Blessed, abundantly

"And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians." Exodus 12: 35-36

Good morning, dear friends!

My basement is calling me, calling me, and not in a good way.  What a mess!  A new year is here, and all my thoughts of, "I'll get to it next year!" are no longer valid.  It IS next year, and so to the basement I go, with one question on my lips:

Where did I GET all of this stuff?

I realize again, how blessed I am, not only in having my needs met, but being overwhelmed by abundant blessings.  So much so, that I must take myself down to the basement, and sort out all my blessings again.  What to keep?  What to recycle?  What to give away?  What to throw away?

I'm sure I'm not the only one.  It was almost nice when we moved more often, because I accumulated so much less "stuff." Now it's just sitting around in my basement, awaiting future usefulness.

Or a future collection day.

This week I was rereading in Exodus, about the children of Israel building the Tabernacle.  I think (again) that my mind has been too long clouded over by Sunday school drawings of the Exodus.  So often I tend to imagine this great mass of people leaving, with literally just the clothes on their backs, and the unleavened bread that they carried with them.  

Nothing could be further from the truth. 

"And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians." Exodus 12: 35-36

The Bible records that over 600,000 men left Egypt, not including the women and the children. (Exodus 12:37).  That in itself is a HUGE number, but some have estimated the entire nation of Israel between one and two MILLION people!   For the children of Israel to have been so many, "borrowing from" the Egyptians, is staggering indeed.  The Egyptians were so glad to see the children of Israel leave, that they gave everything they had, and then some.

This was not a poor, wayfaring people that left Egypt!  This was a formidable nation, a rich nation, abundantly blessed by God!

Here are some thought that struck me as I was reading this passage:

Blessed, by the hand of God:  The children of Israel  had to say honestly that everything that they had received was a gift from God.  As slaves, all they had possessed were their lives and their meager possessions in Egypt.  The spoils they received, were the result of their obedience to God's command, and directed by His foreknowledge of the coming judgment of the people of Egypt.  Not one of the Israelites could say, "I made myself rich."  Everything they possessed was truly a gift from the Lord.

"Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these I delight, saith the LORD." Jeremiah 9:23-24

Blessed, abundantly:  When I read the passage at the top of the blog, that speaks of the children of Israel receiving things from the Egyptians, I don't really take into account the amount of material blessings they received.  OK, so they took some jewellry, some clothes, some pots and miscellaneous trinkets with them.

It was only when I started to read the accounts of the furnishings of the Tabernacle, that it began to take shape in my mind.

Almost everything in the Tabernacle was covered BY GOLD, even the floorboards.  Some of the pieces were made of SOLID gold.  Even if the gold plating was a thin layer, that is still a LOT of gold.   This is not counting the silver, the brass, the cloth for the structure of the Tabernacle, the oil for the lamps, the perfumes, the spices, the jewels for Aaron's priestly garments.

The children of Israel had been blessed, abundantly.

Blessed, to offer to the Lord:  What is sobering for me, is what the children of Israel did with their blessings:

"And the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.  And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Exodus 32:3-4

How much better is was for them, when, instead of worshipping their blessings, they offered them back up in sacrifice to the Lord:

"And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary.  So the people were restrained from bringing.  For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much." Exodus 36:6-7

When I choose to take the blessings of the Lord, and worship the blessings instead of the Blessor, I will always be found lacking.  There will never be enough to satisfy my sin-craving.  When I return the gifts that God has supplied to me, I will be satisfied in the giving, and the Lord's work will be blessed for it.

 Most of us will agree, that we have been blessed like no other people before us, in this world's riches.  Do we recognize them as God's gifts, or as gods?

As I have heard many times, "Do I possess my things, or do they possess me?"

Time to clean house...