Episode Transcript
God instructs Israel to donate materials to build a tabernacle according to His specifications. He gives His people a list of materials: gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, and scarlet material, fine linen, goat hair, rams’ skins dyed red, porpoise skins, acacia wood, oil, spices, onyx stones, and setting stones.
Instead of requiring a tax of the people to accomplish the building of the tabernacle, God instructs these materials to be gathered from every man whose heart moves him. This was to be a voluntary donation, not a requirement. Considering this, I learn a good principle. God does not require things of us like people in authority often do. Worldly governments tax people in order to build government buildings and state schools and acquire property. Worldly churches demand 10% of their congregants’ incomes in order to sustain the church building and the salaries of the staff. God works differently. His desire is for compassion, not sacrifice. He asks for donations, and I am sure He will move the appropriate people to give what is needed.
In God’s system, the poor are not oppressed and those who can afford to give learn compassion and generosity. They learn that money is a good slave but a terrible master. As God teaches His people generosity, they experience great prosperity wherever they go. The two, voluntary generosity and the prosperity of society, are in tandem. Unnecessary taxation, on the other hand, oppresses people and produces greed in society—stifling economic growth and forcing an atmosphere in which people are always trying to take advantage of one another by using them to make money.
There is one place that describes a tithe that was to be set apart to the Lord by the people of Israel, but there it is not clear what the tithe was used for (cf. Leviticus 27:30-34). I assume that the tithe was meant to provide for the priests, who had no land or business dealings of their own. There may be some application when it comes to church bodies taking care of their pastors needs. But, there is no requirement for Christians to give 10% of their income to the church coffers.
In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul seems to indicate that giving is voluntary, and God rewards His people according to their generosity. In fact, God supplies abundance so that we can be generous with it, giving in liberality because He gives in liberality. God is not a penny-pincher. He is generously and supplies more than we need. We are to be like Him. In this time, we are being full of God’s Spirit and the Law is being written on our hearts. So, we are learning generosity. With generosity comes prosperity for society because those who sow bountifully will also reap bountifully.
This is not the “Prosperity Gospel,” because the prosperity isn’t earned. It is given by God as a gift to be generous with—to use for every good deed, not selfishly. God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). May we be generous, giving with all liberality.
