Scripture Daily

Context No. 1741 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 36:6-13: in context

6Moses gave a commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, “Let neither man nor woman make anything else for the offering for the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing. 7For the stuff they had was sufficient to do all the work, and too much. 8All the wise-hearted men among those who did the work made the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, blue, purple, and scarlet. They made them with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman. 9The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and the width of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains had one measure. 10He coupled five curtains to one another, and the other five curtains he coupled to one another. 11He made loops of blue on the edge of the one curtain from the edge in the coupling. Likewise he made in the edge of the curtain that was outermost in the second coupling. 12He made fifty loops in the one curtain, and he made fifty loops in the edge of the curtain that was in the second coupling. The loops were opposite to one another. 13He made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains to one another with the clasps: so the tabernacle was a unit.

The people of Israel have been bringing their gifts for the building of the tabernacle, and they bring so much that a remarkable command has to go out. Moses proclaims through the camp: let no one bring anything more for the sanctuary offering. And the people are restrained from bringing, for the material they have given is enough, and more than enough, to do all the work. Then the skilled workers set to making the tabernacle, its curtains of fine linen worked with cherubim, coupled together into one.

There is something beautiful in the problem the people created: they gave so generously that Moses had to tell them to stop. The offering for the tabernacle was freewill, given by those whose hearts were stirred; and their hearts were stirred so freely that the gifts overflowed, more than enough, too much, until the leaders had to restrain the giving. It is a rare and lovely difficulty, an abundance of willing generosity, a people so eager to give to God's work that the giving had to be halted. Most often the difficulty runs the other way. The usual struggle is to give enough, to pry open reluctant hands, to overcome the instinct to hold back; leaders of God's work more often plead for gifts than restrain them. And here, for a moment, we see what it looks like when hearts are truly stirred: generosity overflowing, giving that has to be capped because it exceeds the need. It is worth letting this picture challenge and inspire us. What would it be for our own giving, of money, of time, of effort, to be the kind that had to be restrained rather than coaxed? The people gave freely because their hearts were moved; the giving followed the heart. When the heart is truly stirred toward God and his work, generosity flows, and the problem, blessed problem, becomes too much rather than too little. May our giving be less the sort that must be pried loose and more the sort that, flowing from a stirred heart, would have to be told, gently, that it is enough.

Is my giving to God the kind that must be coaxed and pried loose, or the kind that flows freely from a stirred heart, and can the picture of a people who gave so generously they had to be restrained challenge me toward a generosity that would have to be told it is enough rather than begged to begin?

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