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Exodus 38 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
The values are given here for the exact weight of the gold, silver and bronze used in construction.
The GoldCommentators differ in their opinion of just how much gold was actually used. The weight of all the gold alone was just over 1 ton or 2200 pounds. I did the math. After converting this to grams and multiplying by the value per gram rate ($60.09/gram), we are talking about gold worth over 50 million dollars today! Some commentaries have argued that there is no way Israel would have had the resources to acquire this much gold, however, gold was plentiful in Egypt. If you remember the story earlier in Exodus, you know that God planned for the Israelites to plunder the Egyptians of their wealth before their escape.
The SilverThe weight of the silver was significantly more than the gold, although, it was worth much less. The silver for the sanctuary was collected by a compulsory tax. The weight itself was about 7500 pounds and would today be worth around 2.5 million dollars. Still, a hefty amount of material.
The CopperThe weight of the copper was about 5300 pounds and would come in today at roughly $15,000.
This is all important because we are talking about a multi-million dollar construction project (by my math). Some scholars do not think it was this much, however, by all accounts I’ve studied, it is agreed that this was an extremely costly project. This is not factoring in the precious rocks/stones, the spices, the woodwork, the raw material for the cloths, and the dyed animal skins which would have added to the total cost of the project.
What is the point? There are times when God calls us to step out in ministry to expand for the kingdom. In the world we live in, that means we need money and labor. What helped make this whole thing possible were the generous givers and the talented workers who came together to complete the project God had designed. For those of us today, Jesus has commanded that we serve Him with everything. This means in our jobs, with our skills, and, of course, by giving our finances. We are stewards of His gifts and ultimately everything belongs to Him anyway. Who are we to hold it with a tight fist?