Exodus 25:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.
3 And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass,
4 And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,
5 And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood,
6 Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,
7 Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.
8 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
9 According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.
God reminds us here that the Bible is the INSPIRED WORD OF GOD. “The LORD spake unto Moses, saying”. Some people want to dismiss the Bible because they claim it is a book written by men and thus they want to discredit It. The Bible is God’s Word. God chose holy men to write down the things He knew we needed. The Bible will never become outdated. The Bible warns us that those who choose to reject Him are fools.
Moses chose to listen to God. He was one of the holy men of God that was chosen by God to lead this fledgling nation of Israel through the challenges of the wilderness and to the borders of the land of Canaan.
Moses was told to speak to the children of Israel and teach them the importance of bringing Him an offering. What the children of Israel needed to know was that everything they had was a gift from God. Some years back Mr. Obama taunted successful business people by saying that they did not build their businesses. He suggested that it was the government that built those businesses. Mr. Obama was a deluded man. It is God that gives man the ability to work and God gives man the mind and ability to do many things. Not every person uses that mind for God’s glory. However, God takes the evil things that man concocts and He uses them for His glory.
When God commands man to offer to Him, He is not robbing anyone. Governments often rob people. They waste millions of tax dollars. God will never waste a penny of that which is offered up to Him. The apostle Paul wrote:
II Corinthians 8:5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.
True, Biblical salvation is the key to everything that God requires of us. No person can serve God unless they are truly born again first of all. It is important that we not get confused with the Catholic terminology which talks of being reborn. The New Birth is a work of God. It is not a reconnection with a false religion. It is not a revitalization of a false religion. The New Birth begins with a change of heart that only God can do. This change of heart affects a change of mind. The two are closely intertwined.
We see in our text that God wanted all the children of Israel to bring Him an offering. However, He clarified that with stating that the people needed to have a willing heart to give. When the heart is right, then everything else will go right as well. When the heart is not right, it will be a struggle to give to the Lord. The devil knows how to bring out that long list of things that he wants you to believe are more important than giving to the Lord.
God further instructed Moses regarding what the offering to the LORD needed to be. God had granted the children of Israel favour with the Egyptians prior to their exodus from that land. Now God wanted the people to give Him of what He had graciously given them. They needed to give of the gold, and silver, and brass. They needed to give of the blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and the goats hair, etc. God had a list of items He had provided the children of Israel with. He was not asking them to give of what they did not have. An offering is not taking from something you don’t have to give to God. An offering is recognizing His provision and giving Him of what He has blessed you with.
God had a plan. He was going to give Moses the design for the sanctuary in which He would dwell. God was going to dwell amongst His people. He wanted them to know that He was a God near at hand. The items He was listing would be used in that sanctuary to remind the people of His holiness and of the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sanctuary and all the vessels in it was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The breastplate of the high priest was also a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God would give Moses detailed instructions in the building of this sanctuary and of making that breastplate.
Moses was a man who was given wisdom by God. He would then pass on these instructions to other men, in particular to Bezaleel who would lead others in the preparation and assembling of the sanctuary and the breastplate.
The children of Israel would have an important part in this by offering up the items that God required. God wants man to be invested in His Work. Again that investment is based on the gifts that God has given to man. No one in the nation of Israel would be deprived of necessary things in giving to the Lord. They would spend forty years in the wilderness. They would not be involved in any commercial ventures during that time. They would not be farming any land. They would not be building any houses or shops. They would have opportunity to invest in something that was of much greater significance than anything else they could be involved in.
That is still true today. God has already showed us that the tithe was His. Abraham gave the tenth to Melchizedek, a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham did not lack anything by giving that tenth. God prospered Abraham in ways he could never do for himself. Beside the tithe, God shows the importance of other offerings. Christians do not twist the arm of people to get them to give. They do not use gimmicks to try to swindle money from people. God’s people give because their heart is right with God and He moves them to give according to His will.
As Moses was up in the mount with God, Aaron and the others had the opportunity to help prepare the children of Israel for the blessings God had in store for them. We will see how well they did at this. For now God was giving Moses instructions. The children of Israel would be busy for some time in making the things that God was instructing Moses on here.
God also has important work for His children today. This work is not for salvation. It never has been. This work is always after salvation and it is in thankful response to the blessings that God has provided His children with. Notice that it was the children of Israel who were to make the offering. It was not the Egyptians or the Amorites, or any other people.
God does not expect the world to give to His work. They will try to do so and use that as a “work” to try to gain favour with the Lord. That is a futile effort. When God’s people give as God requires, His work will be done and those who give with a right heart will be blessed in unexpected ways.
Pastor Bartel
