Have you ever had one of those issues where you knew God was telling you it was time to act? Maybe you had heard something over and over in sermons or Bible studies, and you knew God was telling you to do something, but for some reason you kept putting it off. Then one day you realized that for your faith to be real you had to obey God. And obedience meant getting off your can and doing what God had commanded.
For most of the past fifteen chapters, God has spoken to Moses about His plan for His people. God has given Moses the Law and the plans for an elaborate place of worship. Moses has passed these instructions on to the Hebrews. What a Bible study they must have had. Moses stood before them and told them God’s very Words. The people must have been challenged by Moses’ words, and must have been excited to hear from God. Chapter 35 is a shift in the book of Exodus, because it is the time where people had to leave Bible study time and decide to do what they had learned. Now was the time for the Hebrew people to carry out God’s plan and do what He had told them. They had to move from being hearers of God’s Word and become doers of God’s Word (James 1:
When we get right down to it, this is where most of us fall of the wagon of Christianity. It’s easy to sit in a sermon and listen to someone teach, or hang out in a Community Group and talk about the things God calls us to do. We might even take notes, and mark our Bibles as we learn from God’s Word. But having knowledge in your head is of little worth if you are not willing to take the steps to apply God’s Word to your life and become a doer of the Word. When God calls us to live a life of sacrifice, or to be a witness to our friends, many Christians can tell you all the right Bible verses and can even teach someone how to live the life God has called us to. But very few actually live out these principles in their daily life.
The next few chapters may seem a little repetitive. You may even feel like you have read the words before. And often times, you are right. Chapters 35-40 contain many of the same words and ideas as chapters 25-31. But in chapters 25-31 God is giving the instructions. This is the Sunday hearing part. In chapters 35-40, the Hebrew people are obeying God and doing exactly what He commanded. They are moving from being hearers of God’s Word to being doers.
What did you learn in church this past Sunday? If you listened, God told you something that you need to do. Have you obeyed? Are you a doer of the Word, or just a hearer?
