Pekudei – Torah with Joseph

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom. My name is Joseph Shulam. And together with Brad TV, we are doing the portions of the reading of the Torah that is read in every synagogue around the world. And today we're coming to the very last portion from the book of Exodus. We're finishing the book of Exodus. The name of the portion in Hebrew is Pekudei. Which the English translation of the word is “Inventory.”

You may wonder why so many Jews are bookkeepers. We're bookkeepers from olden days, from ancient times. And here is the proof of it. We have here several chapters, two and a half chapters of the Torah. At the end of the book of Exodus it gives us the inventory of all the work and all the instruments and all the furniture and all the clothing of the High Priest and the priests in general, as they finished the work of the building of the tabernacle in the desert. It's kind of a forerunner, an introduction to the book of the Torah that is called Leviticus.

The instructions for the priesthood, and for the Levites. That's why it's called Leviticus (from Levites). Wow. I'm not going to go furniture by furniture, piece of clothing by piece of clothing, piece of golden breastplate by piece of golden breastplate, and all the details of this bookkeeping portion of the Torah. But I'm going to deal with the bigger principles. They worked hard. We have gone through at least five chapters dealing with the building of the tabernacle, with the collection of the contributions of the women who took out their bracelets and their earrings and their jewelry and gave it for the building of the tabernacle.

People gave their silver, the half shekel to build the stands that were going to hold the pillars of the tent of the tabernacle. People gave skins and precious stones and you name it. And a lot of work. But Bezalel and his team, Bezalel, the son of Uri and his team, did a lot of work to build that tabernacle, a portable sanctuary, a portable temple that they could carry with them from the stations to stations that they went through during 40 years or 38 years after the building of the tabernacle. It took them two years to get that tabernacle together. A long time at the foot of Mount Sinai before they got up and moved on toward the land of Canaan, the land that God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as an everlasting possession.

Why Did God Include This Inventory?

But why do you think that the Holy Spirit saw fit to use up two and a half chapters of the Torah as an inventory, telling us every piece of furniture, every piece of cloth, every piece of instruments that were used in the sacrificial cult of Israel in the tabernacle? Why is it necessary? I am not a person who does a lot of accounting. My wife does all the accounting at home. I'm a person looking at the big picture. And looking at the big picture, I ask myself, why did the Holy Spirit and God see fit to include this in the Bible, which is not a very big book?

From Genesis to Revelation it is shorter than Leo Tolstoy's “War and Peace.” And there are many novels that are longer than the whole Bible. Yep. So why did God choose to give us this text, telling us about the workers that worked to design and build and execute the tabernacle? Telling us about the gold that was used in the work of the Holy Place and the gold of the offering and the 29 talents, 730 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and the silver?

And if I scroll down, you see not only mention of the silver and gold and all these things, but also offerings of bronze which were 70 talents, 2,400 shekels of bronze to make the sockets for the tabernacle, the tent of meeting. If I go down, I see, that they set onyx stones enclosed in setting of gold, that were engraved. And the signets are engraved with the names of the sons of Israel, with the names of the tribes. All these details, and like I said, I'm not a person of these kind of details. But the big picture is very important. It tells me that God, first of all, appreciates when his children do things in an orderly way and keep a record of who gave what. Who contributed what. And what is the total amount and the account.

Paul’s Letters Have a Fundraising Element

This is important for us in the New Testament, folks. We have all of Paul's letters. Each one of his letters was a letter to solve problems in the churches that he had started and some that he hadn’t . And each one of his letters has a fundraising element in it. I know that Christians don't pay attention to this. But it's a very important element in Paul's letters. One of the purposes for Paul when writing his letters, every one of his letters has a fundraising element.

And we see this idea of fundraising or equipment raising or jewelry raising or precious stones raising and cloth, blue and purple and scarlet thread, woven linen, all these things that people contributed, I see that God cares about it. And he wants the accounting of what people gave and what happened to what they gave. What was it used for? Oh, this is so important. So important. Because essentially, churches and pastors raise money.

Raising money is a big portion of what an evangelical service consists of. Not in a synagogue. Not in a Jewish synagogue, in an Orthodox Jewish synagogue. Maybe Reform, yes, I don't know, I've never been to a Reform synagogue. One time I was in a Reform synagogue, and I didn't like it, to say the least. But in an Orthodox synagogue on the Sabbath day or other days, money is not a part of the discussion. It is a self-understood thing that you are a part of a community, and as a part of the community you have to participate in the challenges and in the problems and in the joys and in the happy moments and in the sad moments of the community.

Including taking part, becoming a partner, in the work of the Lord by partnering with the needs of the community.

God Keeps a Record

And so this inventory about the breastplates and the purple and the scarlet and the linen and all these things tells me that, first of all, God wants, and God keeps a record. And he wants that record to be known of what the children of Israel did with the contributions that they contributed to build the tabernacle, the tent of meeting in the wilderness. That same Ark of the Covenant that was made in the wilderness and placed in the Holy of Holies of that tent that had two rooms and a courtyard, is the Ark of the Covenant that King David brought from the house of Abinadab. About 16, 17 miles away from Jerusalem to Jerusalem after it sat there at the house of Abinadab for 20 years.

He brings it to Jerusalem and builds a tent in Jerusalem. The fallen tabernacle of David that Amos talks about in chapter nine, verses 11-13 of the prophet Amos. And then Jacob, James in English, quotes that verse in order to convince the apostles and the elders of the church in Jerusalem that they don't need to force the Gentiles to be circumcised and convert to Judaism because the time is coming when God himself will rebuild the fallen tabernacle of David, that will be open to all nations like the Temple of Solomon was. And the temple of Herod was.

Yeah. This idea is very, very important. And what is important about it is that God wants, wants to tell us. I care about the details of what you do, of what you give, of how you participate, of how you partner with my community that was sanctified by the blood of the Messiah, with my nation that was bought and purchased out of slavery from Egypt and given the land of Canaan as it was promised to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob. Yes, God cares. God cared. Let me go up a little bit. Let me read some more of this.

I'm going to read now from chapter 39, verses 14-16:

The Twelve Gates of the New Jerusalem

And I could go on, these details bore me. But they remind me of something else. They remind me of the very end of the book of Revelation in the New Testament. The last, the last chapter of the book of Revelation in the New Testament. And what do we find out? That there's going to be a city four square. In other words, the city will be square with a wall around it and the tabernacle. Not made from cloth or from skin, but they will be made from, I don't know what. Precious material.

And there will be there in that city, twelve gates. And on those twelve gates, in the book of Revelation, first of all, what are these gates going to be made from? Each gate is going to be made from the same precious stones, twelve different precious stones, that were set on the breastplate of Aaron. Why? Why? Why do you think that God reveals to us all these details here, and then at the very end of the book of Revelation, at the very end of the book of Revelation, dear brothers and sisters, the last big, good news is that there will be a new Heavens and a new Earth, which Isaiah the prophet prophesied in the eighth century BC. And there will be a city, Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem.

And there will be twelve gates in it. And each gate will be made from one of these precious stones that was on the breastplate of Aaron. And on each gate, there will be the name of a tribe, like on the breastplate, and the name of the apostle that is in charge of that tribe. That's why they had to have twelve apostles, based on a verse in the book of Psalms. The tribes will sit and judge the world. That's why when Judas betrayed the Lord and when the Lord ascended to Heaven from Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and before the Holy Spirit came at the feast of Shavuot of Pentecost, 50 days after the Exodus from Egypt, after Passover it was Pentecost. Pentecost means 50.

And the apostles gathered together in Jerusalem, there were 11 of them. Judas had already killed himself. But they had to cast lots to choose the 12th apostle by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And they cast lots and they choose the 12th apostle. Matthias. Yeah. And after that, that's the end of chapter one of Acts. Chapter two of acts, the Holy Spirit comes at Shavuot, fills the house on Mount Zion, fills the people around them.

They have tongues of fire over their heads, just like when God gave them the Torah in chapter 20 of Exodus, verse 18. And the events that start rolling and the community that we call the church, the church, the word church actually means community. The community of the saints is established in Jerusalem and 3,000 Jews from 18 different languages, countries and cultures gathered in Jerusalem because the feast of Pentecost is one of the pilgrimage feasts. Three pilgrimage feasts: Passover, Pentecost and Sukkot or Tabernacles. Yeah.

The Feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem

And so thousands of people, we read in Josephus and also in the rabbinical writings, that during these three feasts, Jerusalem tripled its population. Normal population year round was around 100,000, 120,000 people in Jerusalem, which is a big city. It was the same size as Rome. Population wise, I'm talking about. But on the feast, there were 300,000 people. And it says that there was no house that didn't have guests. They rented space to people so that they could have a place to stay, when they went to the temple to worship and to bring their sacrifices.

Yes. It was a big deal. But in the book of Revelation, that four square city, the New Jerusalem, the one that Abraham was looking for and that gave a push to Abraham to remain faithful in order to be able to be a part of that eternal city of Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem. But the 12 tribes play a big role there. And the 12 apostles play a big role there. The Lord, will reign on the whole Earth from that Jerusalem, surrounded with the 12 gates and surrounded with the 12 apostles, and all of this is based on the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness.

Churches Must Give an Accounting

And before the book of Exodus ends, and we move on to the book of Leviticus that deals with the work of the Levites and the priests in the tabernacle, God says, Give me an inventory. Give me an accounting. What did you do with what these people of Israel, ex-slaves, contributed? I want to know what you did with it. Not that He didn't know. But He wanted everybody to know. And you dear people and your churches, must keep the finances and the spending and resources of your church open. Open.

So that everybody will know what the church does with the money that you contribute. I think that this is a necessary thing to stop some of the abuses and excesses of churches. I have been around the world several times. In fact, every year, usually two times a year, around the world, and have visited churches all over, from South America, to North America, to Europe, to Scandinavia, to Asia, to all over. And I think it's necessary. And it's good for the body of the Messiah to give an accounting, for the churches to give an accounting, of what they do with your contributions.

And I learned that from this last portion called “Inventory,” that seals the book of Exodus. When we finish reading Your book in the synagogue, we say, be strong, strong and stronger from the word of God's inspiration and guidance for you and your lives. God bless you all. Keep reading the Bible.