The Donation Dilemma
Exodus 35:20-22 & Exodus 36:2-7
By Reverend Dr. O Palmer Robertson
Ligon made a brief reference to the bricks of this place. When I was a little boy, we were members of the church when it was located just a block down on North State Street from Capitol Street, and the decision had been made to relocate First Presbyterian Church way out in the suburbs, which is where we are now. So they set up a little diagram of the prospective church on an easel, so that whenever you came in and out of church or Sunday school you could see this little diagram of the proposed church and you could buy a brick for a dime. So I went home to my mother and I said, “Mother, I want to sell one of my war-bonds and buy some brick for the new church.” And my mother said, “Well, if that's what you want to do, that's what we’ll do.” At that time you could pay $18.75 and buy a war-bond that would mature at $25. And I had a few of those, so we cashed in our war-bonds, and I bought some bricks that helped build this church. So at least 187-Ѕ of the bricks of this church have my signature on it.
But more importantly, if at any time you’re not coming straight from the parking lot and come in the front door…I notice very few people either go out the front door or in the front door here …you’ll notice that on the left-hand side as you come in there is a cornerstone, a foundation-stone of the church, that was laid at the time that the sanctuary was being built. Several documents of historical significance were put in that cornerstone that the archeologists of 100 years from now may find to be interesting, if the Lord doesn't come before then. But among those documents was a roll of the membership of the church. So I like to think that my name is right back there in the cornerstone of the First Presbyterian Church.
But even more important than the fact that that physical foundation is still there and continues to stand is the spiritual foundation of this church. I was taught the Catechism. I can still remember the sweat on my brow as I tried to remember all of those questions as I was reciting them to my Sunday School teacher. He was very gracious and passed me even though I stumbled over quite a few of them.
And it is our privilege to take those same foundations of commitment to the biblical faith as rediscovered by the Reformers and summarized in The Westminster Confession of Faith and build a college in Africa. This is now the third “African Bible College.” The first in Liberia, 25-years-ago; the second in Malawi, 12-years-ago; and now the third African Bible College is being built in Uganda, just six miles outside the capitol city. We have a beautiful 30 acres that the Lord has provided for us and you’re invited to tea…you’re welcome to come and visit us any time…next time you’re passing through Uganda on the Ntebi Kampala Road.
When we opened our college in Malawi, the students came and said, “Well, this is a very fine schedule that you have.” By the way, we had over 600 applications for the 30 places in the freshmen class when we started in Malawi, and we expect, though we don't presume, but we expect we’ll have this similar kind of response in Uganda. Every year in Malawi we get four to five hundred applications. We squeeze the desks together. And these are such wonderful students: so committed to serve the Lord, so dedicated to serve Him. And, at any rate, the students came and said, “Well, it's a wonderful schedule, but you have no tea break. We must have a tea break in the morning.” They’re of the British character, so I've learned to be civilized by going to Africa and drinking tea every mid-morning at African Bible College.
The Christians of Uganda are rather distinctive in that it's the trail of the martyr's blood that has built the church. Missionary Mackay[1] was one of the first that came to Uganda, and he went right into the court of the king who was a very ferocious king at that time. And the king received the missionary very well, and many of his pages (young boys…twelve-, fifteen-, sixteen years of age) were converted to Christianity. But the son of the king despised this new Christian moral ethic that was being taught. He did not like the resistance that he got from the pages, these young boys. So he soaked reed mats in water; he wrapped these young pages in these soaked reed mats, and lowered them into the fire until they would deny Jesus. Not a one of them denied Christ. The missionary said, “Well, this is the end of Christianity here. No one would possibly come to Christ now.” The next morning, a knock at the door; there was one of those little pages. “You must tell me about Jesus.” “Do you understand what this could imply?” “If Jesus can uphold my brothers the way He has, I must know about Jesus.”
So now we have not just a few pages confessing Christ; we have an evangelical church of 8.3 million in Uganda and growing everyday, growing so rapidly that one Presbyterian pastor told me, “We can plant a church every week in Uganda.” Would you believe it? It happens. They were planting a church every week. “But,” he said, “We have no pastors, so we've stopped planting churches.” So, pray for us as we look forward to this great, open door of opportunity that is ours to establish a Bible college, a four-year liberal arts school in which every student will major in Biblical Studies, but they will also be trained in history, church history, African church history, English literature, African literature, education courses so they can become certified teachers in the public schools, and communication so they can run Christian radio stations. Pray for us as we see the Lord doing wondrous things in Africa today.
Now the Scripture this morning is taken from Exodus chapter 35, Exodus 35, beginning to read at verse 20.
Exodus 35:20-22:
20 Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses' presence, 21 and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved him came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the Tent of Meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments. 22 All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the LORD.
Now chapter 36, verse 2. This is the process of the building of the Tabernacle in the wilderness:
Exodus 36:2-7:
2 Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the LORD had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. 3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. 4 So all the skilled craftsmen who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left their work 5 and said to Moses, "The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the LORD commanded to be done." 6 Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: "No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary." And so the people were restrained from bringing more, 7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.
May God bless to our hearts the reading and the hearing of this portion of His holy, inspired, infallible, and inerrant word.
Let us pray. God our Father, we are Yours. You have bought us with a price, and what a price! We honor You, Lord Christ, for the price paid in Your precious blood on the cross, the Christ in all His passion. And we thank You and honor You, O gracious Christ, for the redemption that You have accomplished for us, that we are delivered once and for all from Hell and all its awesome judgments, righteous though they might be. And we praise You for the freedom, the liberty, that You have given us as Your servants. And what blessings You have poured out upon us, O God! We dedicate now not just what we have, but what we are…all we are to Your glory, and all that we might be in the future, for Christ's sake. Amen.
The Donation Dilemma
Once, many years ago, I received a very unusual letter from a missionary. Have you ever received a letter like this? This missionary was from Northeast Southwest Africa.[2] Did you get that? Northeast Southwest Africa is now known as Namibia, but then it was Southwest Africa, and he was working in Northeast Southwest Africa. The letter read something like this: ‘Please, do not send any more money. We have more money than we know what to do with. Please, do not send any more money.’ Have you ever received a letter from a missionary like that? Is that what you've heard during the Missionary Conference to this point? “ Please, don't give us any more money”?
The Church today, the universal Church of Jesus Christ in all its works, has taken the place of a tabernacle in the old covenant. And that was the problem that Moses had: the people were bringing too much money. They were melting all their gold down, all their savings, and presenting them to the Lord. And finally the workers said, ‘We can't do our work because they keep bringing us all this money. Please, tell them to stop bringing us so much money.’
Wouldn't it be nice if we would have the donation dilemma here in the 21st Century? But you might say, “Oh, no, that's…that's impossible. They were just building a little Tabernacle in the wilderness; we're talking about global concepts.” Well, no, it is possible that the donation dilemma could be repeated even today. Consider these principles from the word of God that might resurrect the donation dilemma, and let the Lord speak to your heart. If anything that is said here…any of these points do not correspond with Scripture, then you can catch me at the door and I’ll start giving those bricks…more bricks back to building the church here.
I. Giving should be of the first fruits, not of the leftovers.
First of all, giving should be of the first fruits, not of the leftovers. It's a biblical principle. Exodus 23:19, “Bring the best of the first fruits…to the house of the LORD your God.” Now just imagine yourself in an agricultural situation. It's almost the time for harvest, and that means all your fresh fruit is gone; that means your stores of grain are diminished, depleted to where there's hardly anything but the scrapings left. And out on your trees the peaches are ripening. You can smell them. And the grain is golden in the rays of the sun. It's time for harvest. So you go out and you pick those first fruits of the peaches, and you reap the grain, and you bake that first loaf of bread, and you can smell that delicious aroma…and you bring it and you present it as an offering to the Lord. Your first fruits, the best that you have: that's what belongs to the Lord. That's a sign of recognizing that every gift you have comes from Him. When you make a family or personal budget, put at the top of the column of your figuring the amount you intend to give to the Lord. Make the first check you write each month, whatever you in your heart have determined to give, let that first check be your gift to the Lord. Don't wait until the end of the month and be sure you've got enough left over to make your contribution to the church. No. The first fruits, they are the Lord's.
This principle applies to church-budgeting as well. The top line item should be your benevolences. It's an act of faith, just like the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the first day of the week, and you students, you don't study on Sunday's, do you? You work until Saturday night (maybe Saturday night late) and then you quit because you’re confident that God is going to give you all you need in six days of labor. I was visiting with a medical student recently, and he said he looks forward to the Sabbath day so much because he knows he's not going to have to keep that rigid schedule of study on that particular day, because he's going to rest on that day. It's an act of faith when you rest on the first day of the week, trusting that the Lord will provide all that you need.
II. Giving to the Lord should be done joyfully, not begrudgingly or out of necessity.
Secondly, giving to the Lord should be done joyfully, not begrudgingly or out of necessity. 2 Corinthians 9:7: “Do not give grudgingly or of necessity, but let every man give according as he purposes in his own heart, for God loves the cheerful giver.” And the word there is actually the hilarious giver. Is that the way you feel when you reach for your wallet in the middle of a church service? “This is so much fun! It's such a great thing!” One child, and this you've witnessed over and over again as have I…one child is playing with the red dump truck, and naturally the only other toy in the world for the other child in the family is that same red dump truck. This time the parent wants to teach a little lesson in sharing. “Let your brother have his turn with the little, red dump truck. You can have it back later on.” “No, I had it first. It's my truck. Oh, okay, I’ll let him.” That's no way to share. So in giving to God, don't give with a scowl or a frown. What's the book of joy in the New Testament? You know it very well. The book of Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always”…even when you’re in prison, as was Paul…“Again I say: Rejoice!” What's the book of joy in the Old Testament, not counting the book of Psalms? Surprise. It's the book of Deuteronomy. It's the law book that talks more about joy than any other book in the Old Testament. Look, if you will, at a couple of references that point out that you should bring your offerings to the Lord with joy.
Deuteronomy 12:4 and following:
4 You must not worship the LORD your God in their way. 5 But you are to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for His dwelling. To that place you must go; 6 there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the LORD your God has blessed you.