GIVING SACRIFICIALLY

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

These are the amounts of the materials used for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the covenant law, which were recorded at Moses’ command by the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron, the priest.

(Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything the Lord commanded Moses; with him was Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan—an engraver and designer, and an embroiderer in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen.)

The total amount of the gold from the wave offering used for all the work on the sanctuary was 29 talents and 730 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.

The silver obtained from those of the community who were counted in the census was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel—one beka per person, that is, half a shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone who had crossed over to those counted, twenty years old or more, a total of 603,550 men. The 100 talents of silver were used to cast the bases for the sanctuary and for the curtain—100 bases from the 100 talents, one talent for each base. They used the 1,775 shekels to make the hooks for the posts, to overlay the tops of the posts, and to make their bands.

The bronze from the wave offering was 70 talents and 2,400 shekels. They used it to make the bases for the entrance to the tent of meeting, the bronze altar with its bronze grating and all its utensils, the bases for the surrounding courtyard and those for its entrance and all the tent pegs for the tabernacle and those for the surrounding courtyard.

Exodus 38:21-31

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

For any major construction project to be successful, the right kind and amount of materials need to be on hand.

So how much went into making God’s tabernacle, the portable worship center He commanded the Israelites to build?

We find out in the closing verses of Exodus, chapter 38. Look again at those words here:

These are the amounts of the materials used for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the covenant law, which were recorded at Moses’ command by the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron, the priest.

(Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything the Lord commanded Moses; with him was Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan—an engraver and designer, and an embroiderer in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen.)

The total amount of the gold from the wave offering used for all the work on the sanctuary was 29 talents and 730 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.

The silver obtained from those of the community who were counted in the census was 100 talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel—one beka per person, that is, half a shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, from everyone who had crossed over to those counted, twenty years old or more, a total of 603,550 men. The 100 talents of silver were used to cast the bases for the sanctuary and for the curtain—100 bases from the 100 talents, one talent for each base. They used the 1,775 shekels to make the hooks for the posts, to overlay the tops of the posts, and to make their bands.

The bronze from the wave offering was 70 talents and 2,400 shekels. They used it to make the bases for the entrance to the tent of meeting, the bronze altar with its bronze grating and all its utensils, the bases for the surrounding courtyard and those for its entrance and all the tent pegs for the tabernacle and those for the surrounding courtyard. Vv.21-31

There are several things to note before we get into the impressive amount of expensive materials donated by the Israelite people for the tabernacle construction, the “tabernacle of the covenant law”.

First, we read where Moses commanded that this accounting of materials should happen. The scriptures tell us that he tasked “the Levites, under the direction of Ithamar, son of Aaron, the priest”.

Next, we reads about the main craftsmen who brought God’s vision for His worship center into reality, making everything in accordance with His exact specifications.

The one most responsible for building everything was a man by the name of Bezalel. He was the “son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah” and we read where he “made everything the Lord commanded Moses”. Working with him was “Oholiab, son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan” whose specific skills included engraving, designing, and embroidery, as he worked with the “blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen”.

Today, God still empowers people with specific skills and abilities to fulfill His divine and holy purposes. We should always be seeking to discover what He has bestowed in us so to carry out His will, never underestimating the magnitude of what He might call us to do like Bezalel and Oholiab.

Now, let’s turn to the summation of precious metals used for the construction of the tabernacle and its accessories. The overall value of what was dedicated is nothing short of astonishing.

First, there was the gold. Here’s what we find in our passage about it in our passage today:

The total amount of the gold from the wave offering used for all the work on the sanctuary was 29 talents and 730 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel.

Before I get into some calculations, let’s tackle the matter of the “wave offering”.

While we might think that this is complicated, it isn’t. For a wave offering was nothing more than a portion of an offering waved in the air before the Lord in a gesture of symbolic dedication. In this case, we read where the “total amount of gold” was “29 talents and 730 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel”.

Now, much like we saw with the cubit, the talent and shekel aren’t units of measurement we use today and so to get a better idea of the depth of this willing donation, let’s do a conversion exercise.

A talent was anywhere between 75 and 100 pounds. So in the case of this wave offering of gold, we know the Israelites gave between 2,175 and 2,900 pounds of gold. That’s a lot of gold but we’re not done yet because there was also the matter of “730 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel”.

A sanctuary shekel equaled about 0.4 of an ounce of gold and so five shekels would end up being two ounces and since there is sixteen ounces in a pound, forty shekels would get us there. Dividing 730 shekels by 40, we see where there was an additional 18.25 pounds of gold added to give us a grand total of between 2,193.25 and 2,918.25 pounds of gold.

If math isn’t your thing, you head is probably hurting right now but let’s now put a modern day dollar amount to this so you can get a better idea of the worth of this willing sacrificial sacrifice by the Israelite people.

Today, a pound of gold is worth around $46,000. Now, we multiply to get this total worth given:

Between $100,843,500 and $134,239,500.

Wow!

Now, I don’t know about you but it seems like pulling teeth for churches to get their members to either increase their giving or give at all and here, we see a massive willful offering to the Lord in response to His call.

Okay, the gold itself completely blows my mind in its own right but we still have to look at the silver and bronze donated.

As for the silver, the scriptures tell us that this precious metal was “obtained from those of the community who were counted in the census”. This included “everyone who had crossed over to those counted, twenty years old or more, a total of 603,550 men”.

The amount collected was “100 talents and 1,775 shekels, according to the sanctuary shekel” or “one beka per person, that is, half a shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel”.  Let’s calculate again, using the standards discussed under the gold.

The total sum of the silver was between 7,500 and 10,000 pounds with an additional 44.375 pounds coming from the shekels. We read where the “100 talents of silver were used to cast the bases for the sanctuary and for the curtain—100 bases from the 100 talents, one talent for each base”. As for the “1,775 shekels”, they were used “to make the hooks for the posts, to overlay the tops of the posts, and to make their bands”.

Again looking at a value by today’s standards, a pound of silver is worth around $745 and so we multiply to see where the bases for the sanctuary and the curtains were between $5,587,500 and $7,450,000 while the hooks, post overlays, and bands were $33,059 and change.

Mind boggling (or maybe more mind blowing amounts), right?

That leaves us with the bronze which we know predominantly was used for the altar of burnt offering and the courtyard. Here’s what we read about the amount of this metal used:

The bronze from the wave offering was 70 talents and 2,400 shekels. They used it to make the bases for the entrance to the tent of meeting, the bronze altar with its bronze grating and all its utensils, the bases for the surrounding courtyard and those for its entrance and all the tent pegs for the tabernacle and those for the surrounding courtyard.

Calculating again, we know that there was between 5,250 and 7,000 pounds of bronze used for the “bases for the entrance to the tent of meeting, the bronze altar with its bronze grating and all its utensils, the bases for the surrounding courtyard and those for its entrance and all the tent pegs for the tabernacle and those for the surrounding courtyard”. Add to this an additional 60 pounds from the shekels and we get a grand total of between 5,310 and 7,060 pounds of bronze donated.

Bronze isn’t at the value level of gold or silver, for sure. Today, it’s worth around $2.50 a pound and so we can see where the total value of what the Israelites donated would be between $13,275 and $17,650 in present times.

You know, it would be extremely easy to gloss over these 11 verses and never grasp the depth of sacrifice in giving exercised by the Israelite people. And while these people of God had their times of unfaithfulness to the Lord, times that always got them in trouble, this wasn’t one of them.

My prayer is that we can all be inspired by their willingness to not just give a little by exponentially in obedience to the call of their Lord. May we seek to give likewise.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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