glorifying them so as to ennoble our own life in the process, we have never
seen the Tabernacle. Herein is it for ever true that we may have a Bible but no
revelation; a sermon but no Gospel; we may be in the church, yet not in the
sanctuary; we may admire beauty, and yet live the life of the drunkard and the
debauchee. In all His building--and God is always building--He qualifies every
man for a particular work in connection with the edifice. The one man wants the
other man. The work stands still till that other man comes in. (J. Parker,
D. D.)
Various kinds of inspiration
Who can read these words as they ought to be read? How it makes
ministers of God by the thousand! We have thought that Aaron was a religious
man because of his clothing and because of many peculiarities which separated
him from other men; but the Lord distinctly claims the artificer as another
kind of Aaron. Who divides life into sacred and profane? Who introduces the
element of meanness into human occupation and service? God claims all things
for Himself. Who will say that the preacher is a religious man, but the
artificer is a secular worker? But let us claim all true workers as inspired
men. We know that there is an inspired art. The world knows it; instinctively,
unconsciously, the world uncovers before it. There is an inspired poetry, make
it of what measure you will. The great common heart knows it, says, “That is
the true verse; how it rises, falls, plashes like a fountain, flows like a
stream, breathes like a summer wind, speaks the thoughts we have long
understood, but could never articulate!“ The great human heart says, “That is
the voice Divine; that is the appeal of heaven.” Why should we say that
inspiration is not given to all true workers, whether in gold or in thought,
whether in song or in prayer, whether in the type or in the magic eloquence of
the burning tongue? Let us enlarge life, and enlarge Providence, rather than
contract it, and not, whilst praying to a God in the heavens, have no God in the
heart. You would work better if you realized that God is the Teacher of the
fingers, and the Guide of the hand. Labour is churched and glorified. Art turns
its chiselled and flushed features towards its native heaven. (J. Parker, D.
D.)
Gifts from God as well as graces
God gave the plan clearly, graphically, distinctly, to Moses; but
it needed men raised up specially by the Spirit of God to execute the plan, and
to give it practical development. And we learn from this fact that a gifted
intellect is as much the creation of the Spirit of God as a regenerate heart.
Gifts are from God as truly as graces; it needs the guidance of God’s good
Spirit to enable a man “to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in
cutting of stones, to set them; and in carving of timber, to work in all manner
of workmanship“; just as it does to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with God. We thus see that God gives light to the intellect as well as
grace to the heart; and we may, perhaps, from this learn a very humbling, but a
very blessed truth--that the man with a gifted intellect is as much summoned to
bow the knee, and to thank the Fountain and the Author of it, as the man that
has a sanctified heart feels it his privilege to bow his knee, and to bless the
Holy Spirit that gave it, for this his distinguishing grace and mercy. (J.
Cumming, D. D.)
Spiritual gifts
1. Prize them inestimably.
2. Covet them earnestly.
3. Seek for them diligently.
4. Ponder them frequently.
5. Wait for them patiently.
6. Expect them hopefully.
7. Receive them joyfully.
8. Enjoy them thankfully.
9. Improve them carefully.
10. Retain them watchfully.
11. Plead for them manfully.
12. Hold them dependently.
13. Grasp them eternally. (Biblical Museum.)
Genius and industry
A friend of Charles Dickens, a man who had given promise of a
noble career as an author, but who, through indolence, had failed in doing any
permanent work, called upon him one morning, and, after bewailing his
ill-success, ended by sighing, “Ah, if I only were gifted with your genius!”
Dickens, who had listened patiently to the complaint, exclaimed at once in
answer, “Genius, sir! I do not know what you mean. I had no genius save the
genius for hard work!” However his enthusiastic admirers may dispute this,
certain it is that Dickens trusted to no such uncertain light as the fire of
genius. Day in and day out, by hard work, he elaborated the plot, characters,
and dialogue of his imperishable stories. Whole days he would spend to discover
suitable localities, and then be able to give vividness to his description of
them, while, sentence by sentence, his work, after apparent completion, was
retouched and revised. The great law of labour makes no exception of the gifted
or ignorant. Whatever the work may be, there can be no success in it without
diligent, unceasing, persevering labour.
Verse 18
Written with the finger of God.
God’s writing
It is said of these tables that they “were the work of God,
and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.” Some infidels
have carped at this; and I must say it does seem to me as if it were not human
finger, or human stylus, or pen, but God Himself that engraved it; but
why should it be thought impossible for God to engrave upon stone? Have we not
discovered that the lightning can carry our messages--that the lightning let go
at London can print at Dover, as has been more recently shown--is it not found
that the very rays of light themselves can engrave the most exquisite and
intricate imagery; and should it be thought strange, then, that God should
Himself engrave upon stone the Ten Commandments? The fact is, the higher we
rise in scientific knowledge, the more we see how true this Book is, how worthy
of God to write it, how dutiful in man to believe, and bless Him and rejoice in
Him. (J. Cumming, D.D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》