The Architecture of Free Worship Text: Exodus 35:4-19
Introduction: After the Fall, the Rebuilding
We are in a moment of precarious grace. Israel has just committed high treason against their divine King. While Moses was on the mountain receiving the law, the people were at the bottom of it breaking the first two commandments with industrial efficiency. They fashioned a golden calf, a bovine deity borrowed from their former masters in Egypt, and threw a festival for it. This was idolatry and spiritual adultery of the highest order. The covenant was shattered, quite literally, as Moses threw down the tablets of the law. Judgment fell, three thousand men were executed, and the presence of God was very nearly withdrawn from them permanently.
But Moses interceded. He stood in the breach, and God, in His staggering mercy, relented and renewed the covenant. And so what is the very first thing God commands after this great apostasy and this great restoration? It is the building of the tabernacle. This is profoundly significant. After the people demonstrated their innate genius for corrupt worship, God’s immediate response is to teach them the grammar of true worship. After they poured out their wealth to build an idol, God calls them to pour out their wealth to build Him a house. This is not God being needy. God doesn't need a tent. He is showing them, and us, the only proper response to grace. The only right answer to forgiveness is the glad and free offering of our whole lives, our wealth, our skill, and our hearts, to the construction of His kingdom.
Our secular age is much like Israel at the foot of the mountain. It is awash in idolatry, though our idols are not made of gold but of ideologies, sexual autonomy, and the worship of the self. And the church, far too often, has been caught dancing around these idols. But the gospel is the announcement that God has not withdrawn from us. Through the intercession of a greater Moses, the Lord Jesus Christ, the covenant has been renewed in His blood. And so the command to us is the same: build. Take what God has given you, and build a dwelling place for His name. This passage is not a dusty architectural blueprint for an ancient tent. It is a lesson in the economics of grace, the nature of true skill, and the pattern of all godly worship.
The Text
And Moses spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, saying, ‘Take from among you a contribution to Yahweh; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as a contribution to Yahweh: gold, silver, and bronze, and blue, purple, and scarlet material, fine linen, goats’ hair, and rams’ skins dyed red, and porpoise skins, and acacia wood, and oil for lighting, and spices for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense, and onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and for the breastpiece. ‘And let everyone wise at heart among you come and make all that Yahweh has commanded: the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its clasps and its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its bases; the ark and its poles, the mercy seat, and the curtain of the screen; the table and its poles, and all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence; the lampstand also for the light and its utensils and its lamps and the oil for the light; and the altar of incense and its poles, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the doorway at the entrance of the tabernacle; the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grating, its poles, and all its utensils, the laver and its stand; the hangings of the court, its pillars and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court; the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court and their cords; the woven garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests.’ ”
(Exodus 35:4-19 LSB)
The Willing Heart (vv. 4-9)
The first thing to notice is the foundation of this entire enterprise. It is not a tax. It is not a levy. It is a contribution, a free-will offering, rooted in the disposition of the heart.
"Take from among you a contribution to Yahweh; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as a contribution to Yahweh..." (Exodus 35:5)
God does not coerce worship. He does not conscript builders for His kingdom. He wants volunteers. The phrase is "a willing heart." This is the engine of the entire project. Just a few chapters ago, the people willingly took off their golden earrings to build an idol (Ex. 32:3). Their hearts were certainly willing then, but they were willingly disobedient. Now, in the afterglow of mercy, God calls for that same willingness to be redirected toward Him. This is the essence of repentance: not the suppression of our desires, but the reorientation of them toward their proper object.
God loves a cheerful giver, and this has always been the case (2 Cor. 9:7). Why? Because a willing heart demonstrates that the giver understands grace. A grudging gift, given out of necessity or compulsion, is an attempt at a transaction. It says, "I will give this to God so that He will give me that." But a willing gift, overflowing from a grateful heart, is a response. It says, "God has given me everything in Christ, so how can I not give this back to Him?" This is why the first item on the list is the heart, not the gold. God is not after your stuff; He is after you. But if He has you, He will get your stuff as a matter of course.
And what stuff it is. Gold, silver, bronze. These are the metals of kingdom and worship. Gold speaks of divinity, purity, and the very glory of God. Silver speaks of redemption; the atonement money was paid in silver (Ex. 30:16). Bronze speaks of judgment; the altar where sin was judged was made of bronze. From the outset, the materials themselves preach the gospel: we approach the glorious God through redemption from His righteous judgment.
The fabrics tell a similar story. Blue, the color of the heavens, speaks of the law, of God's transcendent commands. Purple, the color of royalty, speaks of Christ the King. Scarlet, the color of blood, speaks of His atoning sacrifice. It is all here. The entire plan of salvation is woven into the curtains. This is not just interior decorating; it is theology made visible. God is teaching His people to inhabit the gospel, to live inside the story of redemption.
The Wise Heart (vv. 10-19)
After the call for materials from the willing-hearted, there is a call for labor from the wise-hearted.
"And let everyone wise at heart among you come and make all that Yahweh has commanded..." (Exodus 35:10)
In Scripture, a "wise heart" is not a reference to abstract intellectual horsepower. It is not about IQ. A wise heart refers to skill, to craftsmanship, to practical artistic and technical ability. Bezalel and Oholiab, the foremen of this project, are later described as being filled with the Spirit of God, "in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship" (Ex. 31:3). This is crucial. Artistic skill and practical craftsmanship are not secular, neutral talents. They are gifts of the Holy Spirit for the building of the kingdom.
Our gnostic age wants to separate the spiritual (the willing heart) from the practical (the wise heart). We think of worship as an ethereal, internal feeling, and work as a gritty, worldly necessity. God recognizes no such division. The call to worship here is a call to come and make something. It is a call to take the raw materials of creation and, with Spirit-gifted skill, fashion them into something beautiful and useful for the glory of God. Whether you are a goldsmith, a weaver, a carpenter, or a software engineer, your skill is from God and for God. A wise heart is a heart that dedicates its skill to the service of the King.
And then Moses lists the project specs. It is a breathtaking inventory. From the overall structure of the tabernacle down to the pegs and cords, every detail is specified by God. Why? Because God is the architect, and we are the builders. We do not get to improvise the fundamentals of worship. The modern church is infatuated with innovation for innovation's sake. We think we can design a more "relevant" or " seeker friendly" house for God. But God has already given us the blueprints in His Word. Our task is not to be creative in that way; our task is to be faithfully obedient craftsmen.
Look at the items. The Ark, containing the law, covered by the mercy seat where atonement was made. This is the heart of it all: God's law and God's grace meeting together, a perfect picture of Christ. The table with the bread of the Presence, a picture of fellowship and sustenance with God. The lampstand, the light of God's truth in a dark world. The altar of incense, representing the prayers of the saints. The altar of burnt offering, where the bloody cost of sin is paid. The laver for cleansing. Every single piece is a sermon. Every item is a type, a shadow, pointing forward to the substance, who is Christ Jesus.
Building the New Covenant Temple
So what does this mean for us? We are not called to build a tent in the wilderness. The shadows have given way to the reality. When the Word became flesh, He "tabernacled among us" (John 1:14). Jesus Christ is the true tabernacle, the true meeting place between God and man.
And by our union with Him, we have become the temple of the living God. The apostle Peter tells us that we, "as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). The building project continues. The materials are no longer gold and silver, but redeemed souls. The craftsmen are no longer Bezalel and Oholiab, but every Christian gifted by the Spirit.
This is the work of the Great Commission. Every time we share the gospel, every time we disciple a new believer, every time we teach our children the fear of the Lord, we are quarrying stones from the world and fitting them into the walls of this growing temple. Every act of service, every cup of cold water, every business run with integrity, every song sung in faith, is the equivalent of weaving the curtains and hammering the bronze.
And it must all be done on the same foundation as this tabernacle. It must be done with a willing heart, not out of slavish duty but out of joyful response to the grace we have received. And it must be done with a wise heart, offering our best skills, our most excellent work, to the glory of our King. We are not building a temporary shack. We are building a city, a civilization, the New Jerusalem that will one day fill the whole earth. And so we must give freely, and we must work skillfully, making all that Yahweh has commanded, until the day that the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.