Freewill Offerings

Exodus 35: 4,21,29; 36:4-6: "Moses said . . . 'Everyone who is willing is to bring to the LORD an offering of gold, silver, and bronze' . . . . And everyone who was willing and whose heart moved him came and brought an offering to the LORD . . . . All the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to the LORD freewill offerings for all the work the LORD through Moses had commanded them to do . . . . So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work and said to Moses, 'The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done.' Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: ' No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.' And so the people were restrained from bringing more."

The chapters just before this citation in Exodus, present the Israelites at Mount Sinai in the wilderness. Their story is one of rebellion, then Divine confrontation, repentance, Divine encounter, overwhelmed response and joy, and lastly gracious giving.

In chapter 32, Moses had gone up, per the Lord's instruction, onto Mount Sinai to receive instruction. After he had been gone for many days, the rest of the Israelites decided to incite Moses' brother, Aaron, to build them false gods to worship.

The people quickly removed their precious gold jewelry and presented it to Aaron so that it could be crafted into the idols that their hearts earnestly desired. Of course, these inanimate objects were no gods at all. The people desired them because they would not rebuke the people's licentious behavior. In effect, the people desired themselves to be gods, and they were using the golden idols to legitimize their debased behavior. Once the golden calf was presented to the people, they rose early in the morning to offer burnt and fellowship offerings to it. They gave freely and abundantly, because their heart was directed toward self-adulation and indulgement.

When Moses returned to the camp, he noticed that the people were "running wild . . . out of control" (32:25). God, in turn, brought judgment upon the rebellious Israelites. First, the Levites, who had committed themselves to the Lord, were instructed to strike down the people in the camp with a sword. About 3000 died from this slaughter. The Lord then struck the rest of the people with a plague for their sin of rebellion.

When God later threatened to destroy these descendants of Abraham, the people "mourned and no one put on ornaments" (33:4). They had had a divine encounter with the Lord, and they recognized that they had rebelled against the Holy God. They repented of their sinful, immoral acts of defiance against the One True Holy God.

Moses returned to the top of Mount Sinai a second time and communed with the Lord; and during this meeting, Moses was permitted to see a glimpse of the glory of the Lord. When Moses returned to the people, his face glowed with the radiance of his divine encounter with the glory of the Lord. The people were fearful of Moses, but he was able to entreat them to approach him, so that he could share the commands of the Lord and call them to obedience.

One can note the different disposition of the people between the first and second return of Moses from the mountain. In the first instance, the people did not look forward to Moses' return with the Word of the Lord; they celebrated that he was not around to impede their satisfying their cravings of the flesh and their self-centeredness (I John 2:15-17; John 3:20). With the second advent of Moses from the mount, the people were looking forward to his return, and they had a healthy fear of the glory of the Lord. They recognized that the universe did not revolve around them (they were not God), but that the One Holy God was Sovereign and Supreme and worthy of praise and obedience.

After Moses' second return, a petition went out to the people to bring of their own free will, offerings to the Lord . . . offerings of precious metals like gold, silver, and bronze in order that a tabernacle might be built for the Lord. So many were moved to bring their best to God that Moses had to order the people to stop giving to the craftsmen. Their overwhelming response of giving was evidential fruit of transformation that had come through repentance and submission to the Lord.

There is an incredible application that we can see from the above story, namely, that the one to whom we freely give our very best is the one to whom we recognize as our lord. To the one who indulges his own selfish desires, he is the one who has himself on the throne of his life; to the one who freely gives of his best (including himself) to Jesus Christ is the one who has the evidential fruit that the One True Lord is on the throne of his life.