The People Gave Freely

A craftsman wipes his hands, walks across the camp to Moses, and says something no builder in history has ever said about a fundraising campaign. Please. Tell them to stop. We have too much.

We are in the wilderness at the foot of Mount Sinai. Not long ago the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt. God brought them out, led them through the sea, fed them with manna, and met them at this mountain. Now God has given Moses a plan. He wants a tabernacle: a special tent, a beautiful, movable house of worship, where he will dwell among his people as they travel. It will need gold, silver and bronze. Blue, purple and scarlet yarn. Fine linen, goat hair, ram skins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for incense, and precious stones. And Moses has told the people that anyone whose heart is willing may bring a gift. No one is forced. No one is taxed. This is to be a freewill offering.

So the whole community goes back to their tents. And then they start coming back. Exodus says that everyone whose heart stirred them up, and everyone whose spirit made them willing, came. Men and women together. They bring brooches and earrings, rings and necklaces, every kind of gold jewellery, and lift it up as an offering to the Lord. Some bring blue and purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen. Others bring goat hair and ram skins dyed red. Those who have silver or bronze bring it. Those who have acacia wood bring that. Picture the line of people, the clink of metal, the bundles of cloth piling up in the sun.

And not everyone brings things. Some bring skill. Exodus tells us that the women who were skilled spun yarn with their own hands and brought what they had spun: blue, purple, scarlet and fine linen. And the women whose hearts stirred them with wisdom spun the goat hair. The leaders brought onyx stones and gems for the priest's clothing, and spices and oil for the light and for the incense. God has also filled two craftsmen, Bezalel and Oholiab, with his Spirit and with skill to make every kind of beautiful work, and to teach others. Every gift has a place. Every pair of hands has a job.

The craftsmen get to work. But morning after morning the people keep bringing more freewill offerings. Eventually the skilled workers leave what they are doing and come to Moses together. “The people bring much more than enough for the work which the Lord commanded us to make.” So Moses sends a message right through the camp. No man or woman should make anything more for the offering. And the people are stopped from bringing. Exodus finishes the scene with a happy line: the material they had was sufficient for all the work, and too much.

Even the mirrors were given. A little later Exodus says the bronze washbasin was made from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Mirrors in ancient Egypt were not glass. They were discs of polished bronze or copper, often with a decorated handle, and they were treasured possessions. Someone gave up the thing they looked into every morning, so it could be melted into something for worship.

The people gave freely. You can read it in Exodus chapter thirty-five, verses twenty to twenty-nine, and chapter thirty-six, verses three to seven. The tent they built was a place where God would live among his people. Christians remember it at Christmas, because John's gospel says that in Jesus the Word became flesh and lived, or pitched his tent, among us. So here is a question to carry with you. The people gave because their hearts were stirred. What stirs your heart to give, and what could you bring to God this Christmas?