Stop giving!

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. – Exodus 36.5-6

And we we are talking about giving again. While we don’t talk about it a lot today it is a Biblical principle. Over and over in the Old Testament during building projects we read ‘the people gave’ or about how people brought in their jewel and precious metals and precious stones to build God’s house. And they always gave.

Now, in the age of grace it is a topic we don’t like to broach. I know there are some cases where giving is one of the primary teachings and some false teachers say things like ‘the more you give the more you get.’ I realise there is a lot of false teaching on giving and there are some others who preach for their own profit.

That kind of preaching can be kind of ‘put-offish’ because people see the abuse of giving by these churches. It is not Biblical. It makes giving man centred.

But here we have a proper example. These folks just gave, and they gave, and they gave, and they gave to the extent that they had to be told to stop giving. We had a hint a few days ago when we saw how the people gave out of their own free will. When we follow their example and are cheerful givers our churches will not have needs.

When we see giving as an act of worship our churches ought never have want.

Can you imagine a day when a pastor gets up and says ‘folks, we have too much so we are cancelling the offering?’