Maybe you wake up to another day, just trying to get through. You’re tired, maybe even grieving something you have lost, and the last thing you think about is giving God your best. In fact, you have very little to offer Him.
“The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. 3 These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; 4 blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; 5 ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; 6 olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; 7 and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece. 8 “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.” (Exodus 25 v 1-9)
Look at the list again.
Gold, silver and bronze, blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.
I left out an interesting item. Can you see it?
Goat hair.
Right in the middle of all those precious, costly items is something far less impressive: goat hair.
God asked them to bring whatever their hearts prompted them to give. Everyone could be involved, whatever they had to offer.
Two things stand out to me here.
Where had they gained the gold, silver and clothing? They had brought them from Egypt (Exodus 12:35–36), when the Egyptians gave them these things as God’s people prepared to leave.
Pause a moment.
The very things they carried out of their years of slavery became materials for God’s dwelling place. What they brought out of Egypt would now be used in building a place where God would dwell among them.
Secondly, where did God choose to dwell with them? In the middle of the wilderness, while their future was still uncertain.
He didn’t wait until they reached the Promised Land, when everything was settled. He chose to dwell among them in the dust, the uncertainty, and the long journey.
That still encourages us today.
This is the point.
You may feel you have little to offer God. Perhaps all you have to bring today feels more like goat hair than gold. Bring it anyway. God has a purpose for what we offer Him, even when it seems small or insignificant to us. You may think you have nothing to bring, YOU is not enough. Well, it is, so bring YOU, whatever the state YOU are in.
