Our Noise and God’s Music

Photo: The Vineyard Gazette - Martha's Vineyard News

Parashat Vayakhel-Pekudei, Exodus 35:1–40:38

Rabbi Stuart Dauermann

Shuvah Yisrael Messianic Congregation, Plainview, New York 

Yeshua warned us that toward the time of the end, we would hear of wars and rumors of wars, but that we should see to it we are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come (see Matthew 24:8).  

As a musician, I like how Yeshua mentions the faculty of hearing in this statement. Years ago, in his splendid Songs of Heaven, Bible teacher Robert A. Coleman reminded us that there are fourteen songs in the Book of Revelation. And I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that when all is said and done all humanity and all creation will sing together in perfect harmony.  

But until then, our ears are bothered by too much tinkling brass and clanging cymbals (1 Cor 13). Still, from time to time, even when historical forces do not always sing in unison, sometimes we find things harmonizing, a foretaste of better things to come.

Our parasha portrays a rarely seen and crucial harmony between divine desire and human motivation. It is a harmony between the exterior — the expressed will of God, and the interior — the heart and will of human beings. This harmony portrayed in Torah reaches its crescendo in the blessings of the New Covenant, and its final cadence in the world to come.

Look with me at our passage as it repeatedly portrays the interplay between the exterior commands of God and the interior will and heart of humankind. In Sh’mot/Exodus 35 we read of “the things that Adonai has ordered you to do” (v. 2), chiefly taking up a collection that Adonai has ordered (v. 4), with all the craftsmen making all that Adonai has ordered. The outcome was: “Every man and woman of the people of Isra’el whose heart impelled him to contribute to the work Adonai had ordered through Moshe brought it to Adonai as a voluntary offering” (v. 29).

And in this last verse we see the harmony that appears repeatedly in the text, between the external orders (commandments, demands of God), and people’s internal motivations. The respondents to God’s will do so out of inner motivation, referred to as “anyone whose heart makes him willing” (v. 5); “Everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit made him willing” (v. 20); “Both men and women came, as many as had willing hearts” (v. 20);  “All the women who were skilled at spinning got to work and brought what they had spun, the blue, purple and scarlet yarn and the fine linen. Likewise, the women whose heart stirred them to use their skill spun the goat’s hair. The leaders brought the onyx stones and the stones to be set for the ritual vest and the breastplate” (vv. 25–27). The final verse in this section brings together the outer factor (God’s order), and the inner factors (people’s hearts and spirits impelled and stirred), saying, “Thus every man and woman of the people of Isra’el whose heart impelled him to contribute to any of the work [the interior] Adonai had ordered through Moshe brought it to Adonai [the exterior] as a voluntary offering [the interior again!]” (Exod 35:29).

The offering was voluntary and yet there was something more at work, something beyond simple human response to the orders given by Hashem. What was the added factor that accounted for all this harmony?

We find out in the verses that follow:

30 Moshe said to the people of Isra’el, “See, Adonai has singled out B’tzal’el the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Y’hudah. 31 He has filled him with the Spirit of God — with wisdom, understanding and knowledge concerning every kind of artisanry. 32 He is a master of design in gold, silver, bronze, 33 cutting precious stones to be set, woodcarving and every other craft. 34 [Adonai] has also given him and Oholi’av the son of Achisamakh, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. 35 He has filled them with the skill needed for every kind of work, whether done by an artisan, a designer, an embroiderer using blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen, or a weaverthey have the skill for every kind of work and design. (Exod 35:30–35)

It is the Spirit of God who coordinates the outer and the inner, the divine command with the inner desire expressed freely in generosity, in creativity, and in skill.

If you look for them, you will find references to this holy interplay elsewhere in the Bible. I find its most elegant iteration in this passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippians:

Therefore, my loved ones, just as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence—work out your salvation with fear and trembling.  For the One working in you is God — both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Phil 2:12–13 TLV)

Here we hear the music of the inner and the outer working together in perfect harmony as orchestrated by the Spirit of God.

It is the Spirit who guarantees and achieves this beautiful harmony between the outer demands of God and the inner responses of people.

If we look and listen around us, what we will hear is often tinkling brass and clanging cymbals, wars and rumors of wars. But in the midst, another sound vies for our attention, the Son of Man knocking at our door. If we will but open the door and bid him enter, we will, in his Spirit, make beautiful music together.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture references are from Complete Jewish Bible (CJB).