Scripture Daily

Context No. 1357 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 36:1-5: in context

1“Bezalel and Oholiab shall work with every wise-hearted man, in whom the LORD has put wisdom and understanding to know how to do all the work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the LORD has commanded.” 2Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab, and every wise-hearted man, in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom, even everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to the work to do it. 3They received from Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, with which to make it. They kept bringing free will offerings to him every morning. 4All the wise men, who performed all the work of the sanctuary, each came from his work which he did. 5They spoke to Moses, saying, “The people have brought much more than enough for the service of the work which the LORD commanded to make.”

The work of building the sanctuary is underway, carried out by Bezalel, Oholiab, and every skilled worker in whom the LORD had put wisdom and whose heart stirred him to come and do it. They receive from Moses all the freewill offerings the people have brought, and the people keep bringing more, morning after morning, until the craftsmen come to Moses with a remarkable report: the people are bringing much more than enough for the work the LORD has commanded. Moses has to send word through the camp for the people to stop; the giving has to be restrained.

The situation the passage describes is one we almost never see: people had to be told to stop giving. The offerings poured in, freely, every morning, until there was more than enough and the leaders had to hold the people back. The problem was not scarcity but overflow, hearts so stirred to give to God's work that generosity had to be curbed. It is worth sitting with how unusual that is, and how far it is from our ordinary experience of giving, where the difficulty is usually reluctance, where appeals must be made and made again to raise barely enough. Here the hearts of the people ran ahead of the need. What produced it was not pressure but a stirred heart; the text says they gave as their hearts moved them, freely, and the freely-given ran to overflowing. There is a challenge in that for our own giving to God, whether of money or time or effort. We tend to calculate the minimum, to give from a sense of obligation and hold the rest back; the people of the wilderness gave from stirred and willing hearts until they had to be restrained. That is the giving God delights in, not the grudging or the minimal but the free overflow of a heart that has caught something of his own generosity. When was the last time our giving had to be restrained for excess?

Is my giving to God the calculated minimum, given from obligation with the rest held back, or the free overflow of a stirred heart, and when was the last time my generosity ran ahead of the need rather than behind it?

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