Please turn to Exodus 25. We shall read the first nine verses.
Exodus 25:1-9
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, that they take for Me an offering: of every man whose heart maketh him willing ye shall take My offering.
And this is the offering which ye shall take of them: gold, and silver, and brass,
and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair,
and rams’ skins dyed red, and sealskins, and acacia wood,
oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense,
onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate.
And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.
According to all that I show thee, the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall ye make it.
Turn now to Exodus 35, verses 4 and 5.
Exodus 35:4-5
And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying,
Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, the Lord’s offering; gold, and silver, and brass.
And verse 20:
Exodus 35:20-29
And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses.
And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and brought the Lord’s offering, for the work of the tent of meeting, and for all the service thereof, and for the holy garments.
And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing-hearted, and brought brooches, and earrings, and signet-rings, and armlets, all jewels of gold; even every man that offered an offering of gold unto the Lord.
And every man, with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, and rams’ skins dyed red, and sealskins, brought them.
Every one that did offer an offering of silver and brass brought the Lord’s offering; and every man, with whom was found acacia wood for any work of the service, brought it.
And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, the blue, and the purple, the scarlet, and the fine linen.
And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun the goats’ hair.
And the rulers brought the onyx stones, and the stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate;
and the spice, and the oil; for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.
The children of Israel brought a freewill offering unto the Lord; every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all the work, which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.
Turn to Exodus 36. We shall begin with verse 4 and read through verse 7.
Exodus 36:4-7
And all the wise men, that wrought all the work of the sanctuary, came every man from his work which they wrought;
and they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make.
And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing.
For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.
Shall we pray?
Our heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that Thou hast redeemed us for Thyself. We do praise and thank Thee that we may come to Thee to praise and worship Thee. We praise and thank Thee that we may come to Thee to hear Thy word. We praise and thank Thee that we may come to Thee to give what Thou hast given to us.
And, our Father, our hearts do rejoice in Thy presence, that Thou hast treated us so nobly, so graciously, so mercifully. We just commit this time into Thy hands, and ask that Thy Holy Spirit will quicken Thy word to our hearts. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
When we think of the wilderness journey of the children of Israel, probably we think of all the tragedies, all the failures, and all the shortcomings that the people of God went through during those years.
And it is very true: they failed greatly. They offended the Lord many times. They were disobedient. They were in much lack of faith.
But sometimes we tend to forget that, even in the days of their wilderness journey, there were great things happening in their midst—great and glorious things.
For instance, the receiving of the law was one of the great things. Is there any nation among all the nations that was privileged to receive such righteous statutes and ordinances as the nation of Israel received from God? Is there any nation to whom God was so near as He was to the children of Israel? Indeed, they received the glory, the covenant, and the law.
But I think even more glorious than the receiving of the law was the making of the tabernacle. Why? Because the law is just a process, but the tabernacle is the purpose. God’s purpose is to dwell among His own people.
And this purpose was fulfilled with the children of Israel in the wilderness through the making of the tabernacle.
Now, in a sense, we are all in the wilderness today. The world is a wilderness. It is a great and terrible wilderness, and we are strangers and sojourners. We are passing through.
And how true it is that, as we pass through this terrible wilderness—the world—we experience many failures. We have failed many times. There are tragedies in our lives.
But thank God, there are also glorious things while we are passing through. And I think the greatest glory of all is the building of the house of God.
It is now, in this world, that God is building His own house. God is building us together to be a dwelling place of His. God is fulfilling His eternal purpose in us, even today, in this world. I think this is the most glorious thing that can ever happen today.
Of course, today God is not interested in building a physical or material building. His whole concern is building His people together as His dwelling place. God today is after spiritual reality. He is not after something temporary that will soon pass away.
The analogy of the tabernacle in the wilderness is the building of the spiritual temple, the holy habitation of God among His people today. But let us remember: the principles that governed the building of the tabernacle are the same principles which govern the building of the house of God today.
God is not building a physical building today; He is building a spiritual building. But the principles remain the same.
And another thing is this: when God is building the spiritual house of God, everything that relates to the building of that spiritual house must be governed by the same principles.
In other words, God today is building a spiritual house. He is building with you and me as living stones, and He builds us together according to spiritual principles. But these spiritual principles apply not only to us, but to everything that has anything to do with the spiritual house.
For instance, even in the furnishing of a place for the meeting of the spiritual house of God, it has to be governed by the same principles.
God does not work according to one principle in one area and another principle entirely opposite in another area. God’s principles remain the same in everything. Everything that concerns or is related to the house of God today must be done according to the spiritual principles that He has laid down.
And this is what we want to learn this morning: what are the spiritual principles that govern the building of the house of God in all its areas?
God wanted to dwell among His people Israel. Now, why is it that God did not simply drop a tabernacle down from heaven into the midst of the children of Israel and dwell among them?
Is it not true that God supplied the needs of the children of Israel in the wilderness? Is it not true that He opened heaven and rained manna upon them? Is it not true that He made water flow out of the smitten rock? Is it not true that He led them through the wilderness with a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire? Is it not true that God supplied every need the children of Israel had during their wilderness journey?
Now, if God supplied all their needs, why is it that God did not supply the tabernacle too? There is no reason why He could not do it. Certainly He was able to do it. But why did He not do it? I think that is a question that should be answered.
First of all, God supplies every need of ours. But there is one thing: God’s need has to be supplied by God’s own people. God supplies all our needs, but His need must be supplied by His own people.
If God should drop down a tabernacle from heaven to supply His need, it would violate His way of operation. Why? Because suppose His people did not want Him to dwell among them. Would it not be that God was forcing Himself upon His people? And this is something that God will never do.
God never forces Himself upon His people. He never wants us to be forced into a situation for Himself.
Now, it is true: He gave everything to us to supply our needs. And yet, so far as His need is concerned, He is always waiting for His people to be willing—to want Him to dwell among their midst.
So that is one reason why the tabernacle had to be made by the children of Israel. God would not supply it. The children of Israel had to supply it to show that they did want God to dwell in their midst.
Secondly, if God should supply the tabernacle to the children of Israel, they would never be able to grow into fullness. In other words, they would remain as babes, because everything was supplied to them.
They had nothing to give. They did not need to do anything. Everything was just given and given and given to them. They would remain babes all the time. They would never grow up. They would never reach maturity. They would never enter into fullness.
And God’s purpose is that we enter into fullness. God gave that the children of Israel might also give, and that is a tremendous principle you find in the Bible.
When you read the story of Exodus, you remember how God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt—men, women, and children. How Pharaoh hesitated to let them go. At first he would not let them go at all. Then he consented to let the men go. Then he consented to let the women and children go too.
And you find that the children of Israel were delivered out of Egypt—men, women, and children, with their sheep and their cattle. But there is one thing you notice.
In Exodus 11, God said, before you go out of Egypt, ask your neighbors—that is, the Egyptians—for articles of gold and articles of silver.
Now, why did God give such a command? And sure enough, when the children of Israel left Egypt, they asked their neighbors on the right and on the left for articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. The result was that they spoiled the Egyptians. They took away all the good things that the Egyptians had.
Oh, they were so enriched. They went out as a rich people—not merely fleeing out of Egypt, but marching out of Egypt with spoils, much spoil. They spoiled the Egyptians.
Now, why is it that God should give them such a command? Is it that God wanted these people to live a luxurious life, that they might enjoy abundance?
Or, as some people say, because they were slaves to the Egyptians for hundreds of years, and God, being a just God, wanted them to have their wages paid? They had not been paid for hundreds of years, so God allowed them to ask the Egyptians and receive the gold and silver that was owed to them.
Now surely God is a righteous God. But can it be that there is something more to it?
And of course, when the children of Israel came out of Egypt with all this gold and silver, they did not know why. Probably they thought it was because God wanted them to receive their righteous wages. Some may even have thought that God wanted them to live nobly, richly, abundantly, luxuriously, and simply enjoy themselves.
Not until they came to Mount Sinai, not until God gave them the law, not until God began to reveal to them His purpose in redeeming them, did they understand.
They were a redeemed people, but they did not know why they were redeemed. Probably they thought God redeemed them so that they might be free—free to do anything they liked, to go everywhere they liked to go, and free to live richly and abundantly as they wanted to.
They did not know the purpose of redemption. It was not until, as a redeemed people, they came to Mount Sinai that God began to reveal to them His purpose in redeeming them.
Now, what is God’s purpose in redeeming this people? His purpose is that He wanted to dwell among them. He wanted to make His home in their midst. That was God’s purpose.
But in order to dwell among them, He needed a sanctuary. He needed a tabernacle. And this tabernacle had to be built by His redeemed people.
In order to build this tabernacle, there would be a need for gold, silver, and clothing. God gave all these things to them in order to enable them one day to give back to God.
God redeemed them that they might fulfill God’s purpose of redemption. Now, what a glorious thing this is.
Dear brothers and sisters, do you know that there is a principle in Scripture? The principle is this: God gives that we may give.
Now, oftentimes we think, “Thank God that He gives. The more, the better.” But after we have been given, what do we do with what we have received?
Does it ever occur to you that God gives you that you may give? Or do you think that God gives you that you may enjoy yourself?
Certainly God wants us to enjoy what He gives. He gives that we may enjoy; that is true. But is that all? Or is that the reason for giving?
God gave the children of Israel so much. There was much they could enjoy. But the first thing is that God gave that they might give.
Why are we redeemed? Are we redeemed just that we may go to heaven, walk the streets of gold, play harps, and have a good time?
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, we are redeemed that God may have His home among us; that we may build God a house; that we may be God’s house; that He may be happy and satisfied, and may rest among His people. This is why we are redeemed.
And you will find that this principle runs through every area of our lives. He gave, and gave, and gave. Dear brothers and sisters, do not forget: He gave that we may give.
I think this is one of the greatest things that can ever happen in our lives. If He gives, and we just use it all up for ourselves, do you think we fail to see the reason why God gives?
If He does not give, we will have nothing to give. But if He does give that we may give, what a privilege that is. That is leading us to maturity. That is leading us to fullness.
But unfortunately, before the children of Israel were able to go before the Lord, prompted in their spirits to give, the enemy came in first.
While Moses went up to the mount to receive the law, you find in the plain that the children of Israel said, “We do not know what has happened to Moses. He has been away for such a long time. He has been there forty days and forty nights. We do not know what has happened to him. We need a god to lead us.”
So they came to Aaron and asked Aaron to make a god for them, that they might be led. And Aaron said, “Give me the gold from your earrings, your rings, and your bracelets.”
So you find these people began to gather all their gold rings, nose rings, earrings, and bracelets. Aaron took them and made them into a golden calf. And the children of Israel worshipped the golden calf, calling it their god, and they played and feasted around it.
God sent Moses down from the mountain. When Moses saw it, he broke the two tables of the law. And you know what he did? He ground the golden calf into powder, scattered it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.
What a waste.
The gold that God gave them, that they might give back to God to build a tabernacle, was taken away from God and used to make a golden calf—an object of worship. Wasted, completely wasted. What a pity.
Brothers and sisters, do you think there is a lesson here that we need to learn? God gives that we may give that to God. But the enemy knows about it. The enemy tries to come in to rob God of His glory.
The enemy comes in and tries to take away that which belongs to God. And the enemy will come in and try to make us waste it upon ourselves, and worse than that, even to make it an object of worship.
How much have we wasted what God has given to us upon ourselves? And how much have we made what God has given us into objects of worship?
And that is the reason why the Lord said that no one can serve two masters. You cannot serve God and mammon. You will either despise the one and love the other, or hold to one and despise the other.
There is a spiritual conflict going on, and God’s people are not conscious of it.
Do you know that in the very matter of God’s giving to us, there is a higher purpose? And do you know that the very things God has given to us can be wasted? They can become a reason for sin, even an object of worship. Or they can become an object of service unto God, a means of service unto God. There is a conflict going on.
But thank God, He is merciful. God forgave them.
God not only forgave them, but the one thing that touches me very deeply is that God still commanded them to make Him a tabernacle.
To be forgiven is one thing. But to be forgiven to such a degree that God still wanted to dwell among them—now that is beyond my understanding.
Such a people, and God still wanted to dwell among them. You may think God would say, “All right, you are such a people. I do not want to dwell among you anymore. I will forgive you, yes, but I will not dwell with you anymore.”
But thank God, you find that for the second time God commanded the children of Israel to make Him a tabernacle. That shows how full God’s forgiveness is.
God’s purpose is not affected by our failure. Thank God for that.
And God said, “Bring Me a heave offering. Everyone whose heart is prompted, everyone whose spirit is moved, let him bring a heave offering to Me: gold, silver, brass, blue, purple, scarlet, skins, acacia wood, onyx stones, and all kinds of things.”
Now, what is a heave offering? A heave offering is a voluntary offering. A heave offering is a love offering.
A heave offering is not something offered out of obligation or duty. A heave offering is a freewill offering. It is something that you offer out of love.
That is why you find that it has to be prompted in the heart. It has to come from your spirit. And God said, “Give Me a heave offering. Everyone who is prompted in his spirit and in his heart, let him bring.”
Why? Because this tabernacle cannot be built with anything compulsory. This tabernacle cannot be built with anything that is merely obligation or duty. God will never find rest in such a tabernacle.
It has to be built with freewill offerings. It has to be built with voluntary offerings, with love offerings, with offerings that are offered out of the heart and out of the spirit. Now, this is the only way the tabernacle could be made.
Here we find another principle: the principle of the heave offering. Anything related to the building of the house of God has to be in the principle of the heave offering.
If the children of Israel came and poured all the gold and silver there and made a tabernacle for God, but their hearts were not touched by God, that gold and silver would be rejected by God.
In other words, the heart and the spirit are the most important elements. It has to come from the very heart. It has to come from the spirit. It has to be freewill; it has to be voluntary; it has to be a love offering, because God will not accept any other offering but such an offering.
So God commanded, “Anyone whose heart is prompted, come and offer.”
Now, this time the children of Israel departed. After they heard the commandment, they departed. It was not something stirred emotionally at the moment. After they heard the commandment, they departed. They all went to their own tents to be before God.
Then they came. Then they came. They came—everyone whose heart was willing, everyone whose spirit was prompted.
They began to come and bring gold and silver and whatever they found in their hands. It is very interesting: when you read it, you find that morning by morning they came.
Some came with gold, some with silver. Some came with goats’ hair. Some came with blue, purple, and scarlet that had been spun. Some came with acacia wood. The rulers came with onyx stones.
You find that people came bringing whatever God had given them—whatever was in their hands, whatever was the work of their hands. Morning by morning, they came.
How did they come? Did they come with drums beating and cymbals clanging? Did they come with an exuberant spirit? Did they come with a boastful attitude because they could give to God? Did they come in that kind of atmosphere?
I believe that when they came, they came in a subdued spirit. They came with hearts full of gratitude. They came with tears.
Why? Because they were so thankful to God. They came with tears, not because they were reluctant to part with the things they had. No. They came with tears because they thought they should be a rejected people, and yet God still received them.
They came with such a spirit—a spirit of thankfulness, of gratitude. That is the spirit of giving.
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, if we do not give out of our hearts, it is nothing to God. If we do not give with our hearts, it is not the right spirit.
How thankful the children of Israel must have been in those days as they brought these gifts to God, that God should accept them.
I wonder whether there were some who had put all their gold into making the golden calf. There was nothing left to give. If that was the case, what regret there must have been.
I wonder whether some came and said, “I should have been able to give more, but I have given to the golden calf already.” What regret that must have been.
Brothers and sisters, is it not true? When God has a need, and when He wants His people to meet that need, His people may find that they cannot meet it. Why? Not because God has not given, but because they have wasted it somewhere.
It has been wasted upon themselves, or even worse. And what a regret it will be.
Oh, but how thankful—how thankful—that He gave so much that even after we have wasted so much, there is still so much left to give. Now that is the glory of God’s giving.
And you know what? They came morning by morning, unceasingly. Some may have come and come again.
Until finally, the workers on the various works of the tabernacle had to come to Moses and say, “We already have more than we need. You have to stop them giving. It is just too much.”
And here you find Moses gave the commandment and said, “No more giving. Neither man nor woman, do not come and give.”
And I love these words: “They were restrained from bringing.”
Now, if we were to make that the topic of this message, that would be fine: Restrained from Bringing.
If we were to write a chapter, probably we would say, “Constrained to give.” But when the Holy Spirit wrote it, He said, “Restrained from bringing.”
People had to be restrained. Their hearts were so touched by the love of God and by the mercy of God that they wanted to give. They just wanted to give. They gave too much—not too little, but too much—and they had to be restrained from bringing.
And, you know, that is another principle that governs the building of the house of God.
In the building of the house of God, it is never too little. It shall always be too much.
It should not be merely constrained to give. It shall always be restrained from giving. That is how the house of God is built.
Now, brothers and sisters, I share these principles with you not merely because we are in the process of having a new place.
I share these principles with you because I feel God is using this opportunity to teach us some valuable lessons. Probably we would never learn these lessons if we did not have this opportunity. We would probably never touch upon these principles if we did not have this opportunity.
But I feel that, since God has given us this opportunity, we should learn the lessons that God wants us to learn as His people—not only in the matter of giving for supplying the new place for the meeting of God’s people.
Now, of course, this is part of it. But I think there is something more than that, because I do feel that these principles must govern the spiritual building of the house of God.
When we are giving to meet God’s need, first of all, we remember: if He does not give, we have nothing to give. Therefore, all comes from God.
Now, true it is that God does require us to give heave offerings. But remember: before God asks us to give Him offerings, He gave first.
So after all, it is God who supplies all the need, even His own need, but through His people—by first giving to them that they may give back to Him. Now that is the way God’s need is to be met.
And secondly, it must be the spirit of the heave offering. Our hearts must be in it. Only thus can we be built together.
And thirdly, we must come in the right spirit: the spirit of thankfulness.
God should forgive us and should be so merciful to us, so gracious to us, that He still wants us for Himself. We have to come in that kind of spirit.
And I do believe that if God’s people will all come in such a spirit, and will all give to God to meet God’s need in such a spirit, the result will be that we have to be restrained from bringing.
In the physical, we need to learn the spiritual principles. And this is what we really need to learn before God.
Shall we pray?
Our heavenly Father, as we come to Thee this morning, our hearts are full of thanks and gratitude. First of all, we do realize that all things come from Thee. Thou art the Giver of all good things. If Thou dost not give, then we have nothing.
But we praise and thank Thee that Thou art such a bountiful, merciful God. Thou dost give and always givest.
But, our Father, we do want to confess before Thee: oftentimes we think that what is given to us is for us to use and enjoy, to use upon ourselves. We think we have the right to do it.
But, our Father, we do ask Thee to show us that, even though Thou dost want us to enjoy, there is something that we should not forget: Thou dost give that we may give. This is the way that Thou dost lead Thy people.
We pray that we may be a people who receive much and give much; and because we give much, we may receive much, that Thou canst entrust us with more because we are faithful.
O Lord, we ask Thee to forgive us our past sins. We ask that we may still be acceptable in Thy sight through Thy beloved Son; that Thou dost still desire that we should supply Thy need.
O Lord, we pray that we may give ourselves and all that we have as a heave offering unto Thyself. We pray that we may not feel obligated or condemned, but, Lord, that we may feel honored. We may feel loved by Thee, that Thou dost desire us to come and give ourselves to Thee.
Lord, we pray that we may not come with a boastful attitude, but that we may come with humble hearts.
Lord, we pray that, as we come together to give ourselves and all that we have to Thee, the spiritual house of God may be built; that Thou mayest find love there, Thou mayest find satisfaction there, and Thou mayest find rest among Thy own people.
O Lord, we do want Thee to have what Thou dost want. We ask that we may be privileged to be led to such a degree that we may not only be constrained, but may even be restrained from bringing, for there is too much.
Lord, this is how it should be, because Thou dost deserve it. Thou art such a God.
We ask that Thou wilt touch our hearts and bring us to that place where we may satisfy Thy heart, as Thou hast satisfied us. We ask all in the name of our Lord Jesus and for His glory alone. Amen.