Exodus 25:1

The Bible says in Exodus 25:1-7, “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart 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 badgers' skins, and shittim wood, Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.” The children of Isarel were going to be told to put together a tabernacle as the focal point of their organized worship services. Of course, in order to have a physical structure, there are practical needs that must be met. The way to have those needs met was to ask the people to give. Yes, God supplies, and He often supplies through the hand and the bank account of believers. There is one very important point to notice concerning the giving that we find in this passage of scripture. God told Moses in Exodus 25:2, “that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.”

There is no amount specified that people should give, and there is no percentage specified such as ten percent that people should give. What is important is the attitude with which people give. They should give “willingly” with the “heart.” It is interesting to note that this is the same emphasis that is made in Second Corinthians concerning giving. It says in Second Corinthians 9:7, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” Many people like to emphasize the necessity to give ten percent. They make such an emphasis perhaps because it is easier for them to count what people give, and it is easier for them to count on a consistent income for their own material needs. I think it is very important that we understand that the New Testament in no way tells Christians to give a tithe. Christians are not encouraged to give a tithe, they are not commanded to give a tithe, they are not enjoined to give a tithe, and they are not advised to give a tithe anywhere in the New Testament epistles. Why is it that so many modern day preachers emphasize the giving of tithes for Christians when the New Testament does not? As we look at percentages that have been given in the Bible, we see that numbers much larger than ten percent were used as examples for how much to give. Jesus used the example of a widow, not for how much she gave but for the fact that she gave one hundred percent. God owns everything. He does not need your money. The Bible says in Mark 12:41-44, “And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” The widow gave one hundred percent of what she had, and she was praised by Jesus not for giving ten percent, and not for giving a large sum of money, but for giving all that she had. For a starting point, everything that we have and everything that we are should be dedicated in our hearts to the Lord Jesus for His use and His glory.

Another example in the New Testament has to do with Barnabas and the percentage that he gave after he had sold a piece of real estate. The Bible says in Acts 4:36-37, “And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted, The son of consolation, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” Once again someone who gave one hundred percent of what they had gained is held up to us as an example of New Testament giving for followers of Jesus. For New Testament believers there is no rigid legalistic rule such as a tithe. The rule for giving is now a spiritual rule, and the standard is even higher than ten percent. Christians must be led of the Spirit in everything that they do. It says in Romans 8:14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” And it says in Galatians 5:18, “But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under law.” God loves us, and He wants us to love Him in all that we do. Jesus looks at our hearts, hoping that we have learned to love Him. That is why the principle for giving is as it says in in Second Corinthians 9:7, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver,” and as it says in Exodus 25:2, “that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.”

God told Moses in Exodus 25:8-9, “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” There are several things that are interesting to note about the tabernacle. The first has to do with a general spiritual principle about the true substance of all physical and material things. We can make a good case to say that everything that we see is only a shadow of that which is perfect. In other words what we see is not the real thing as it was intended to be, but only an image or representation of the real. For example, man was created after the image of God. Man is not God, and man is not like God in all ways; but in some ways man is like God. It may very well be that everything that exists in this world has existed in heaven before that object or tree or animal was created on earth. There is a river in heaven. That river existed before any river on the earth existed. There is a tree in heaven. That tree existed before any tree on earth existed. There is Biblical evidence that this is true concerning the tabernacle. God told Moses to construct a tabernacle. Evidently the specifications for that tabernacle were modeled after a tabernacle that already existed in heaven. It says in Revelation 15:5, “And after that I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.” John was seeing some events that were taking place in heaven, and he saw the tabernacle in heaven. It also says in Hebrews 8:1-2, “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” We can logically conclude that the tabernacle on earth that was given to Moses to construct was modeled after the tabernacle in heaven. It is no wonder that gold and precious stones, and beautiful linen and fine linen were used for the tabernacle. Everything in heaven is beautiful, beautiful beyond compare.

Exodus chapter twenty-five tells us what was put into the tabernacle. The first object mentioned to be placed inside the tabernacle was the ark. It is described in Exodus 25:10-22, “And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it. And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them. The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it. And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be. And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.”

The first thing that Moses was told to put into the ark was “the testimony”. This is referring to the Ten Commandments. God gave the law through Moses, and God is telling Moses and the children of Israel one more time that the Ten Commandments are very important. They were expected to obey the Ten Commandments. They would be judged and evaluated by the standard of the Ten Commandments. The children of Israel promised God that they would obey the Ten Commandments. Any failure to obey the commandments would mean that they deserved punishment and condemnation. Of course, not only did the Israelites fail to obey the commandments, all of us have failed to obey the Ten Commandments. Thankfully, right after Moses is told to place the Ten Commandments into the ark, Moses is told to place upon the ark “the mercy seat.” God said in Exodus 25:16-17, “And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee. And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold.” The more that you think about, understand, and try to obey the Ten Commandments, the more that you will know that you need mercy in order to be forgiven where you have failed. And God told Moses to put the mercy seat there on the ark in order to say, “There is mercy for everyone who fails to properly keep the Ten Commandments.” The Bible says in Psalms 103:8-14, “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.”

Of course, the tabernacle was a very important structure in the lives of the Israelites. The tabernacle represented the presence of God. In the age of the New Testament in which we live we no longer have the tabernacle of the Old Testament. We have something far better: the presence of God and Christ within us. The New Testament describes for us the tabernacle that we now have as believers in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter said that his body was the tabernacle. He wrote in Second Peter 1:12-13, “Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.” By calling our bodies the tabernacle of God and the temple of the Holy Spirit, we are being taught clearly that God is always with us. Jesus will never forsake us because He dwells in His believers. The Holy Spirit will always be with us to comfort us, to enlighten us, and to guide us.

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