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It took about six to nine months to complete the Mishkan and before the Mishkan was completed, Moses’ personal tent possibly was the Tent of Meeting in which the people would come to inquire of Moses and HaShem about right and wrong. But once the Mishkan (Tabernacle) was completed, the Tent of Meeting slowly transfers from Moses’ personal tent to the courtyard of the Mishkan.
The Torah reveals to us that Moses was an upright and honest man. We all would love to have a reputation as good as that of Moses. No one asked Moses for an accounting of the donation to the tabernacle, but he did so anyway. He made a detailed record what was brought in and how it was used. The fact that Moses did this reinforces his reputation for honesty and forthrightness.
When people have power, it’s a struggle to maintain one’s honesty and uprightness but one way to exercise power responsibly is to humble oneself enough to be willing to make an account of one’s actions in the exercise of authority. Moses was successful in this regard, which is why the Torah tells us that Moses was also a very humble man.
We are the tabernacles of God, but what do we look like on the inside? Are we clothed in silver, gold, scarlet and blue inside full of God’s beauty and honor? Or are we clothed inside with filth and death? Our goal is to be light enough and pleasant enough for God to want to live in us.
Moshe prays for internal purity of Israel (Psalm 90)
When Moses saw the work was completed, Moses wrote Psalm 90 in response to what he saw when the Mishkan was completed.
You have placed our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
Psalm 90:8 NASB
Our iniquities and secret sins are not pleasing to God. The question is do we ignore these things and allow our dwellings to become a dungeon, or do we fix it, clean it and make our bodies worthy of God’s inhabitation? We can’t be perfect all the time, but when we fall down, we get up, clean up and do better. This process doesn’t stop until the moment we die and it’s an honor to us that God gives us so many chances to repent.
So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12 NASB
Cherish the time you have on earth to repent and prepare yourself for the Kingdom of God. Our time on earth is when we have opportunity to improve ourselves and make ourselves ready to meet with God.
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; And confirm for us the work of our hands; Yes, confirm the work of our hands.
Psalm 90:17 NASB
Accounting for mercy: Yeshua’s parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1–17)
Just as Moses calls on us to “confirm the work of our hands” before God and to repent where we fall short, so too Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) does through His many parables. Today, I want to look at the Parable of the Unjust Steward. This was a parable that was addressed to the His closest disciples first.
Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions.”
Luke 16:1 NASB
This unrighteous steward was embezzling money from his master and the master was firing him. The unrighteous steward knew that once the master fired him that no one else would trust him in a similar position again. He has to be asking himself how he can take care of his family. His reputation is now set as a dishonest person. He doesn’t have another skillset to be able to make a living with physical labor.
The soon-to-be out of work steward comes up with a very shrewd and dishonest plan. He decides that he needed to ingratiate himself to others of wealth and means so that they would feel indebted to him rather than his master. His plan was was not a righteous plan, but it was a very smart one.
“And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.”
Luke 16:8–9 NASB
A righteous steward would have repented of his embezzlement and fought to restore himself in the eyes of his master. The “sons of light” are not shrewd individuals, they are not opportunists.
Luke 16:9 is one of the most confusing verse in the parable. How does one “make friends” with unrighteous wealth? This is a very odd statement, but Yeshua explains Himself. Remember that with parables, the punchline matters more than the details.
“He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.”
Luke 16:10 NASB
By practicing doing what is right in the smaller things, we are preparing ourselves to also be righteous in the larger things. In the same way, if we are unfaithful in small things, we will not be faithful in larger things, either.
“Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?”
Luke 16:11–12 NASB
What is our own? What actually belongs to us? The Apostle Peter tells us.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you…
1Peter 1:3–4 NASB
We don’t actually own the house we live in, the clothes on our back, or the money in our bank account. That doesn’t go with us to the grave. What actually belongs to us is what is stored up for us in Heaven. Our spot in heaven is what belongs to us.
Now, when we go back to Luke 16:12, and rather than thinking about it in terms of being faithful with material wealth, think of it as being faithful or unfaithful with our spiritual wealth. If we don’t give others mercy, why would God give us mercy? If we don’t forgive others, why would God forgive us? If we don’t have compassion on others, why would God have compassion on us?
Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.”
Luke 16:14–15 NASB
The point of Yeshua’s parable is not really about our money, but about our actions. We see this in Luke 16:15–17, which is the punchline of the parable.
Who does the master (God) end up firing? The unrighteous steward who were the Scribes and the Pharisees. The Pharisees and Scribes gave each other spiritual blessings and also gave blessings to those who could do something for them in return, but they did not give any blessings to the poor, the unfortunate or the sinners in their midst.
The unrighteous steward gave forgiveness, by forgiving the debts of those who owed the master something. He didn’t extend this forgiveness to those who owed the master a debt but could not give him something in return.
God is the owner of all the mercy, forgiveness and compassion in the world. When we extend mercy, forgiveness and compassion to others, we are simply giving what is God’s to others.
The Pharisees and scribes freely gave blessings to their friends, to those who were wealthy enough to give blessings back to them but the Pharisees and Scribes did not freely give those blessings to the poor, the refugee and the sinner.
“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.”
Luke 16:16–17 NASB; parallel: Matt. 5:17–19
God doesn’t just keep a record of who we extend love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness towards, but He also records those to whom we did not extend love, mercy, compassion and forgiveness. When God forgives us, do we just hold on to it for ourselves, or only give it to our friends? Or do we also extend that forgives to others, even our enemies?
The world doesn’t cancel debts. It seeks vengeance. Only Heaven willingly cancels debts stacked against it. And if we want to be citizens of Heaven, we should willingly cancel the debts against us too.
Summary: Tammy