I recently finished studying Exodus in my devotions and towards the end came across an encouraging passage, from a support raising standpoint, at least. Here it is:
Moses said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “This is the thing that the LORD has commanded. Take from among you a contribution to the LORD. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD’s contribution: gold, silver, and bronze; blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen; goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, and goatskins; acacia wood, oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, and onyx stones and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.
Exodus 35:4-9
In the context of the rest of Exodus, I found it slightly puzzling that God would ask Israel to donate to the cause of building the Tabernacle for two reasons. First, God did not need anything from Israel, and second, Israel did not deserve to be asked.
God had been taking care of everything for Israel up till this point. God negotiated their release from Pharaoh, decimated the country of Egypt, defeated its army, handed Egypt’s wealth to Israel, led them with a pillar of cloud and fire, and then when they got hungry rained down bread from heaven. They didn’t have to rally, take up arms, or even forage for food. Now, all of the sudden, He asks Israel to bring materials to build the Tabernacle, and appoints men to do the work of building it. He clearly could have made the Tabernacle Himself and told the people to worship Him there.
Israel didn’t deserve to participate in this grand undertaking. The building of the Tabernacle happened shortly after the incident with the Golden Calf. All these people now building a house of worship for God, were the same people who utterly betrayed Him and worshipped a man made golden cow, and praised IT for freeing them from Egypt. Clearly these people were not worthy of being involved in so holy an undertaking.
The fact that God invited Israel to participate in His work, despite the fact that they were not necessary, nor worthy, tells us that God desires people to be involved in the work He is doing, and that He will use even the greatest of sinners for the most holy of tasks. This is great news for us, and it reminds us of what an incredible privilege it is to do the work God calls us to. And more specifically in this passage we see that giving in particular is a great privilege. Suddenly when God decided to do something rather than pouring out all the resources in some miraculous way (as He had done numerous times previously), He decides to provide the needed resources through the generosity of His people. In very much the same way God provides the resources needed so that His people can carry out His work.
All that said, if there is anyone reading this who is of a generous heart and wants to participate in God’s work, we invite you to partner with us as a monthly financial supporter so that we can go to Japan and spread the Gospel as Christ commanded in the great commission. If that’s you, just send me an email: daveandtomo@gloryspeaking.com. We hope and pray that God will instill the same heart of generosity in believers today as He did in the hearts of the people of Israel long ago:
And they received from Moses all the contribution that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the sanctuary. They still kept bringing him freewill offerings every morning, so that all the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from the task that he was doing, and said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the LORD has commanded us to do.” So Moses gave command, and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, “Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.
Exodus 36:3-7