“So Moses finished the work.” (Exodus 40:33) I came to the …

the burning bush to the moment he “inspected all the work they had accomplished” in the building of the tabernacle. For starters, Moses wasn’t looking to lead anything but sheep to pasture. He was hiding when God found him. Moses was no volunteer. And even after God called him,

he insisted God find someone else. But the force of the divine call is hard to resist. The people he served nearly drove him nuts. He was supposed to lead a group of worshippers and what he mostly got was whiners. He’d lost his temper over & over. Even thrown the stone tablets

inscribed by the finger of God. Nope. Moses couldn’t say it had gone well. What the whole thing had been was WORK. Unrelenting, frustrating work so detailed that it had to match the divine instructions down to every clasp on endless yards of curtains. There had been some great

moments like the time the people were invited to contribute any personal possessions to the makings of the tabernacle furnishings. They had given so freely, Moses had to tell them to stop. There was that. But overall, what he’d done, what they’d all done, was WORK. Lo & behold,

they’d “finished the work.”

Ministry is work. Hard work. Sometimes extremely frustrating work. And most frustratingly of all, often you may feel like your work is not working. Eph 4:11-12 reads “And he himself (Christ) gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists,

some pastors and teachers, for equipping the saints for the work of ministry.” All saints are called to ministry. And ministry is work. Sometimes we live to see some of our work come to fruition and be blessed by God and other times we don’t. Moses did. Stood right there at that

finished work and “The cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses was unable to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud rested on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” One way or the other, this is how it ends.

Our work is done and we see the glory of God. Moses got to see it before his death. But, should we get no glimpse whatsoever in this lifetime that our work in the name of Jesus actually worked, to be sure, we will see what Jesus built in the next. Christ IS building his church.

Our calling is to participate in what He is building. And it is WORK. We are not called to equip saints to be spectators & consumers. We are called to equip saints to be fellow workers.

So let’s work till the finish.

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast,

immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”
1 Cor 15:58

Onward to the finish.

When the work is done,
we’ll see His glory and cry,
“Worthy!”

“So Moses finished the work.” (Exodus 40:33) I came to the end of my reading in Exodus this morning. To fully appreciate those 5 words, you really need to read the 39 preceding chapters. The whole thing had been such an ordeal, drama from the time God called out to Moses from

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