March 25 ▪ Day 84

Scripture Readings

Proverbs 14:6
Exodus 37–38
Luke 13
Psalms 84

Verse Focus (Proverbs 14:6)

The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none,
     but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.

Meditation

Proverbs 14:6 says, “The mocker seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge comes easily to the discerning.” As I read it this morning in the NRSV, it said, “A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for one who understands.”

I have been thinking about this proverb. Why can’t the mocker or the scoffer find wisdom? It’s not like wisdom is hiding. You might have to search for it — it might take some effort — but wisdom can be found. The problem, I conclude, must be with the mocker and the scoffer himself. And I realize that it’s their state of mind. They can’t find wisdom because they have an attitude of pride and contempt. In fact, they very well might have found wisdom but had been unable to recognize it. Perhaps it was too simple for them. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Or perhaps wisdom required them to change and they were unwilling to do so, so their search ended up being in vain.

I have this idea of the world — perhaps we all do — and according to this idea, there are certain immutable things that just are. Reality. Being. Presence. What is. And, to me, wisdom is one of those foundational items. Wisdom is. It’s always there, foundational to the creation of the world. Present in every law of physics, in all the different ways that objects function in the created universe. So to think that there are people who cannot perceive what seems foundational to reality is a bizarre notion. And it makes me realize that mockers and scoffers are blind. In fact, anyone who suffers from too much pride is blinded, their view of reality distorted.

The second half of the proverb is also a little weird. “Knowledge is easy for the one who understands.” Well, duh. They understand. Of course knowledge is easy for them. It almost seems like a truism. Why bother to even to say this? What’s left out of the proverb is what they understand. What do they discern? When you start using words like discernment, however, that’s when you start hinting at wisdom. And I see that the second half of the proverb is connected to the first half — the topic is still wisdom. And concerning wisdom, “knowledge comes easily to the discerning.” Thus, if you discern wisdom, you will gain knowledge. Okay, that makes more sense. 🙂

Father God, this proverb makes me understand more of the dangers of pride, and why your Scripture is always condemning mockers, scoffers, and other types of fools. It’s scary to think that you can blind yourself by your very attitudes. I pray that if there are any such attitudes within me that make me unable to perceive your truth and your reality, please change that. Thank you that you have already told us the path to finding wisdom. May we learn to fear you as we should. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Exodus 37 and 38 continue detailing the work done to create the tabernacle. Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the artisans worked together to create the ark of the covenant, the table for the bread of the Presence, the lampstand, the altar of incense, the anointing oil and the incense. They also make the altar of burnt offering and the court of the tabernacle, including its curtains and the silver-banded pillars.

In chapter 37, where they made things for the holy place and the most holy place, we have a recurring refrain of “pure gold.” Whatever was not made out of pure gold was at least overlaid with pure gold. Even the acacia-wood poles that would carry the items of the tabernacle were overlaid with gold. Everything glowed. It was as lavish as it was possible to be.

In chapter 38, they made things for the outer court and the altar outside the tabernacle. These things weren’t pure gold, but now we start hearing of bronze and silver. The altar for burnt offerings is made of bronze; the pots, firepans, shovels, forks, and basins are also made of bronze. Again, even the carrying poles are overlaid with bronze. We still have the bright, shiny effect, but a more durable metal for all the heavy use these items will encounter.

The court of the tabernacle has pillars made of bronze, with silver accents — the capitals are silver, and the pillars are also banded in silver. You have silver clasps to connect the curtains.

Chapter 38 also told us the weight of gold and silver that was used in constructing the tabernacle. Verse 24 tells us that they used 29 talents, 730 shekels of gold, while verse 25 tells us they used 100 talents, 1,775 shekels of silver. Fortunately, the Christian Standard Bible (CSB) gives its figures in the converted weights we use today: 2,193 pounds of gold, and 7,544 pounds of silver.

Just for kicks, I wanted to look up the price of gold to figure out what that would come to today. At this very moment, the price of gold is $1,728.50 per troy ounce. A pound is 14.58333333 troy ounces. So in today’s prices, one pound of gold costs $25,207.29; the gold for the entire tabernacle comes in at about a half-billion dollars: $55,279,590.62. Of course, the gold price fluctuates all the time. In the past 5 years, it was as high as $2,028 per troy ounce, and as low as $1,266.70 (with an average price per troy ounce of $1,499.98).

Silver has a much lower value and today a troy ounce sells for $25.12. A pound of silver costs $366.33; the value of the silver used in the tabernacle in today’s prices would be $2,763,618.67. Less than the gold, obviously, but not inconsequential: I certainly wouldn’t sneeze at nearly $3 million dollars in silver!

As I was reading the chapters in Exodus today, I was struck by a verse in Exodus 37, as the Scripture describes how they built the ark of the covenant. Verse 9 says, “The cherubim spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings.” The “mercy seat” was actually the lid or cover for the ark of the covenant, but it was called the mercy seat because God had said that His Presence would be above the mercy seat between the cherubim (Exodus 25:22). He would meet and speak with Moses there in the most holy place (also called the “Holy of Holies”) on the day of atonement. An alternate way to think of this mercy seat is to think of it as God’s throne of grace.

Not that God would actually sit upon this “throne.” The CSB also gives handy conversions for the size of the mercy seat — about 45 inches long by 27 inches wide (the size of your average bath mat). Certainly, a human figure might be able to actually sit on that, but the head would likely be above the cherubim’s wings. The reason I’m going into this detail is because, as I read this verse, it struck me how the wings of the cherubim would cover and protect the high priest from God’s presence. Just how no one could see God’s face and live, the wings of the cherubim hide God’s glory and offer protection from its terrible weight. Whether you imagine Jesus, an angelic figure, or an amorphous cloud — the wings are still a kind of barrier. Or protection. 🙂 And even though it’s not an exact copy, I see the ark of the covenant, the cherubim, and the holy of holies together as mirroring Isaiah’s vision of God in heaven.

Luke chapter 13 begins with Jesus talking about two recent tragedies and how people interpreted these tragedies as being the fault of the people who died, because they were so sinful. Jesus contradicts this notion, and twice he says, “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.”

Immediately after this warning, Jesus launches into telling the parable of the barren fig tree. The owner of the vineyard came looking for figs, but the tree had no fruit. He tells the gardener to cut the tree down (v. 7). And the gardener persuades him to wait one more year. The gardener will fertilize the tree and take special care of it; if it still produces no fruit in the following year, then the gardener will cut down the tree.

As I read this today, I realized that the parable directly relates to Jesus’ comments about the need to repent so that we will not perish. Indeed, we are the barren fig tree. We have not been producing fruit. But we’ve been granted a stay of execution — for a short time. But if we do not repent, if we do not change, if we do not start living the way God desires, if we do not produce His fruit — then we will be cut down. We will perish.

In the next story, we read of Jesus healing a woman who was crippled. I was struck by verse 14. In the NRSV, it says, “But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” It was the “kept saying to the crowd” part that caught my attention. He repeatedly was telling people his interpretation of Sabbath observance. And, I suppose, a part of me had to smile, since we’ve seen this very repetition of these very words (“six days you shall labor”) in the readings we’ve been doing in Exodus the past week or so.

When I looked at the verse in other translations, they merely translated it that the synagogue leader “said.” So I wondered why the NRSV used the words “kept saying.” Was it an accident that I was caught by these words? Or was something really there in the Scripture? So I did some digging. Now, I did actually study Greek. It was a very, very long time ago. And I don’t remember this from my former studies, although, once I looked it up, it was easier to understand because I had once studied the language. But, basically, in the original Greek the word that is referring to the synagogue leader speaking is in a tense called the “imperfect indicative active” tense. Now this imperfect tense is one that communicates a progressive or repeated aspect to the past time. In English, it might be translated as “he was saying,” “he used to say,” or “he said [habitually].” So by translating it as “kept saying,” the NRSV is being a little more true to what the Greek tense indicates — that the synagogue leader either said this phrase an awful lot, or he was saying it over and over again, perhaps to different people in the crowd. Repeating himself as he made this objection.

Of course, you know how the story ends. Jesus silences and even shames his opponents by pointing out that it is perfectly appropriate to free this woman from her bondage on the Sabbath, since it is meant to be a day of freedom and rest even for animals.

My insight into the “kept saying to the crowd” phrase may not be helpful for you, but it did change some of my perceptions of what happened in this incident. It made the synagogue leader come alive to me in a way he hadn’t previously — somehow the repetitions of his objections made me see a man who felt like he was losing control, desperately trying to sway people to an understanding of what he felt was proper. And as much as he loved God’s law, he was blinded to the true meaning of the very words he was quoting. And that blindness kept him from recognizing the true Lord of the Sabbath, there in his very presence.

Psalm 84 has been a favorite psalm of mine for about as long as I can remember. The psalm is attributed to the Sons of Korah, although I associate it with David because its sentiments seem to echo how David felt about God. Or perhaps it’s just because this is similar to Psalm 27. The psalmist longs to be in God’s presence, to be in His courts.

There are so many verse gems in this one little psalm! Verse 5 talks about how happy or how blessed are those who derive their strength from God. Verse 6 says, “As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.” Although the valley of Baca is a very real place near Jerusalem, the word “Baca” means weeping. So metaphorically, we understand that even though we journey through times of weeping, that grief is transformed into blessing — the barren desert literally becomes a place of springs and pools. Perhaps, too, it was our tears that fed those pools. I love how verse 7 continues the idea of a pilgrimage to blessing: “They go from strength to strength,” says the psalmist.

Verse 10 seems to cap it all up as the psalmist declares:

Better is one day in your courts
     than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
     than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

Father God, thank you for this beautiful psalm. We do long to be in your presence, and in your house. Thank you that you journey with us, even through the valley of weeping. You transform our sorrow into a source of life and healing. You make us stronger and stronger as we continue forward.

Thank you for sending Jesus to us. Even though we are safe in Christ, we didn’t lose that need to constantly repent. Please help us to take warning from Jesus’ words. May your grace be with us today and always. In Jesus’ name, Amen.