What is God's presence worth?
February 11, 2008
Exodus 38:24-25 GW
(24) The total amount of gold from the offerings presented to the LORD used in building the holy place weighed over 2,193 pounds using the standard weight of the holy place.
(25) The silver collected when the census of the community was taken weighed 7,544 pounds using the standard weight of the holy place.
$14770.19264 is what one pound of Gold is worth today. They used 2,193 pounds, making the value of the tabernacle $32,391,032.46. Now lets add to that the value of the silver in today's currency. At 7,544 pounds and 1000 ounce bars of silver selling for $17,810 then 120704 ounce of silver is worth around $120,000. This makes the value of the tent and all that was in it around $32,711,000. I do not know about you but I have a hard time picturing that much money. As noted before, this was coming out of people who had been slaves. Obviously God's presence was worth something to these people. They had more to give and Moses had to stop them.
But stop and think about what the presence of God is worth to you today. When you are sick and need a healing, when you are lonely and need a touch, when you think you have hit bottom and you can look to God, what is that worth.
It seems some times that we want to just pull the covers up over our head when Sunday morning comes. I work all week I need a day to sleep in. Or maybe you want to go out and enjoy that new toy that God gave you the finances for. Well you know a new toy can not cureloneliness , a bed cannot cure sickness. Why do we put all these things of so little value in front of God. Why do we not see the value of taking time to worship God and get the touch we need all the time.
Next time you want to just take care of your own needs in stead of worshiping God, look at the value that the Israelites gave to just a tent for God so that he could dwell among them. He dwells in your heart now. What value do you put on Him dwelling in you.
Read through the Bible in one year in Historical order
Today
Exodus 36:1-38:31
Tomorrow
Exodus 39:1-40:38
http://tinyurl.com/24beby for a daily reading tool link.
An extra note for you. Today is the 1 year anniversary of Daily Devotions by Bob. Thanks for all that have been with me for one year and all that have joined along the way. The group has 10 members on the mailing list and I encourage you to invite others to join. The instructions I think are sent out with each devotion.
There is also a web site that you can send people to: http://dailydevotionbob.blogspot.com . From there the whole years worth of devotionals can be read as well as any new ones coming up. On the upper right corner of the page is a box that will let people subscribe from the web site. As of today the blog site has had 1,530 hits in the one year of existence . While not great numbers they are not bad either. It is interesting when I see how people find us what they were looking for. Some put in some weird terms that would not lend themselves to devotionals (making you wonder what they were looking for, not really) and because of words that I have used, they will show up and people will click through. Others are more obvious but surprising as well. A few weeks ago there was about 10 hits on Super Bowl Sunday all looking for Superbowl devotionals, which I had just written about.
Please pray for me to hear God and continue to write what he wants to be said. Thanks.
Bob
