After their exodus from Egypt, when the people of Israel were in the wilderness, God spoke to Moses and commanded a Tabernacle to be built. It was to be a place of worship, a place of communion with God, and a visual picture of God’s presence among His people. The design of the building was divine ‒ but the material was to be provided by the people. They were commanded to give “an offering unto the LORD,” and there was only one qualification: whoever brought an offering was to be “of a willing heart” (Ex. 35:5).
The words “willing” (v5, 22), “made willing” (v21, 29), and “willing offering” (v29) are all from the same root, and describe a heart that is inclined to give; an offering that is voluntary, without reluctance or constraint. This is the kind of heart that we must have, when we bring an offering to God, and indeed in all our service to God. Here are three features of this “willing heart,” for our consideration. May the Lord help us to examine ourselves, that we might be better servants of His in the years ahead!
Firstly, a willing heart is required.
God made mention of a “willing heart” not as a suggestion, or as something commendable but not strictly required. This was a command and a necessary qualification ‒ those whose hearts were not willing, were not to give! In other words, it was not the offering itself that was required. God did not need the help of the Israelites to build the Tabernacle, any more than He had needed their help at any point in their journeys. He had brought them out of Egypt by the exercise of His own power, without the Israelites lifting a finger against the Egyptians. As they travelled, He had supernaturally provided for them food, water, shade, light ‒ all without any demand for their assistance. If He had so desired, He could have supernaturally provided all the materials necessary for the construction of the Tabernacle. Indeed, He could simply have commanded the Tabernacle to come into existence, fully formed and furnished! Instead, God graciously chose to give His people the privilege of contributing the material and performing the work for the building of His Tabernacle.
Just as it was with the Tabernacle, so also it is with the advance of God’s kingdom today. In all the work of the church, in all our efforts to fulfil the Great Commission, it is not our contribution in itself that God requires: but a willing heart. For the Tabernacle, some were specially gifted in the required workmanship, and these were “called by name” (Ex. 31:2); but all the people were called willingly to contribute their material offerings. Likewise today, some are specially called to be missionaries; some to preach or pastor ‒ but all are called to contribute, willingly, to God’s work.
Is your heart willing to serve the Lord? Whatever we bring to God, therefore, whether it be an offering of our substance, a sacrifice of praise, or intercessory prayer, let us make sure that our hearts are not grudging, but willing. This is God’s requirement!
Secondly, a willing heart is reasonable.
There is a natural question that arises as soon as we read God’s command to the Israelites to bring their offerings of “gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen…” (Ex. 35:5-6). The question is simply this: the Israelites were slaves, rescued from bondage in Egypt; they were in the wilderness, without access to any resources ‒ how could God ask them for all this gold, and silver, and fine linen? How would they be able to get their hands on such items in the wilderness?
The answer is that God provided it for them, right at the very beginning of their journey. As they were leaving Egypt, the Israelites were told to borrow (the word simply means to ask, without our modern-day implication of an eventual return of the item thus “borrowed”) from the Egyptians “jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment” (Ex. 12:35). This might seem a rather unlikely request, but it was God who told the Israelites to ask, and God who moved the Egyptians to give their valuables to their former slaves (v36); and so when God commanded material to be brought for the Tabernacle, He was asking His people to give willingly to Him what He had first given to them.
This is a perspective that we very much need today, when we bring our offerings to God. There are sadly many today who are proud of their giving, as though they have done some great thing by bringing a large amount to God ‒ they do not recognize God as the true source of all their wealth and possessions, and they do not praise Him for His grace. They give as though they are doing a favour to God, or they give as though they can buy His favour with their “generous” gifts. Such proud givers are put to shame by a poor widow who gave all that she had (cf. Mark 12:41-44). On the other hand, there are also many who are grudging and stingy, thinking of their money and their time as their own, and unwilling to give these up for God’s use. The basis of a willing heart in this context is an attitude of stewardship: recognizing that what we have comes from God, and has been entrusted to us not to fulfil our own purposes, but God’s.
It has been said that “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply” ‒ but what exactly is God’s supply? Not a chest of gold dropped from heaven! How does God supply the resources needed for the furtherance of His work here on earth? The answer is that God’s supply is His people, who as stewards of His gracious gifts give willingly to the work of His kingdom. Dear reader, when the call comes, when resources are needed for God’s work, will your heart be willing? Will you look at your possessions with the eyes of a steward willing to serve the Master?
Thirdly, a willing heart is rewarded.
The Israelites gave willingly to the building of the Tabernacle: those who were gifted to work on the construction, worked; those enabled to give material, gave. All these willing hands were rewarded ‒ though they were not rewarded by a multiplication of their material wealth, but by God’s acceptance of their offering. The cloud of God’s glory filled the Tabernacle, and His presence was with them throughout their journeys (Ex. 40:38). This is indeed a reward much greater than all the wealth in the world could ever buy!
So also in our time, the reward of a willing heart does not lie in material wealth. There are those today who promote so-called Christian wealth plans, promising that what is given to God will be multiplied and returned. These are but thinly-veiled schemes exploiting our natural sinful tendency toward covetousness and greed. No, the true reward of a willing heart is simply that God is pleased with such a heart ‒ indeed, this was the motivation used by the apostle Paul in his exhortation to the Corinthian church (cf. 2 Cor. 9:7).
If we are to obtain this reward, then, our giving must not be a cover for covetousness. Nor can our giving be grudging, as though our hearts are grieved to part with these possessions of ours. Nor can it be “of necessity,” as if we are forced to give by peer pressure or public opinion or some other such consideration. Rather, we are to bring our offerings willingly to God, motivated by a desire to please Him.
Dear reader, is it not enough to know that such cheerful giving pleases God? What more do we need as a motivation than the good pleasure of our gracious heavenly Father who has given so much for us, and to us? Is it not enough of a reward for us to look forward to hearing those wonderful words from the lips of our Master, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”? Let us each then fulfil the role of a good steward ‒ not chasing after personal gain or grudgingly doing the bare minimum that God requires ‒ but cheerfully applying all the time, talents, and resources that God has given us to the furtherance of His work and His kingdom.
Rev Samuel Joseph
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