Exodus 35:1 – 36:7

Worship Guide

Printed Sermon

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Tabernacle Handout

The story of the woman with the alabaster flask is told in all four gospels. In a room full of men the woman approached Jesus and on him poured out her costly gift, an alabaster flask of ointment worth almost a year’s wage. The men watching her were hostile and indignant. The woman was silent but the men were quick to speak. “What a waste!” said the disciples in Matthew and Mark. Her precious offering could have been used so much more productively if it had been sold and the money given to the poor. In John’s account Judas Iscariot also thought it should have been sold, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was accustomed to helping himself to the common purse. Jesus defended the woman, “She has done a beautiful thing to me.” In Luke’s account, the host, a Pharisee, dismisses the woman as a sinner. She is indeed a sinner, though not necessarily a prostitute. She is a sinner, but Luke’s gospel is full of sinners and they all find in Jesus someone who cares for sinners, who loves them and forgives them. The Pharisee had failed to extend a hospitable welcome to Jesus, a gesture intended to publicly humiliate him. Jesus rebuked the Pharisee and commended to him the woman as a role model for what true hospitality should be. He followed with the punchline: “I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” Yes, the woman is a sinner, but she has been forgiven much and so she loves much. With eyes only for Jesus she has braved the scorn of the self-righteous men. She has brought herself and her precious gift to the Savior who loves, forgives and welcomes sinners. In love and gratitude she has brought her all and even more.

Israel was a sinful people. God had redeemed Israel from harsh slavery in Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai; he brought them to himself and for himself. He had entered into covenant with them: I will be your God, you will be my people and I will dwell with you. They now belonged to him and owed him their allegiance. But within a few weeks Israel had broken that allegiance, worshiping a golden calf. They broke both the first and second commandments. God disowned them and wanted to destroy them. But Moses, the faithful mediator, had interceded. He pleaded for the people and begged God not to destroy them. God listened to Moses: he spared the people. Moses asked God to show him his glory, and God had proclaimed to him his Name, this Name which we said together after our prayer of confession, this Name that we’re hearing every week so that it sinks into us and forms how we think about God:

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” (Exod 34:6–7 ESV)

Falling down in worship, Moses petitioned God,

“If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” (34:9)

“Forgive us and take us as yours.” We’ve been hearing this also each week. God did; he made a new covenant which Moses wrote on a fresh pair of stone tablets. He descended Mt Sinai carrying those tablets.

As we saw last week, the people were initially afraid of his shining face. But he called the leaders and then “all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai” (34:32). We pick up the story in Exodus 35:1. The passage consists of four scenes. In the first scene (35:1–20) Moses assembles Israel to pass on to them God’s instructions.

1. Moses delivers God’s instructions (35:1–20)

Moses assembled the whole congregation of Israel to tell them the things which the Lord had commanded him atop Mt Sinai. G