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Ex. 37
Some of the tabernacle furnishings were made of wood, others of pure gold. This was no doubt practical in nature, based on what worked best for each artifact. However, the wood objects did not remain wood. They were overlaid with gold. Since acacia is a very durable wood, I don’t see this as a practical measure. Perhaps the gold overlay was for ornamental purposes. Or perhaps God designed it that way as a picture to us of what is required to be part of His holy dwelling. As God overlaid the wooden ark with pure gold, so He overlays us inside and out with the pure righteousness of Christ.
John 16
Jesus told us that the world would hate those who love Him because the world hated Him. While some know who He is and flat out reject Him anyway, others, either through ignorance or pride, will believe they hate us in service to God. Probably still others are a combination of the two. We see this everywhere in the world today. Evil people, in pretense of good, point accusing fingers at those who stand on truth, calling them the hateful ones. Those who do not know God, whether or not they claim to, believe the lies because they don’t know the voice of The Shepherd.
By His own words, Jesus told us these things so that we wouldn’t stumble (see Jn. 16:1). We can’t let others’ hate, lies, and false pretenses cause us to doubt Christ, our confidence. Better for others to think you hateful than to actually be hateful. And anything, no matter how ‘righteous’ it seems on the surface, that opposes God is hate because God is love.
Prov. 13
“The one who despises the word will be in debt to it…” (Pr. 13a). That is quite a statement! Jesus is the word, willingly become man to pay the debt He didn’t owe and we couldn’t pay. He did this as a gift to us. Those who despise Him, however, refuse His gracious gift. Thus, they owe Him for the payment they rejected.