Enough Giving
Exodus 36
Our story of Exodus now shows the making of the tabernacle. It may seem like Scripture is repeating itself because the same information was given to Moses by God on how the construction of the Tabernacle should be. We are reading how Bezalel and Oholiab is following the word of the Lord. They first were mentioned in chapter 31 about how they will be filled with the Spirit and be able to be the craftsman for the Tabernacle.
The camp of Israel was working together on this project for the Lord. If they were not working on the actual building and construction of the Tabernacle, they were giving.
When to say enough
I love when I see people going out of their way for others. It is a great thing to see when the church body comes together and gives for a cause. This last summer we saw some big fires hit Southern California. I was touched by how the churches around Southern California came together and helped the many different families that lost their homes. Israel came together and offered a free will offering to God and gave the supplies and gold and silver for the construction of the Tabernacle, God’s dwelling place. The people brought these gifts every morning because they wanted to give to the Lord and help out as much as they could. It turned out that they gave more than what was needed and Moses had to make an announcement to have them stop giving. This is something that is unheard of today, “Stop giving.” We normally wonder way people are not giving enough. It is easy to get caught up with a cause and give a one time donation but what about continually to the Lord. Israel gave to the Lord unconditionally. Do you give to the Lord? We can give to the Lord in many different ways. We can give financially to the work of the Lord. We can give our time to serving God in all that we do and help out in ministry or volunteer somewhere. We can give our materials, just like Israel was giving. More importantly have you given your heart? I know people that would help out and give of their money but their heart was not given over to the Lord. What they do is very short term. 2nd Corinthians 9:6-7 says, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” God cares about the condition of the heart. I encourage you to be so giving that the church could come back and say that is enough just like Moses had to.
