TO BUILD A TABLE
In the throes of the Exodus, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity and dwells in unapproachable light[1] began the long and beautiful process of revealing Himself to His firstborn nation, the freshly liberated sons and daughters of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is telling, then, how and what He prioritized in His self-disclosure from the start. The plagues?[2] Power. The Passover?[3] Preservation. The parting of the Red Sea?[4] Jaw-dropping cosmic sovereignty. And as Moses climbed the mountain of Sinai, as the future High Priest forged a golden calf in the valley below, the LORD delivered the laws and maxims of the burgeoning nation-state to its first prophet.[5] These terms included the literal blueprints for the traveling Tabernacle, a witness of God’s heavenly presence with His people in real time in real places as they made their way into the covenantal Land of Abraham’s promise.[6] As He described what would be built, He appointed who would build it:
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. “And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you: the tabernacle of meeting, the ark of the Testimony and the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the tabernacle—the table and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base—the garments of ministry, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests, and the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place. According to all that I have commanded you they shall do.”[7]
These are two men who were just rescued from slavery. How did God make and prepare them for this? While we do not know their background, we can confidently conclude that artistry, creativity, and excellence in both spheres matter to the LORD. Bezalel and Aholiab were entrusted with this incredible, singularly historic task to build and create the literal meeting point connecting heaven and earth with the manifest presence of the One who had first cut the covenant with their first father.[8] More than a simple tent, this construction was adorned with specifics detailed by the LORD Himself, and He deliberately crafted two men capable of serving both Him and their nation as artisans. The work was funded and supplied through the free will offering of this recently freed nation—drawing from the Egyptian plunder that filled their carts, bags, and pockets as they left their oppressors behind (just as was prophesied to Abraham to begin with).[9] In building the Tabernacle, these two artists crafted a means by which the entire nation, which had voluntarily contributed towards the endeavor, could encounter God.[10] This is no small thing.
Collectively speaking, we do not live in the days of the (first) Exodus, nor can we presume to attribute any of our work to that of Bezalel’s. No one in this day and age is tasked with creating the fixture that will host the manifest Presence of the Holy. Still, as with so much of Scripture, we can glean from and lean on principles set forth in the stories. This neglected element of the Exodus serves us with something of our own blueprint: To honor the dignity God gives to the creative, beautiful excellence of artisans made by Him to make things that reflect Him, and to provide beautiful means for a nation to encounter the beautiful Truth.
Perhaps we need this now more than ever.
As Joel Richardson remarked in THE GREAT REIGN (available for free streaming here),[11] the biblical concept of the return of Jesus is completely patterned after the events of the Exodus.[12] In many ways, the events of the Exodus lend themselves to the tapestry woven together as the prophets describe the Day of the LORD. I believe human history is barreling towards this fateful epoch, and as the stormy controversy mounts over Zion, the world at large desperately lacks the clarity needed to respond and prepare.
Our ambition here at THE EMMAUS TABLE is to build a robust multimedia resource library of creative and beautiful projects and productions that can help provide clarity on the issues related to the “controversy of Zion.”[13] Our messaging emphases and priorities are:
The Preeminence of Jesus
The Return of Jesus
The Day of the LORD
The Covenantal Centrality of Jerusalem
The Proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom
Prioritizing a Faithful Witness in the Muslim World
The Table
These messaging pillars serve as our core convictions;[14] and shape the ethos of our organization. Our films, documentaries, podcasts, books, articles, and songs are all engineered to serve the Body of Jesus to better understand and mature in the promise of Jesus’ return, and the pressures that will mount until He does. We believe the healthiest growth and transformation transpires through real relationships in real time, with face-to-face interaction. All our resources are designed to facilitate conversation and serve small group discussions.
We have incredible and unprecedented opportunities to blast the Gospel of the Kingdom in full measure into the nations. To be sure, this is done best through relationships and verbal proclamation.[15] But why not leverage all assets availed to us? Many of you reading this, like me, were not born into a world with computers. I didn’t hear the word “internet” until I was entering adolescence and, for the life of me, could not understand why someone would bother with sending an “e-mail” when we all had a perfectly good mail system with paper and stamps as it was. But technology changed, and with it, the world did as well.
Our commitment is to fully fund our growing resource library with donations so that we can prioritize prophetic integrity—the message delivered to us by the prophets and apostles through the Scriptures under the unction and supervision of the Holy Spirit—over a profit margin. Prophetic Integrity > Profit Margins. This frees us up from worrying about returns on investment or being in any way beholden to the market popularity of the message. It frees us to preach the full Gospel of the Kingdom—and it frees us up to release it for free. No resource at THE EMMAUS TABLE will ever be hidden behind a paywall. Anyone anywhere can access our table—all they need is internet. We are exploiting the luxuries of YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and social media’s global reach. This worldwide access to global distribution then requires global translation, and we have an incredible team of translators working diligently, presently as volunteers, to provide coherent resources to the global Body in their respective first language.
This is an incredibly ambitious endeavor.
This spring, THE EMMAUS TABLE will meet its first anniversary. As we enter our second year, I ask you to consider joining our monthly funding team to BUILD THE EMMAUS TABLE, and provide the global Body of Jesus with beautiful means bearing faithful witness to the beautiful Truth. These funds will support our PRODUCTIONS, TRANSLATIONS, and ADMINISTRATION needs as we build THE EMMAUS TABLE into a lasting resource library provided as a gift to the global Body of Jesus. Freely we have received, and freely we will give.[16]
[1] Isaiah 57:15; 1 Timothy 6:16
[2] See Exodus 7-12
[3] See Exodus 12
[4] See Exodus 14
[5] See Exodus 25-36
[6] This is documented in Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Joshua
[7] Exodus 31:1-11, NKJV
[8] See Genesis 12:1-3; 15:1-20
[9] See Genesis 15:13-14; Exodus 12:36
[10] See Exodus 35
[11] A 2025 film from THE EMMAUS TABLE available via YouTube at https:// www.theemmaustable.world/covenant-controversy
[12] See 00:59:42:15 on page 49: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/680aa3c2b76b597240fccf39/t/ 69333523135ef128676a62b6/1764963619879/ THE+GREAT+REIGN+CITED+TRANSCRIPT+FROM+THE+EMMAUS+TABLE.pdf
[13] Isaiah 34:8, KJV
[14] See https://www.theemmaustable.world/core-convictions
[15] 2 Thessalonians 2:8-9
[16] See Matthew 10:8
Stephanie Quick (@quicklikesand) is the founder and creative director of The Emmaus Table. She lives in the Golan Heights and hosts the TABLE TALKS podcast. Browse her free music, films, and books in THE EMMAUS TABLE App and at stephaniequick.org.