It is always good to give to the Lord's work, right? I am sure we all feel sometimes that we aren't giving enough to the work of the Lord either in our time, our skills, or our money. I am not talking about the time we spend in the word but rather the time and money we spend doing the Lord's work. It doesn't matter if the Lord has called me to give or not, he will use whatever I choose to give to benefit His good work, right?
Exd 35:21 Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the LORD's offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments.
There are two groups of people that brought offering; those “whose heart was stirred” and those “whose spirit was willing”. The Hebrew word for “stirred” nasa' (naw-saw) means to lift up or to carry and is used to indicate done in one's own power. In contrast the word for “willing” nadab (naw-dab') indicates a willingness to follow the Lord. The “stirred” group was giving out of their own accord and not necessarily in the will of God where the “willing” group was follow the leading of the Lord.
This is a good thing, right? We have two groups of people giving freely to the Lord, does it matter if one of the groups wasn't explicilty called by the Lord to give? Aren't they still giving in the service of the Lord, and that is what is important isn't it?
To explore this we have to look a little forward and see the consequenced of their actions.
Exodus 36
2 Then Moses called Bezalel and Aholiab, and every gifted artisan in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, everyone whose heart was stirred, to come and do the work. 3 And they received from Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of making the sanctuary. So they continued bringing to him freewill offerings every morning. 4 Then all the craftsmen who were doing all the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work he was doing, 5 and they spoke to Moses, saying, "The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded us to do."
6 So Moses gave a commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, "Let neither man nor woman do any more work for the offering of the sanctuary." And the people were restrained from bringing, 7 for the material they had was sufficient for all the work to be done--indeed too much.
So what are the consequences? The first one that jumps out at me is that they had too much material. OK big deal, right? Who wouldn't want extra stuff, that's a blessing isn't it? If that were the only consequence then this wouldn't make much of a convincing argument would it. There is another consequence that is a big deal and we see that in vs 4. Then all the craftsmen who were doing the work of the sanctuary came, each from the work he was doing. In other words all the craftsman stopped what they were doing to tell Moses that they didn't need any material. These craftsmen were building the Tabernacle or more specifically they were doing the work of the Lord. This means that as a direct result of people giving when there weren't called to the work of the Lord had to cease in order to deal with it.
This makes me realize that every time I feel that I should give something to the work of the Lord, I need to do it in prayer and make sure it is really God who wants me to give. One never know how their generosity may affect the work of the Lord; only God knows and it is only through God that one can be sure of where and how the Lord wants them to give to his work.
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