Crystal Writes A Blog

Go for the Bronze

Olympic Medals by Flickr User Welsh Government / Llywodraeth Cymru, CC License = Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works
Click image to open new tab/window to view original image and to access user’s full photo stream at Flickr.

We don’t usually hear anyone cheer people who compete for Olympic medals, or other medals for that matter, to “Go for the bronze.” We tell them to shoot for the gold but be proud if they make silver or bronze. It’s the same with ribbons. We don’t usually encourage ourselves, or anyone else we know, to just be happy with a participant ribbon. But for some reason, when it comes to encouraging people to cross the finish line for Heaven, we think just getting there is enough. But if you’ll read 1 Corinthians 3:9-17, you’ll find an interesting dialogue about our works, and how they will be tried by fire. Our goal should be to build something that will withstand that trial to give us a greater reward.

So what does this have to do with today’s reading? Well, with the winter Olympics going on, I thought the title and image were a good way to showcase today’s reading from Exodus 27:9 through Exodus 29:19 with its instructions on building the courtyard for the wilderness tabernacle. The courtyard was important in that it surrounded and protected the Holiest of Holies. But, that’s just it; it surrounded the heart of the tabernacle. It was not, of itself, the heart or the most important part of tabernacle worship.

In the building details, we read of artistic tapestries of finely woven linen, bronze sockets, silver rings, and amazing dimensions of 150 feet in length by 75 feet in width. After all the details, we are told at the end of today’s reading that all equipment for service in the tabernacle, and all the tent pegs for the courtyard, are to be of bronze.

My take on all of this is that bronze represents a working metal and not a high value metal. Bronze is an alloy of copper, and as such has great metallic value. But it’s not the value of silver or gold. It can tarnish, but it can be shined up again to mirror quality. To me, this sounds a lot like those of us who walk as servants to Yahveh Almighty He is the gold, and we are mined from the earth and can be tarnished by sin but can be cleaned up to reflect the personality of our Savior Yahshua. So, in one way, we can go for the bronze by becoming converted from simple clay. At the same time, we can go for the gold by seeking as much of God’s presence as we can find on this earth, and by striving to dwell in the holiest places of the heavens.

February 7, 2014 - Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible Study, Nonfiction, Torah Commentary | Adonai, Almighty, Bible, Bible Gateway, Bible reading, Bible study, bronze, Complete Jewish Bible, courtyard, Creator, crystalwriter, design, details, Exodus, God, Holy Bible, Israel, Lord, Old Covenant, Old Testament, Parashah, Portions, Scripture, tabernacle, tapestries, The Complete Jewish Bible, Torah, Torah commentary, Torah Portions, Torah Reading, wilderness, Word, Word of God, Word of the Lord, www.biblegateway.com, Yahveh, Yahweh