As with the chapters that precede it, chapter 38 continues the historical record of the people of God fulfilling the commandments of God that were passed down to them through Moses. We’ve moved out into the items in the courtyard and both the burnt offering altar and wash basin are made as instructed. Interestingly here we get a detail of where the bronze is sourced, the mirrors of the ladies ministering at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
This is interesting in a couple of different ways. One, it speaks of a high quality of bronze to otherwise be previously used as a mirror (sourcing an alloy in this way might have at least been questionable and you can’t use some kind of junk ball alloy in the Lord’s area). So, this solves that. Also, we for the first time find out that there are ladies who worked outside the tent of meeting. It’s not clear what they did, although later we find that ladies continue to serve a role of the tabernacle/temple. In those cases they were likely helping with discarding some of the unneeded animal parts, assisting women who need a hand/help doing whatever they came to do, perhaps also bringing water (a lady’s job in nearly every ancient culture) and helping wash the priests clothes.
The court is also erected as specified and records are kept of all that was given to build the tabernacle (here called the tabernacle of the testimony, the place where God’s covenant with the people resides). The Levites keep track under the direction of Aaron’s son Ithamar. We also see Bezalel (tribe of Judah) and Oholiab (tribe of Dan) pop up again, a reminder, along with the offerings, that it takes everyone to pull together the tabernacle as God instructed.
The gold equals a little over a ton. The silver is nearly 4 tons. Note that the silver doesn’t come from a gift, it’s the ransom and matches what was laid out to pay in chapter 30 (those in the census, 20 years old and upwards).