This long passage refers not to the actual building of the tabernacle, but to the preparation of all the various materials; its erection is described in chapter 40. It does not therefore need much imagination to realise that, with such a vast number of component parts, great and small, to be arranged in order, the camp of Israel must have had at times a rather disordered and disorganised look. And yet the overall design was present in the mind of Moses, and he got the people to work steadily towards it. Doubtless there may have been times when he would wonder whether anything would ever emerge from such a welter of seemingly unrelated parts. Christian work is like this; it is not always easy to see, however bright the eye of faith may be, the shape or form of what is not yet in existence except in the word of promise and in the mind of those to whom the promise was given. Yet faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, and one's eye must be on the far distances rather than on the immediate scene. Let us learn from the building of the tabernacle that, if we adhere to the divine instructions, order will surely emerge from the seeming disorder of all the preparatory work, and God's purpose will be fulfilled for His glory.
