In the context of the offering, Paul reminded the Corinthians, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed” (2 Cor. 9:8).
Giving an offering takes on a new perspective when we remember that our abundance comes from God’s abundance. We are simply giving back that which God supplied. Our talents exist because God blessed us with know-how and energy. Our speaking happens because God blessed us with His word and opportunities to share it. Our giving is possible because God blessed us with a job that pays and the ability to save. It all goes back to God giving in the first place.
A self-sufficient skeptic might protest that it was entirely his own efforts that put the steak dinner on his plate. I would remind him that God provided the chain of events that put it there, right up to the final moment when the man plunged his fork into it—God provided the talents of the butcher and cook, God blessed the rancher who raised the beef, God supplied the rain to grow the grass that fed the cattle. With little exception, every watt and calorie available on planet Earth—from the food chain to the water cycle to wind power and solar power and petroleum and natural gas—can be traced back to the gift of God’s sunshine (Matt. 5:45).
We can see this principle operate in a contribution taken up in Exodus 25:1-9. The children of Israel needed to make a tabernacle for God.
Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for Me; from every man whose heart moves him… This is the contribution which you are to raise from them: gold, silver and bronze, blue, purple and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair, rams’ skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood, oil for lighting, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and for the breastpiece. Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them (Exodus 25:1-9).
Where was a group of homeless refugees traveling through the wasteland going to find such rich gifts? How was a group who had spent 430 years in slavery (180 years longer than the US has been a nation) going to present God gifts of gold, jewelry, and fabric?
God provided this bounty! Back in Exodus 12:35-36, the children of Israel followed God’s command (from 11:1-3) “for they had requested from the Egyptians articles of silver and articles of gold, and clothing; and the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have their request. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.” The God who hardened Pharaoh’s heart softened the Egyptians’ hearts, and they willingly poured wealth into the laps of Israel.
Sadly, God’s bounty doesn’t always get used for good (Eph. 4:28) as it should. It can be used for evil. One might also ask where the children of Israel got the gold for making the molten calf, when Aaron sinfully asked for an offering of earrings (Exodus 32:1-4). The people’s gold obviously came from the same Egyptian plunder.
How much better, then, to see the people bless God instead, by using their God-given means to build the tabernacle. “The Israelites, all the men and women, whose heart moved them to bring material for all the work, which the LORD had commanded through Moses to be done, brought a freewill offering to the LORD” (Exo. 35:29). In fact they brought so much that the leaders of the work had to ask them to stop bringing contributions. “So Moses issued a command, and a proclamation was circulated throughout the camp, saying, ‘Let no man or woman any longer perform work for the contributions of the sanctuary.’ … For the material they had was sufficient and more than enough for all the work (Exo. 36:6-7).
Just so, today, God will provide His children all the means necessary to faithfully perform every good deed!
—John Guzzetta