MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 35:20-29
HINTS FOR BUILDING COMMITTEES
The wishes of God were made known in the previous section, and the people forth with resolved themselves into a committee of ways and means for carrying those wishes out. The action of the committee was—
I. Immediate, Exodus 35:20-21. They did not hold a meeting to take into consideration the recommendations, and adopt the report. Nor did they elect a chairman, secretary, and working committee, to advise when, where, and how measures were to be carried out, but went away at once and commenced the work, before their ardour evaporated in idleness and their determination in talk. Had they met but once and debated the question, the probabilities are, like their Christian successors, the work might never have been done.
II. Spontaneous and earnest, Exodus 35:21. They had but one public meeting, and that a very short one, and that without resolutions or amendment or exciting appeals. The cause itself was all the eloquence they wanted. God had graciously forgiven them, and had condescended to dwell amongst them, and wanted a house for that purpose. That was enough for them. Their gratitude to, and love of God, did all the rest. Should Christian people want other incentives than these? and should their contributions to building funds, &c., be less prompt, less free, less generous? Must Christian contributions, for God’s cause, be prompted by dinners, soirees, harangues, bazaars, when Jewish contributions were given because the people’s heart was stirred up, and their spirit made willing by the grandeur of the cause? (2 Corinthians 8:9-12).
III. According to individual ability. From gold and silver, down to brass and badgers’ skins. Nothing was too good or rich, nothing too poor. “They did what they could.” The poor did not draw back because of their poverty. The rich did not plead the many demands upon their wealth. God required then, as now, “according to what a man had, not according to what he had not.” God looks at quality as well as quantity, and has scales of His own in which to weigh the widows’ mites. The wisdom of this encouragement to poor as well as rich is obvious. Let the poor man feel that, because it has been raised partly by his exertions, the building belongs as much to him as to the rich man, and that he does not occupy its benches on sufferance or through charity.
IV. Self-denying. Many of these gifts for the sanctuary were the ornaments, luxuries, and comforts, and even the necessities of life. They felt that the work was worth the sacrifice. And what work? Let the Christian remember that the Tabernacle was mainly for domestic worship, not for teaching the will of God to the foreigner and idolater outside. When we consider, then, the work of Christian Churches, how that they are not merely or mainly for the comfort and edification of believers, but for the preaching of the Gospel for the lost and the depraved, how much more should we be willing to dispense with the superfluities of life, that the Word of God “may have free course and be glorified!”
V. Laborious. Their gifts did not supersede their individual exertion, Exodus 35:29. And those who could present no material gift gave their time and skill.
1. Let those who can work as well as give, do both. This applies particularly to women who, indeed, are specifically mentioned. The Church has wisely followed this example, and utilised this source of profit in Working-meetings, &c. Let them never go out of date. Not merely for the pecuniary profit, although that is by no means to be overlooked, but for the good feeling and sympathy that are established, and because of the interest in the Lord’s work that it develops.
2. Let those who can’t give, work. Many a little country chapel has been built by the exertions of its congregation in their overtime. Work is money, and work done for God is perhaps more prolific in blessing, and more acceptable to God. This applies to the children. Let them have a share in the work; and let them be able in after years to look back with satisfaction and gratitude that they were early in life instructed and encouraged to work for God.
VI. In conclusion—our text implies that some were unwilling, and did not embark on this glorious enterprise.
1. Some were selfish. They loved their property more than they loved their God.
2. Some may have argued, “Amongst such a vast congregation, one contribution will not be missed,” as many Christians do to-day.
3. Some may have argued, “We are poor, and our mite will be really nothing in aid of the undertaking.”
4. But all who failed to do what they could in this matter, necessarily failed to receive that special blessing which God has for, the “cheerful giver.”
—J. W. Burn.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Moral Law! Exodus 35:1-35.
(1.) The ceremonial law was like a scaffolding around a building which is being slowly and gradually raised. When the building is completed, the scaffolding is taken away. But the moral law is like the rafters, deep sunk in the building itself. These cannot be taken away without the ruin of the whole structure of revelation.
(2.) The ceremonial law is like the bright petals of a blossom, which drop off to make room for the fruit. But the moral law is like the stem, which upholds both blossom and fruit. For God is holy—God is good; and therefore the law of holiness and goodness must, like God, endure for ever.
“Thy God is good, His mercy nigh,
His love sustains thy tottering feet;
Trust Him, for His grace is sure,
Ever doth His Truth endure.”
—Zehn.
Gift-Generosity! Exodus 35:21.
(1.) Dr. Fowler remarks that the servants of God should be as hearty as the servants of Satan have been. They gave their ornaments for the golden calf; now they give them to God. Let grace succeed sin, as Paul passed from a self-sacrificing persecutor to a self-denying and laborious preacher. God invites but does not compel. Every one is to do what he can. Christ’s kingdom rests on the affections. Its motive is love, its object is the perfection of love.
(2.) Spurgeon relates of a woman who was known to be very poor, that she offered at a missionary meeting to subscribe one penny a week to the mission field. When remonstrated with, that surely she could not afford such a sum in her great poverty, she replied, “I spin so many hanks of yarn a week for my living, and I’ll spin one hank more, which will be a penny a week for the Society.”
“To pass, when life her light withdraws,
Not void of righteous self-applause,
Nor in a merely selfish cause.”
Church Gifts! Exodus 35:21-22. Bickersteth says the urgent needs of the Church Missionary Society were set before his flock on November 25th; and, although his congregation was by no means a wealthy one, £100 was collected. A printed note was circulated during the week following, in which he asked for a great effort to be made to raise the sum of £300 in this emergency of Foreign Missions. On Sunday £300 were cast into the Lord’s treasury, including a cheque for £100—a roll of bank notes to the amount of £75, the proceeds of the sale of a silver bowl, and a little boy’s silver cup. There were also two small gold rings put in the plates, and two more silver mugs were since sent for sale. So that he had £400, or more than he asked for, to send to the Society for missions to the heathen.
“But what or who are we, alas!
That we in giving are so free!
Thine own before our offering was,
And all we have we have from Thee.”
—Wicher.
Almsgiving, &c.! Exodus 35:21-22. Two women were one day discussing what constituted the true beauty of the hand. Differing in opinion, they selected a gentleman at umpire. It was a delicate matter. He thought of Paris and the three goddesses. Glancing from one to the other of the hands presented for examination, he replied at last, “Ask the poor, and they will tell you that there is a more beautiful hand than these.” Astonished at this reply, they inquired, “What hand?” To which he responded that the poor considered that the most beautiful hand in the world which was devoted to deeds of loving service and almsgiving. There is one hand more beautiful still—the hand that with a humble, grateful heart, brings gifts for the worship and service of God.
“At least not rotting like a weed,
But, having sown some generous seed,
Fruitful of further good indeed.”
Necklaces and Jewels! Exodus 35:22. Hengstenberg tells us that in Egypt costly and elegant ornaments abounded in proportion as the clothing was simple and scarce. Girdles, necklaces, armlets, rings and earrings of various kinds, suspended from the neck, are found represented in the paintings, and in fact still exist among the mummies—the excellence of the Egyptians in some of the nicer and more elaborate and useful branches of art. They imitated, with a skill not certainly surpassed by moderns, the amethyst, the emerald, and other precious stores; and they formed necklaces of all the hues of the rainbow. From these, it is plain—as a matter of history—that the Israelites received instructions in the art of making, as well as engraving, precious stones.
“The jasper, streaked with many a tender dye,
The sapphire, of celestial blue serene,
The agate, once Chalcedon’s peerless boast,
The melibean hyacinth, and last
The lucid violet of amethyst.”
—Bickersteth.
Permanent Offerings! Exodus 35:22. Dr. Judson tells of a Karen woman who offered herself for baptism. After the usual examination, he inquired whether she could give up her ornaments for Christ. It was an unexpected blow. He explained the spirit of the Gospel, and appealed to her own consciousness of vanity. He then read to her the apostle’s prohibition in 1 Timothy 2:9. She looked again and again at her handsome necklace; and then, with an air of modest decision, she took it off, saying, “I love Christ more than this.”
“No love but Thine, but Thine can me relieve;
No light but Thine, but Thine will I receive;
No light, no love but THINE.”
—Bonar.
Fine Linen! Exodus 35:25. In the tombs of Beni Hassan, there are pictures of the method of preparing and twisting the thread for the manufacture of the fine liner or byssus of which the priest’s garments were composed. The yarn was beaten with clubs, and the thread boiled in water, so as to soften it. Arsinoe, Pelusium, and Alexandria were celebrated for their weaving, which was principally done by men, and not by women. In agreement with this last fact, the preparation of the cloth for the sanctuary, and of the robes of the priests, was entrusted throughout to the care of men. The women did the spinning, and they bought of the people which they had spun.
“To toil in tasks, however mean,
For all we know of right and true,
In this alone our worth is seen;
’Tis this we were ordained to do.”
—Sterling.
Spindle and Spinning! Exodus 35:25. In ancient times, and even in periods not long ago in our own country, the distaff and spindle formed as commonly the occupation in the higher ranks of society, as do the more elegant accomplishments of the present day. Even in the Augustan age of Rome, the Emperor usually wore no other garments than what were made at home by his wife, sister, or daughter. Irby and Mangles in their “Travels” say, that in Arabia, while the girls guard the flocks they have a bundle of wool at their backs for spinning. The spindle was probably the most ancient form of spinning apparatus. In India and other parts of the East, the art of spinning, so says the author of “Rays from the East,” is still of the most primitive kind. The Hindoo mother, placing her infant on the ground, will sit by the hour turning the simply-formed machine with her hand; at her wheel
“Spinning amain, as if to overtake
The never-halting time; or, in her turn,
Teaching some novice in the Eastern home
Her skill in this, or other household work.”
Tribute-Offerings! Exodus 35:29.
(1.) Gratitude! A slave in the Southern plantations was aided by a Canadian to escape from the horrible oppression of a slave-driver. He was enabled to procure employment in Canada, and, being a skilled mechanician by natural talent, he was able to command a liberal income. Every half-year a mysterious gift reached the home of the Canadian liberator—“Gratitude’s tribute for my freedom.” Freed from the bondage of Egyptian taskmasters, Israel had ample occasion to testify their gratitude to the Divine deliverer.
(2.) Gladness! Frequently, an announcement may be seen in the daily papers that the Queen has been graciously pleased to accept some subject’s gift, a book, or something else. The donor is glad to have his gift accepted by so great a personage as his sovereign. It becomes a red-letter day on which the donation was acknowledged. What gladness the Israelite donors ought to have felt in their hearts that the “King”—the “Divine King” in their midst, and heaven’s dread Sovereign-consented to receive their voluntary offerings!
“Pitying Lord, wilt Thou despise
This my sacrifice?
Tell me, Saviour, do I bring Anything?”
—Kimball.
Sacred Self-denial! Exodus 35:29.
(1.) In a happy rural parsonage were two children. The parish was a poor one, often visited with distress and disease. The elder girl delighted in deeds of loving service amongst the aged and needy the younger found pleasure in self-gratification. On one occasion came an urgent demand upon the charity of the charitable, and the love of the loving. The elder was desirous of helping in time of need, and gave up her trinkets and presents, with the consent of her another, to be appropriated to supplying the necessity. But the younger hugged her presents, and grudged to give her necklaces and ornaments. On the following Sunday, as they walked to the house of God, they presented a singular contrast, the one plainly attired, with no ornament of any kind, the other arrayed in all her prettiness of jewel and adornment—which was the happier! Churchgoers, who saw outwardly, may have thought the one in all her bravery; but her mother and her God knew otherwise.
(2.) So Moses and Jehovah saw that the hearts of those Israelites, who had cheerfully given up their armlets and amulets of gold and silver, their jewels and necklaces of precious stones, were happier far than those who still retained them. They may have derided their plainly-robed fellows for their over-devotion to God; but they could not have the inward sense of joy and satisfaction which springs from unselfish self-sacrifice for God. And when the givers and non-givers stood before the completed tabernacle, on whom would the Divine benediction rest. Thus will it be when the Church of Christ is perfect in the last day.
“Their earthly ministry approved, He’ll enroll
Their names among the citizens of heaven,
And freemen of His sinless universe.”