It is no secret that God calls us to be generous with the
gifts He has given us. Throughout the Bible, we read that just as God has
generously given to us, so are we to give generously one to another. As Jesus
said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love
for one another” (John 13:35) and “Be merciful, even as your Father is
merciful” (Luke 6:36).
But God also calls us to give to Him. And He, who does all
things well, presses it into service for the benefit of all the people of God.
See for example what God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, after he and the people
were safely brought out of Egypt across the Red Sea on dry land:
The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the people
of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart
moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. And this is the
contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue
and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’
skins, goatskins,[a] acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing
oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the
ephod and for the breastpiece. And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may
dwell in their midst. Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the
tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it. (Ex. 25: 1-9)
Notice in verse two that the Lord instructs Moses to tell the
Israelites to “take for me a contribution” and that from everyone motivated
from gratitude for what God has just accomplished and given to them, Moses is
to gather up “the contribution for me.”
Pay attention, though, why the Lord wants the people of
Israel to gather up these contributions for Him. God tells Moses precisely why:
“let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.” The purpose
for the contribution of the Israelites was so that He may dwell with them, that
He would live among them. Through the tabernacle and the priesthood, through
their rites and ceremonies, through their feasts and festivals, as through
means, the Lord God, who brought them out of the bondage of Egypt would live
and dwell among them and be their God, and lead them into the promised land,
which flowed with milk and honey.
God dwells among us still. In the fullness of time, God’s son
was born of woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law. He brought
us out of bondage to sin, death, the devil, and Hell, and He did this by His
obedient suffering and death, his resurrection and ascension. But He is not
gone. He dwells with us through the means of His Word and His sacraments,
through the preaching and the teaching of our pastors, through the rites and
ceremonies of our liturgy. He dwells with us in the Church through those means.
And He is leading us to the true promised land, to the new heavens and the new
earth in the new creation.
In the meantime, as God, even now, continues to call us to
give to Him, let us, who have been saved from slavery to sin and death, the
devil and hell, be so moved in our hearts as to give generously to Him so that
the means of grace, the means of His gracious dwelling among us, would continue
now and into the future. For just as He did then so does He do now. He presses
the gifts given to Him into service for the benefit of all His people. He puts
it to use so that we may have Him with us always, even unto the end of the age.
