These serving women gave up their polished brass hand mirrors as an offering to the Lord. Notice it says they were “the serving women who assembled at the door.” The offering of these women was in itself a symbol of self-dedication. One ancient Jewish tradition says these were godly women who came daily to the door of the tent of meeting to seek God in prayer. Their interest was communication with God.<\/p>\n
We cannot be sure exactly which tabernacle or tent of meeting is meant here. A straight forward reading would suggest that this is Moses’ tent, which was mentioned in Exodus 33:7. The other possibility is that this refers to the tabernacle not yet built and is mentioned here in anticipation. In that manner, this would mean that they were women who resolved to be praying and later were.<\/p>\n
So why is this detail mentioned here? Perhaps because a mirror speaks of self-scrutiny, and this is reminding us that we must guard against a morbid introspection. Such thoughts take our attention off the finished work of Jesus Christ, reducing His vital spiritual life in us into some kind of legal obligation or duty. If all we do is drudge up past, confessed failures and disappointments, we miss the mark. No doubt this passage is meant to point us to a cure for our unhealthy introspection. These women became so interested in serving God that they were weaned from their mirrors. We need to go find some service to do for the Lord. We need balance, living in the healthy center of God and His plans for our lives. Then we will be able to abandon the habit of deadly self-scrutiny.<\/p>\n
“LORD, please show us some place or way that we can serve You in some small way this day.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Exodus 38 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0And he made the altar of burnt offering\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>shittim wood: five cubits\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof;\u00a0it was\u00a0<\/em>foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof.\u00a02<\/sup>And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same: and he overlaid it with brass.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And he made all the vessels of the altar, the pots, and the shovels, and the basons,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>the fleshhooks, and the firepans: all the vessels thereof made he\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>brass.\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0And he made for the altar a brasen grate of network under the compass thereof beneath unto the midst of it.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass,\u00a0to be\u00a0<\/em>places for the staves.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And he made the staves\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>shittim wood, and overlaid them with brass.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar, to bear it withal; he made the altar hollow with boards. 8<\/sup>\u00a0And he made the laver\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>brass, and the foot of it\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>brass, of the lookingglasses of\u00a0the women\u00a0<\/em>assembling, which assembled\u00a0at\u00a0<\/em>the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0And he made the court: on the south side southward the hangings of the court\u00a0were of<\/em>fine twined linen, an hundred cubits:\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0Their pillars\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>twenty, and their brasen sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets\u00a0were of\u00a0<\/em>silver.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And for the north side\u00a0the hangings were\u00a0<\/em>an hundred cubits, their pillars\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>twenty, and their sockets of brass twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>silver.\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And for the west side\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten, and their sockets ten; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>silver.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And for the east side eastward fifty cubits.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0The hangings of the one side\u00a0of the gate were<\/em>fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0And for the other side of the court gate, on this hand and that hand,\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>hangings of fifteen cubits; their pillars three, and their sockets three.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0All the hangings of the court round about\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>of fine twined linen.\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0And the sockets for the pillars\u00a0were of\u00a0<\/em>brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>silver; and the overlaying of their chapiters\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>silver; and all the pillars of the court\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>filleted with silver.\u00a018<\/sup>And the hanging for the gate of the court\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>needlework,\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen: and twenty cubits\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>the length, and the height in the breadth\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>five cubits, answerable to the hangings of the court.\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0And their pillars\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>four, and their sockets\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>brass four; their hooks\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>silver, and the overlaying of their chapiters and their fillets\u00a0of<\/em>silver.\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0And all the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round about,\u00a0were of\u00a0<\/em>brass. 21<\/sup>\u00a0This is the sum of the tabernacle,\u00a0even\u00a0<\/em>of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted, according to the commandment of Moses,\u00a0for\u00a0<\/em>the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son to Aaron the priest.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the\u00a0LORD\u00a0commanded Moses.\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0And with him\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, and a cunning workman, and an embroiderer in blue, and in purple, and in scarlet, and fine linen.\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0All the gold that was occupied for the work in all the work of the holy\u00a0place\u00a0<\/em>, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary.\u00a025<\/sup>\u00a0And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary:\u00a026<\/sup>\u00a0A bekah for every man,\u00a0that is\u00a0<\/em>, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty\u00a0men\u00a0<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a027<\/sup>\u00a0And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the vail; an hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.\u00a028<\/sup>\u00a0And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five\u00a0shekels\u00a0<\/em>he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their chapiters, and filleted them.\u00a029<\/sup>\u00a0And the brass of the offering\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels.\u00a030<\/sup>And therewith he made the sockets to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the brasen altar, and the brasen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar,\u00a031<\/sup>\u00a0And the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court round about.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" These serving women gave up their polished brass hand mirrors as an offering to the Lord. Notice it says they were “the serving women who assembled at the door.” The offering of these women was in itself a symbol of self-dedication. One ancient Jewish tradition says these were godly women who came daily to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12631"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15879,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12631\/revisions\/15879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}