Devotional: Giving and Doing Things from the heart for God in Exodus 35:4-29

This will be a busy weekend of ministry for me (youth group on Saturday morning, Berkhof sytematic theology in the evening, still prepping for Sunday sermon and also servant meeting at church for Sunday).

Here’s a quick devotional from my family Bible study lesson this week from the book of Exodus.  I think the Old Testament has so much amazing truth from God, Christians shouldn’t just only read the New Testament!

Let’s look at Exodus 35:4-29:

⁴ Moses spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded, saying, ⁵ ‘Take from among you a ^[b]contribution to the Lord; whoever is of a willing heart is to bring it as the Lord’s ^[c]contribution: gold, silver, and ^[d]bronze, ⁶ and ^[e]violet, purple, and scarlet material, fine linen, goats’ hair, ⁷ and rams’ skins ^[f]dyed red, and ^[g]fine leather, and acacia wood, ⁸ and oil for lighting, and spices for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense, ⁹ and onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and for the ^[h]breastpiece.

Tabernacle Artisans

¹⁰ ‘Have every skillful person among you come and make all that the Lord has commanded: ¹¹ the ^[i]tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks and its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its bases; ¹² the ark and its poles, the ^[j]atoning cover, and the covering curtain; ¹³ the table and its poles, and all its ^[k]utensils, and the bread of the ^[l]Presence; ¹⁴ the lampstand also for the light and its utensils and its lamps, and the oil for the light; ¹⁵ and the altar of incense and its poles, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the curtain for the doorway at the ^[m]entrance of the tabernacle; ¹⁶ the altar of burnt offering with its ^[n]bronze grating, its poles, and all its ^[o]utensils, the basin and its stand; ¹⁷ the hangings of the courtyard, its pillars and its bases, and the curtain for the gate of the courtyard; ¹⁸ the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the courtyard and their ropes; ¹⁹ the ^[p]woven garments for ministering in the Holy Place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to serve as priests.’”

Gifts Received

²⁰ Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel departed from Moses’ presence. ²¹ And everyone whose heart ^[q]stirred him and everyone whose spirit ^[r]moved him came and brought the Lord’s ^[s]contribution for the work of the tent of meeting and for all its service, and for the holy garments. ²² Then all ^[t]whose hearts moved them, both men and women, came and brought brooches and ^[u]earrings and signet rings and bracelets, all articles of gold; so did everyone who ^[v]presented an offering of gold to the Lord. ²³ Everyone ^[w]who was in possession of violet, purple, or scarlet material or fine linen or goats’ hair, or rams’ skins ^[x]dyed red or fine leather, brought them. ²⁴ Everyone who could make a ^[y]contribution of silver and ^[z]bronze brought the Lord’s ^[aa]contribution; and everyone ^[ab]who was in possession of acacia wood for any work of the service brought it. ²⁵ And all the ^[ac]skilled women spun with their hands, and brought what they had spun, in violet, purple, and scarlet material, and in fine linen. ²⁶ And all the women whose heart ^[ad]stirred with a skill spun the goats’ hair. ²⁷ The rulers, moreover, brought the onyx stones and the stones for setting for the ephod and for the ^[ae]breastpiece; ²⁸ and the spice and the oil for the light and for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense. ²⁹ The ^[af]Israelites, all the men and women, whose heart ^[ag]moved them to bring material for all the work, which the Lord had commanded through Moses to be done, brought a ^[ah]voluntary offering to the Lord.

If you have read the book of Exodus you would notice there’s a lot of information here that uses the same words in earlier parts of Exodus where God tells Moses how He want the tabernacle being built; here there we see the people Israel obeying.

And that shouldn’t be taken for granted by the readers; recall Israel sinned earlier with the Golden Calf; but they repented and now we see after they repented the people are obeying God with both giving and doing things for the Tabernacle.

I won’t go into every details but I want to make an important observation.  Do we see any word that has a lot of repetitions? I noticed the word “heart.”  Where do we see the word “heart”? Verses 5, 21, 22, 26, 29.

It seems in important points in the passage, whether people gave, or did things and various subset of the population giving and doing things that the narrative summarized what they did with the fact that they gave and did things for God from the heart.

In other words they were sincere; they wanted to give and work for God’s glory.  And some of the things donated to built the tabernacle were expensive.  Those that work in building the tabernacle were also doing things skillfully.

I think what we see here that what brought about a change of heart in contrast to the people’s sins earlier is that they have been forgiven by God.

Listen, if you have been forgiven by God for your sins, have you appreciated what God has done for you?  We know in our New Testament era that it was Christ who ultimately provide the basis for our forgiveness, by dying on the Cross.  Does that move you to love God and Christ?  Have you trusted in Him?

If so give and serve with a willing heart, by meditating on His grace for you!