5 From what you have, take an offering for the LORD. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the LORD an offering of gold, silver and bronze;
Two important principles about giving are seen in this passage. The first is that you are to give from your things. We are responsible to take what we have and give. Our support is to be direct support, from our pocket to the recipient. Our federal government is missing this point right now. They want to help the poor, so they are taking our things and giving it to others. If the poor are to be helped, we should take our things and give it to them directly, without any middleman. It makes me mad when our President talks about the need to help the poor, and yet he is unwilling to give even a tithe of his huge income. He, like so many others, has a lot of talk, but not enough personal action. It is easy to spend other people’s money, and be stingy with our own income. We are to take our own money and give. We are each responsible to give. The next principle is that we are to give willingly. We are not to be forced to give. Our giving to the Lord is to be out of a willing spirit. True giving must be done freely. The Lord is asking His people to give their own possessions to build the Tabernacle. They must give willingly.
The Arnold Journey 