Exodus 36:20-38 (ESV)

Then he made the upright frames for the tabernacle of acacia wood. Ten cubits was the length of a frame, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each frame. Each frame had two tenons for fitting together. He did this for all the frames of the tabernacle. The frames for the tabernacle he made thus: twenty frames for the south side. And he made forty bases of silver under the twenty frames, two bases under one frame for its two tenons, and two bases under the next frame for its two tenons. For the second side of the tabernacle, on the north side, he made twenty frames and their forty bases of silver, two bases under one frame and two bases under the next frame. For the rear of the tabernacle westward he made six frames. He made two frames for corners of the tabernacle in the rear. And they were separate beneath but joined at the top, at the first ring. He made two of them this way for the two corners. There were eight frames with their bases of silver: sixteen bases, under every frame two bases.

He made bars of acacia wood, five for the frames of the one side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the frames of the tabernacle at the rear westward. And he made the middle bar to run from end to end halfway up the frames. And he overlaid the frames with gold, and made their rings of gold for holders for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.

He made the veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; with cherubim skillfully worked into it he made it. And for it he made four pillars of acacia and overlaid them with gold. Their hooks were of gold, and he cast for them four bases of silver. He also made a screen for the entrance of the tent, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, embroidered with needlework, and its five pillars with their hooks. He overlaid their capitals, and their fillets were of gold, but their five bases were of bronze.

Just making the frames is a staggering undertaking. Each frame is 10 cubits by 1.5 cubits (15’ x 2¼’) – and there are 48 of them.

Don’t forget, it’s not yet the Iron Age. This would have been a big project with modern power tools, and an enormous one with modern hand tools. They did it with bronze axes!

Never be intimidated by the size of a challenge when it’s for the LORD.

One of the main parts of growing in Christ is stretching our wings beyond what we thought possible. Normally, this takes a nudge from someone or some thing; big challenges are usually too scary for us.

So, don’t go looking for some way to jump off a cliff for Jesus. Just be ready to jump when He calls. My accepting the call to write the DEEP was pretty much nuts. I had no idea what I was getting in to. But it was a call; someone asked me to take it over. Writing something like this hadn’t even crossed my mind.

Are you ready for a leap like that? If not, you’re holding yourself back. There are many jobs to be done. But the main reason you’ll be called isn’t so something can get done; it’s so that you will grow.

God relentlessly pursues our sanctification.

The weekly study guides, which include all six devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies