5 Its skillfully woven waistband was like it—of one piece with the ephod and made with gold, and with blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and with finely twisted linen, as the LORD commanded Moses.
God has a design for how He wants to be worshipped. In our text today we read that He has given that design to Moses on the Mountain. Moses has now come down and the people are executing those plans. Many times in the text we see the words, “as the LORD commanded Moses.” After almost every individual article is made those words appear. Again and again it is stated that they followed the pattern. Muslims follow the pattern of Mohamed as they ruthlessly kill their enemies. Suicide bombings are perfectly acceptable to them. Killing innocents is OK. They are following their pattern. There are a few people who kill “in the name of Jesus.” They bomb an abortion clinic or some other violence. But even though they say they are following Jesus, what they do does not match His pattern. Violence is not part of Jesus’ pattern. So violence done in Jesus name is not acceptable. Jesus did more than give us a pattern to follow, He made it possible for us to live by a higher standard that we could do otherwise. His life, death, and resurrection makes it possible for us to be in relationship with God. The Tabernacle which the people are building had a pattern. It taught the Israelites many things about the Lord, so it had to be built according to the pattern, or the people would get a distorted message about the Lord. The craftsmen were careful to do it just like Moses said. Moses was the only one who knew what the pattern looked like. They had to rely on Him for design checks. We are fortunate to live in this day and age. We have the Word of God available for each of us. We can pick it up and read it and learn the pattern ourselves. We can read and learn the character of God. We can read what righteous living is all about. We can see the pattern in the Scriptures. We must build our lives according to the pattern shown in the New Testament.
The Arnold Journey 