If you have ever been asked a question around generosity as a follower of Jesus it is likely that your response was perhaps…..frosty? Defensive? Angry? Muted? Perhaps silence is the best response?

Ok, maybe you are much holier than me, but my guess is that it isn’t likely that it was a positive response. In my experience it’s always been that way when it has come to generosity for the church – the people of Jesus.

It’s such a shame!

I have reasons why I think this is the case, which you or I don’t want to hear, but whatever those reasons are the reality is we wouldn’t respond the same to questions about any other spiritual disciplines or practices. I’m happy (or at least not unhappy) to be challenged about my fasting, prayer life or bible reading, just don’t ask me about the generosity stuff.

So often in my life, and I guess in yours, generosity has felt like something I ‘have’ to do rather than something that I ‘get’ to do. Too often I viewed teaching from the Bible on this topic to be a telling off rather than an invitation. I was so wrong. Over the years I am continuing to learn that this practise is one that is so freeing and fulfilling. When I properly search the Scriptures I can see just how important it was, and how it wasn’t something God enforced on His people, it was something He wanted them to come into.

As I was reading about Moses and the Children of Isreal today I found a part in their story where they are going to make a tabernacle, a dwelling place for God, that they would carry with them as they moved through the wilderness. In order to build such a thing they needed materials and resources – it’s not like they had a bank account with reserves that was sitting waiting to be used whenever they required it. In the book of Exodus we read this near the beginning of chapter 35.

Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the LORD has commanded: 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; Exodus 35:4-5

He goes on to list other things that were required for the construction of the tabernacle, including the skills that they would need in order to build it. The thing that grabbed me in this is that the requirement placed on them was that they had to be willing to do this. They weren’t forced, they weren’t taxed, they technically didn’t have to, but if they willing they were invited to do it.

This for me is at the core of generosity – we must be willing.

Now, this word is super interesting to me. The word that is used in the Hebrew is a word that is translated a few different ways throughout the Old Testament. It is used, like it is in Exodus 35, to mean willing or ready to do something. However it is also used to mean noble, princely, or ruler. It is even translated into the english word ‘great’ once in the book of Job and ‘royal’ in Song of Songs. The word meant more than just ‘are you up for it.’ There was a calling, an honour, a royal identity involved in this. It was a privilege not a requirement. The call that Moses gave them was something amazing, not an enforcement.

We hear that they answered the call and that many of them were willing/royal/princely/noble/great.

Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the LORD for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments Exodus 35:20-21 (NIV)

Now you might be a little cynical and think that they would have been better taking that condition off the offering because they might have collected more but read this;

Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work. Exodus 36:6-7 (NIV)

So willing were the people to answer the call to the tabernacle that they brought too much! Amazing.

I think we might need to upgrade our understanding of generosity. We need to move it from an afterthought to a forethought. We need to understand the calling that it is, the honour that it carries, what it releases in our heart, and what it opens in our life.

I’ll ask it again with our increased understanding – are we willing/noble/royal/princely/great to give generously to God?