24 February

The theme of multiplication runs throughout the Bible. What cannot be achieved by addition, God does by multiplication. We reap what we sow, only many times more. What we give to the Lord, he multiplies. 

Wherever God blesses, troubles and persecutions tend also to increase. Any kind of leadership will involve opposition. The greater the responsibility, the more your troubles will multiply and your critics increase.

David prays to the Lord for his help in guarding and rescuing him (v.20). When under attack, always try to act with integrity, uprightness and faith (v.21). Do the right thing regardless of what people say or think.

The people of God faced a massive task in the building of the tabernacle. They achieved it through a multiplication of involvement of volunteers. Moses assembled ‘the entire congregation’ (35:1, MSG). This is what is needed in every church today:

• Everyone praying
  We saw in yesterday’s passage how everybody united in prayer and worship, ‘they all stood and worshipped’ (33:10). The Sabbath was not just a day of rest, it was a ‘holy day’ of ‘rest to the Lord’ (35:2). It was a day when people could devote more time to prayer and worship. The whole community prayed.
• Everyone giving
  They took up ‘an offering for the Lord’ (v.5a). Everyone was urged to give: ‘Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver and bronze’ (v.5b).
  
  The task was not achieved by one generous donor alone. ‘And everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work… All who were willing, men and women alike’ (vv.21–22). Like Hattie May Wiatt, each one brought their ‘57 cents’.
  
  If your community is to achieve everything that God is calling you to do, you will need everyone giving – not under compulsion but willingly (2 Corinthians 8 and 9).
  
  As everyone got involved in giving, they had ‘more than enough’ (Exodus 36:5). ‘The people were ordered to stop bringing offerings! There was plenty of material for all the work to be done. Enough and more than enough’ (vv.6–7, MSG).
• Everyone serving
  Everybody got involved in serving. The words ‘everyone’ and ‘all’ appear many times in this passage. It was entirely voluntary: ‘All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the Lord has commanded’ (35:10). For example, ‘everyone who had acacia wood… brought it’ (v.24); ‘Every skilled woman spun with her hands’ (v.25)

 

All this was entirely voluntary. The people of God were ‘stirred up for God’ (35:21,26, AMP). The task was achieved by ‘everyone whose heart was roused, whose spirit was freely responsive’ (v.21, MSG). If we are to achieve what God is calling us to do as a community we need this multiplication of volunteers.

Enthusiasm is infectious. As Joyce Meyer writes, ‘If you associate with a person who is visionary, you will soon get a vision. But if you stay around lifeless people who want to do nothing but complain, sit on the couch, eat donuts, and watch soap operas, then soon you will be doing the same things.’

Stir one another up to pray, serve and give. You will be astonished by how God is able to multiply your 57 cents and do more than you could ever ask or even imagine.