Exodus: Unity of Law and Grace

The Gifts for the Tabernacle

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Gifts for the Tabernacle

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Track: 121

Dictation Name: RR171BN121

Location/Venue:

Year: Early 70’s

Let us worship God. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Seeing that we have a Great High Priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us come therefore, boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our Father, we give thanks unto thee that all things come from thee, and that thou art the author of all things, the author of all good, the author of all judgment, of all mercy and grace. Teach us so to walk, our Father, that we see all events as coming from thine omnipotent mercy, that we serve thee as we ought in this confidence, that in all things, we become more than conquerors in Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is Exodus 35:4-19. Our subject: The Gifts for the Tabernacle. Exodus 35:4-19. “And Moses spake unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying, Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord: whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the Lord; gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, and rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood (or acacia), oil for the light, and spices for anointing oil, and for the sweet incense, and onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod, and for the breastplate. And every wise hearted among you shall come, and make all that the Lord hath commanded; the tabernacle, his tent, and his covering, his taches, and his boards, his bars, his pillars, and his sockets, the ark, and the staves thereof, with the mercy seat, and the vail of the covering, the table, and his staves, and all his vessels, and the shewbread, the candlestick also for the light, and his furniture, and his lamps, with the oil for the light, and the incense altar, and his staves, and the anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the hanging for the door at the entering in of the tabernacle, the altar of burnt offering, with his brasen grate, his staves, and all his vessels, the laver and his foot, the hangings of the court, his pillars, and their sockets, and the hanging for the door of the court, the pins of the tabernacle, and the pins of the court, and their cords, the cloths of service, to do service in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, to minister in the priest's office.”

This passage gets very short treatment from virtually every commentator of our time. In fact, virtually of them, I can think of no exceptions, pass over it with a simple statement that this is a repetition of what was written before. For a modern mind, it constitutes an undue attention to details of lesser importance. A modernist professor of some years ago explained this, and I heard him, and other laws that follow as evidence of the fact that, in the primitive stages of a religion, there is an undue stress on forms. But such a position is false on many counts. The biblical attention to the sanctuary is unique. This attention deserves our close study. Moreover, this is not repetitive. Although all these things were discussed before, now as the construction is to begin, there is a dramatic difference. It tells us a great deal about the church and its failure that it has not paid attention to passages like this which, at various times in the history of Christianity, have had a powerful impact.

Until now, a temporary tabernacle was being used. Now the finished work, with all the furnishings, is commanded by God. It is evidence of a very superficial reading, and a serious error to see no advance in the account in these verses. There is here, a very important factor which the church has too often neglected to its own suicide. In verse 4, we are told that this is a command. Then, in verse 5, it is plainly states that, while the building of the tabernacle is commanded, the construction of the sanctuary with all its furnishings is not to be done with tithes, but by means of gifts from all who are of a wiling heart. In other words, God’s command requires us to view the advancement of His kingdom by such a thing as a sanctuary, not as a part of our tithe, but as a gift above and over the tithe. The progress of God’s kingdom depends on all who have a willing heart and who do not limit their giving to a tithe. God requires the tithe. It is His tax. It does bring blessings as Malachi 3:8-12 makes clear, but because God’s gift to us, because His gifts are so many, He expects more from us than the tithe alone. According to Malachi 3:8, we read, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.” Notice it’s not merely tithes, but offerings.

If a child dutifully pays his parents what is due them, but never shows any affection, nor makes any gift above and over a required and token amount, his coldness tells us far more than anything else about his life. For this reason, we are told here that the willing heart is basic to our relationship to God. A variety of needs for the sanctuary are listed: gold, silver, brass, dyes and linen, goat’s hair, rams’ and badger skins, oils, spice, incense, precious and semi-precious stones, wood, furnishings, and more. Basic to all these gifts, as well as the construction, the donated labor, is a willing heart.

The artisans who are to make these things, both the men and the women, are described in verse 10 as wise-hearted. All work was in terms of an ordained pattern. Not their will but God’s will is to be done. They bring their skills to God’s requirements. Now in modern art, the old apprentice system is virtually gone. Training in the arts is often now less on the disciplined acquisition of ancient skills, and more on self-expression, and this is a reversal of the historic pattern.

There is more, however, to this text. Israel was a covenant people. The Holy of Holies was the throne room of God the king. Israel knew that God could not be circumscribed or contained in any building made by hands. We are told this more than once, very bluntly in 2 Chronicles 6:18 when the temple was dedicated. All the same, God had made clear that His glory would, in part, inhabit the sanctuary. Well, given this fact, one would expect a tax to build the sanctuary, God’s palace, the governmental center of the covenant nation. This was routine and normal in Antiquity and in all of history. Thus, in the United States, the White House is not built by any president, nor repaired and maintained by any. It is state property and state-maintained. What God does here is unique in history. It is a radical break with all past sanctuaries. We have some instances of it in the Medieval and modern period, when people above and over their tithe built God’s sanctuary, and it is interesting that cathedrals that were built the fastest were not built because the people were compelled to do so, but because they wanted to do so. Harnessed themselves to the carts to drag the stones, and worked with a willing heart.

While Israel is required by God to be governed by Him, the sanctuary is separated from the state and made the work of all who have a willing heart. Too often the church has sought state support and establishment in violation of God’s law, whereas God requires the faith to be established, and the law of the faith, but not the institution. The centuries old battle of the church for freedom from the state has its roots in all the Bible, and very clearly in texts such as ours. Whether it be the church or the Christian school, the dependency must be on those of a willing heart. If not, the government of the church passes into the hands of the state. For this reason, both tithes and offerings in scripture do not depend on statist enforcement. The rest on men of willing heart who create, by their tithes and offerings, a kingdom and a realm apart from the institutions of this world.

According to George Rollinson, a commentator of the last century, almost the only one to give attention to this passage, there are two aspects to the appeal made in these verses. The first appeal is to everyone. Every covenant member is summoned to reveal his faith by making a gift beyond the tithe for the construction of the sanctuary, but the second appeal is a limited one. It is to the wise-hearted. Now the biblical term “heart” has reference to the core of a man’s being. It has reference to knowledge and ability, and in this instance, because of the prefix “wise,” this is especially clear. We make the heart, in modern thought, the seat of affections, of feelings, whereas the Bible says it is the seat of knowledge. This is, in both instances, metaphorical. The precondition for the wise-hearted in that they have a willing heart. However, the prerequisite for God’s work is not only a willing heart, but skill. No more than a blemished offering is acceptable to God, is unskilled service. God does not want out leftovers.

For this reason, the early church began to require some kind of aptitude and training for the service of the kingdom. Paul, in 1 Timothy 3:10 calls for a testing of all candidates for positions in the church. In 1 Timothy 3:6, Paul, after listing various requirements, adds, “not a novice,” or one newly come to the faith, “lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the Devil.” Again, in 1 Timothy 5:22, Paul warns the church against ordaining a man too quickly.

In our time, the democratic temper in both church and state favors electing a man simply on the basis of his popular support. The standards thus are derived from man, not from God. This is a reversal of the biblical requirement whereby God establishes the standards, not man, and it is our duty to work to approximate His standards. In brief, our text is important because of its God-centered character. The qualifications even for giving to God’s kingdom are God-ordained. They are not the result of ecclesiastical nagging. We give according to God’s ordination when we have a willing heart and for certain things when we are wise-hearted or skilled. It is in terms of this that God’s kingdom grows and is free. Those who seek state funding for what God declares to be His are seeking to rewrite God’s law.

In these verses, we see also the nature of biblical language. Instead of abstractions, we have very concrete statements, both particular and specific in nature. It is a sad fact that, in our time, for about two centuries, these verses have been neglected. They have been regarded simply as a repetition. When they are not, they are very important. When the construction was to begin, these limitations were placed. God did not want His sanctuary to be built because men were made to do it, and the growth of His kingdom, of His peace, of His prosperity depends always on those who have a willing heart. Let us pray.

Our Father, we thank thee for thy word. We beseech thee. Make us willing of heart, that in our lives thy will may be done, not ours. That we may know indeed that what we have is what thou hast made us, and what thou hast given to us. Give us a willing heart, a readiness to work, to give, to live for thee. Then only, indeed, can we pray, thy will be done and thy kingdom come. In Christ’s name. Amen. Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] With regard to the matter of when to ordain someone for the service of the Lord, what would be the hallmark of someone who is in that position, prepared, mature enough?

[Rushdoony] Yes. Paul, in Timothy, lays down a number of requirements, and one of the things we forget among these requirements that they do require maturity. This is a curious fact, and some have called attention to it in the past but no one pays much attention any longer. A man can be ordained to the pastorate when he’s relatively young, but to an eldership or as a deacon, the requirement is that he be considerably older, and the paradox is that this means that far greater care has to be exercised in ordaining a pastor. The tests are far more severe, so that . . .

[Audience] You don’t mean a pastor, you mean an elder.

[Rushdoony] Elder, no a pastor. Yes. And because more care has to be exercised in ordaining a younger man, there are a variety of tests that all churches, since the time of the apostles, have set up, because he is immature, and yet he has to manifest maturity. So, he’s put through a process of discipline. Now, one of the aspects of that pattern that we see in Acts, and which some churches have returned to, is a ministry two by two, an apprentice system, so that the young man serves under an older man and learns patience, among other things, in putting up with the older pastor, in doing all the chores he’s required to do, so only then it was felt that he could serve. Timothy was with Paul for some time and then he had his own charge, and Paul gives all kinds of instructions to him when he’s on his own. Well, for the offices or functions in the church that we call lay offices, the requirements have been minimal in our time, and for the most part, in this century.

I’ve told this story before, but I think it bears repeating. One of the most remarkable women I have ever met, if not the most remarkable, is Donaldina Cameron, who migrated to this country with her parents as a slip of a girl, and became a missionary in San Francisco, in Chinatown, and was responsible for the rescue of the Chinese slave girls that were brought here by the boat load and sold to the houses of prostitution. After two years, they were so heavily worked that they were diseased and haggard. They were walled into a little shell{?} with a bowl of rice and left there to starve to death after that, and then dumped into the Bay, and Donaldina Cameron began to rescue these girls, single-handedly, a most amazing story. Those were the days of the Tong Hatchet men, and it was only her sheer moral force that so startled some of these characters that enabled her to get away with what she did. Subsequently, she was joined by another remarkable person, whom I had the privilege of meeting just once, an Irish cop. A giant of a man, and totally fearless, who thought the world of this little Presbyterian woman. He was a devout Catholic, and she was a devout Calvinist, and there was never a better team in the world, and together, they smashed that white slave trade. Well, it’s easy for me to go on about Donaldina Cameron, but she told me once about her name, Donaldina. She was named after her grandfather, Donald Cameron, who was in important Cameron, and a very devout Calvinist, and he did not accept an eldership, although it was offered to him when all his children were apparently such outstanding people. He wanted the test to come in the grandchildren, and when it was apparent the grandchildren, in their teens, were such outstanding people, then he accepted the eldership, and went up there with tears and trembling hands to serve his first communion, and the whole clan Cameron was there that day to honor Donald Cameron. Well, that’s the way it once was. It was a very important matter, and the elders had important community functions. They were important people, and when old Donald Cameron spoke his mind in the community to civil authorities they listened, because he was a man with tremendous moral force. So, that’s the kind of thing that scripture has in mind. Yes?

[Audience] One point on the detail, when we consider that we are structured by millions of atoms, and many other details even below possibility of observation, the idea that God only thinks is broad strokes, I think is a mistake.

[Rushdoony] Yes. There’s nothing too great nor too small for God, and that’s the thing we must never forget. Any other questions or comments?

[Audience] Who {?} today’s application since we do not have temple worship, or are we instructed to have temple worship or to dwell on the physical, yet there is such great emphasis on the physical in the Old Testament.

[Rushdoony] We have church building, we have all kinds of things above and over the activity of the local church, and God requires the tithe. That’s His tax. The real advancement of the kingdom and the outreach is with the offerings, above and over. Today, people don’t even give the tithe and they wonder why the church isn’t accomplishing more. Why all the para-church, I don’t like the church, but all the various Christian activities outside the church are not accomplishing more. What we have seen in the past few decades is a dramatic decrease of the missionary outreach of the church. Both overseas and here. Now, before World War 2, here in California alone, there was not only the kind of work that Donaldina Cameron did, there was a Captain Dollar Home for Boys, which I have mentioned in Marin County, where a large number of homeless boys, or delinquent boys were kept, and never a one of them left that school and went astray. There was a vast realm of Christian activities that ministered to every sphere. Now we have welfarism. We have the state moving into those spheres because the church once took care of, in the earlier years, health, education, and welfare. So we have socialism, all over the world, because Christians have abandoned what was once their function, and we are plainly told by Paul, “He that doth not care for his own, especially those of his own household, hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.” So, we are told that not only have we a responsibility to care for our own family, but the Christian family everywhere. Now, I’ve seen the shift from the one to the other. The vast realm of things that Christians once did routinely, that never occurs to them now. They’ve become very stingy towards God and very generous to themselves. Well, that’s what this text is talking about, so it’s a very important text. Not even the church building is to be built with the tithe, but what is above and over the tithe. So, God says, “My kingdom depends on those of a willing heart.” Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Audience] Isn’t the {?} tax, the federal and state wage taxes, isn’t that a curse upon the people for failure to pay the tithe?

[Rushdoony] Yes. Yes. You see, in the Bible, the state is the ministry of justice, or a ministry of justice. Everything else was government by the people through their tithes and offerings. They created a whole network of things that ruled in one sphere after another, and that’s when you had freedom, because Christians took care of health, education, and welfare, almost every hospital, even in my childhood, was still a Christian hospital although there were some county hospitals coming in.

[Audience] And they’re deluded because they think that curse is a duty, right?

[Rushdoony] What?

[Audience] They would be deluded because they think that curse is a duty, that they owe. Well, it is a duty, I guess, being as it’s a curse in that respect.

[Rushdoony] Well, we have a duty to abide by God’s word, and God says, the government is upon His shoulders, that He is king of kings and Lord of Lords. What this means is that His people have to take government back from the ungodly and put it under Christ.

[Audience] {?} would be to pay tithe, that’s what you pointed out.

[Rushdoony] The fact that the early church had its own courts, in terms of 1 Corinthians 6, courts were set up, and for centuries, church courts took care of all kinds of cases; civil suits and everything, and adjudicated them, you see? Then you had freedom, but whenever Christians departed from that then they had statism.

[Audience] George Bush was the one that made the tithe mandatory, as a civil law.

[Rushdoony] Well, that. . . uh.

[Audience] Was that {?}

[Rushdoony] No, because God requires a willing heart, even with the tithe, you see? He says, “It’s my law, it’s not the churches law, it’s not the state’s law.”

[Audience] There’s a principle in law that says custom makes the law, that’s sort of like probably anti-law, according to the Bible. Although it may be a custom among law, like in Black’s law dictionary.

[Rushdoony] Well, yes?

[Audience] The church is actually a better deal, financially, when you stop to figure it out. The church requires ten percent, so if you figure on a forty hour week, that’s four hours a week you work for the church. Right now you’re working sixteen hours a week for the state.

[Rushdoony] Yes, very good point.

[Audience] What you’re saying basically is that freedom only comes about with self-government.

[Rushdoony] Exactly, very well put.

[Audience] Right, and through the church and through our tithes and offerings, and our willingness, and that socialism or larger government comes about when we’ve abandoned self-government. I’m wondering if this could be extended even on a world scene. We now have our president talking about a new world order, which frightens me a bit, in that I see kind of an end of national sovereignty. Is there even an extension that, when governments themselves are not acting responsibility, that a higher authority even above national governments comes about, and I’m just wondering if you have any comments on this new world order?

[Rushdoony] Well, it’s the ultimate form of slavery, and it’s because of the abdication by people of their responsibility, and Christians in particular. God says that judgment begins at His house, and the reason for it is very obvious. The ungodly are fallen. You cannot expect good out of evil, so God knows what they are capable of. But we are to be the salt and the light of the world. Therefore, when the world goes to hell as it is now, God says, “Alright, I know where the responsibility is, it is with Christians, those who call themselves my people. It is with the church.” So, judgment begins at the house of God. We don’t take scripture seriously enough and stop to think, “Why does He judge us first?” With good reason. We’re the only ones who can do any good in this world. If you expect it from Washington or Moscow, there’s something morally wrong with you. Any other questions? Our time is almost up. Well, if not, let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father, we thank thee for thy word and the certainty of thy word. Thou hast shown un the way. Give us the grace to walk in it. Bless us in our obedience, make us joyful in thy service, and make us willing-hearted, and wise-hearted. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape.