Giving to God

The Tabernacle used one ton of gold, two tons of silver, and three tons of bronze — and it was portable! Now, don't worry. There is no one-to-one correlation between the building campaign and generosity recorded in these chapters and the building campaign and generosity that our church may be called upon to participate in. There is a correlation, of course. But it's different than you are probably thinking. Let me put it negatively first: This passage does not give our church a warrant to ask you to dig deep and contribute time and money for a building. What does it do? Well, as I trust you know by now (this is our 119th sermon on Exodus), the tabernacle was God's dwelling place. He lived there and moved in that tent alongside His people as they lived in tents and moved from place to place in the wilderness.

Today, God does not dwell in any tent or temple made with hands. He dwells in His people; we are the temple of the living God. This passage warrants us in asking you to support the church, to build up the dwelling place of God by investing time and money in your fellow saints. Now, a building can be part of that. You can and should invest in your fellow saints by paying for them to have a place to meet. But the tabernacle was not a place for Israel to assemble; it was not big enough inside for more than a few people, for it was a private residence rather than a public building. Anyway, the upshot is that what the OT says about contributing to the temple relates to giving to God's dwelling place, which in our NT context means giving to your fellow saints.

Well, we will see that through Israel's generosity, God's tent was built among His people.