Exodus 25-30 details for us God’s instructions to Moses for building the tabernacle. As he begins, God tells Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.” Here God invites the people to contribute to the building of the very thing that will make possible his special presence with them.

The Hebrew word that God uses here for “contribution” indicates that the materials are to be given as an act of worship. It is voluntary giving, not mandatory. In other words, God is not taxing his people here. They are to respond out of gratitude for the covenant that he has made with them and the salvation he has worked for them. They are to respond, we see, as their hearts are moved.

When we turn to the fulfillment of this command, in Exodus 35-36, we find that the people bring so much, that Moses tells them to stop because they had all they needed. Human wisdom tells us that if we leave the giving up to each individual, then things may not get done. This is not the biblical view. We see, regarding the tabernacle, that the people truly desired to contribute to its building.

The tabernacle was where God dwelt with his people while they were in the wilderness, moving toward the Promised Land. Eventually, under King Solomon, the tabernacle was replaced by the temple. Due to the disobedience of the people, the temple would be destroyed, then rebuilt, and then destroyed again.

God’s promise to be present with his people did not end with the tabernacle or the temple. Jesus came and said that he was the one who was “greater than the temple” (Matt. 12:6). We learn from John’s gospel that Jesus is the one who came and “dwelt [literally, tabernacled] among us” (1:14).

Moreover, God’s people, who make up the church, are the living stones that make up the temple of God. This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:16: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” In Ephesians 2:20-21, he says that Christians are “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”

Given the connection between the tabernacle/temple and the church as the special place of God’s presence, we should not be surprised to find instructions in the New Testament on how to contribute to what God is now building.

We do not have a tabernacle or temple that we can see or where we can assemble, but we are all being built into a living temple. By his Spirit, God dwells within us, and so we can know that he will always be with us.

We learn from Exodus something important about the offerings that we give to the Lord. Paul similarly tells the Corinthians that “each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7).

Like Israel, we are called to give from what the Lord has given to us. And we too are called to give in order to build up God’s tabernacle, his temple. But it is not a temple made with hands. As we give out of our resources, we give to support the proclamation of the gospel in our local churches and through the ministry of Worldwide Outreach around the world.