Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 36:5-7

5 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.

6 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.

7 For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.

I mentioned earlier that the Lord’s vision for the tabernacle was dependent on enough people willfully donating their possessions and time to make it a reality. He trusted that these people would come through, and as we see today, they more than did so. So great was the willful offering that they actually had to turn people away and prevent further donations.

It would seem that the people could have made an even greater tabernacle than what had been detailed. Perhaps the courtyard could have been bigger, perhaps there could have been two large sacrificial altars instead of just one, perhaps precious gems could have been incorporated into more of the architecture. But none of that was what happened. God had provided a vision, it was what it was, and it wasn’t going to be expanded further.

Indeed, simply adding more could have had a detrimental effect. When we reviewed God’s description of the tabernacle, we saw that everything seemed carefully chosen to be representative of an eternal principle. These symbolic lessons could easily have been obfuscated by simply throwing more stuff on top of it all.

There is a message here that while God does ultimately invite us to give our entire lives to Him, that doesn’t mean we are to exceed His parameters for any specific calling. In every moment, He will define what offering is proper, and it would be improper to do more. Take the law of tithing for example. I believe we are only to give a tenth as our tithe, no more and no less. Afterwards, if we feel like we’d like to contribute more to specific charities or ministries, we certainly may, but the tithe to the Lord itself has specific terms that we should not try to extend. It just is what it is, and it isn’t up to us to modify what the Lord has called for.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 29:32-34

32 And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

33 And they shall eat those things wherewith the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them: but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy.

34 And if ought of the flesh of the consecrations, or of the bread, remain unto the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder with fire: it shall not be eaten, because it is holy.

“If any portion remains” suggests that the Lord would provide for the priests even to the point of overflowing. Those that dedicate their lives to the Lord will receive as much blessing as they can receive, and the rest will have to be let go simply because there is no more room for it. Excess blessing was not to go to another unsanctified, though, but returned back to the Lord by the fire. This seems to suggest that God has blessings enough for everyone, without having to balance the load lest He run out.

Thus, in this offering ritual we see that the life of the disciple is defined on the one hand by sacrifice and surrender to the Lord, and blessing and providence on the other. One would think that sacrifice would cause want, but thanks to divine intervention, it would actually yield surplus.