Reading 1 - Exodus 39:43
"Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the LORD had commanded. So Moses blessed them" (Exo 39:43).
Moses inspected the finished work, and saw that it was all very good -- it had been completed just as the LORD had commanded. This language echoes Gen 1:31: "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." In this correspondence of language, it may be seen that the building and furnishing of the tabernacle parallels the creation and peopling of the earth... because this was a "re-creation" of God's world.
So Moses blessed the workmen in their work, just as God had blessed the man and woman in the beginning, as well as the seventh day (Gen 1:28; 2:2).
Reading 2 - Psalm 102:15,16
"The nations will fear the name of the LORD, all the kings of the earth will revere your glory. For the LORD will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory" (Psa 102:15,16).
As a prophecy of the coming kingdom this is wonderful. The return of Christ will -- eventually -- cause all kings and other powers to acknowledge and worship him (Psa 72:10,11; Isa 60:3,9-12). He who was merely (if that is the right word!) King of the Jews will have then become King of the whole World (Rev 5:8-14; 11:15; 12:10; 15:4; Phi 2:8,10; Dan 4:17,25; Isa 24:23; 26:9; 45:23; Psa 22:27-29; 86:9; etc).
And it appears, from Zec 14:4, that Jerusalem will have been largely destroyed by an earthquake, and will need literally to be rebuilt before it can become the city of the Great King (Mat 5:35). But this is also a reference to the "new Jerusalem" -- the embodiment of the glorified saints (Gal 4:26; Heb 12:22; Rev 21:2,9,10). In the last and best sense, it is there, through them, in immortal human beings which enshrine His character, and that of His Son, that God will truly appear in all His glory (Rev 21:3; 22:3,4)!
Reading 3 - 1Corinthians 10:13
"No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it" (1Co 10:13).
"I am not going to try to convince you that you should relish, enjoy or otherwise celebrate adversity, but simply to realize that it is good for you. Because we grow in our faith and develop our characters, therefore we can have a sense of joy in adversity. In a way, each trial we go through is a gift from God -- a gift of adversity. Some of these are small gifts while others are big gifts. They are all gifts in that God is working with us...
"What we are promised in the Bible is that we can get through the trial. Maybe we will not get through it with our life, our sanity, our wealth or our family, but we can make it through with our salvation. We are promised that 'No trial has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tested beyond what you are able, but with the trial will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.' What does this mean? Can we survive all trials? Yes and no. Eventually, one trial is going to take each of our lives. The promise is not that we can survive physically or emotionally, but spiritually. During the first century, as the Apostles were being murdered one by one, they did have a way of escape from their torturers. Their escape was death. Perhaps we long for a little better escape path than death, but in some cases, that is all that is provided. The promise is that each trial will be conquerable from the point of view of our salvation -- period" (Kyle Tucker).
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