Willing Hearts

February 16

Exodus 35-36

Psalm 22:16-21

Proverbs 5:11-14

Matthew 27:1-23

Willing Hearts

“And Moses spoke to the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, ‘This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, saying, ‘Take from among you a contribution to Yahweh; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as a contribution to Yahweh.’…..’And let everyone wise at heart among you come and make all that Yahweh has commanded.’” 

Exodus 35:4-5, 10 LSB

God could have made man as robots who blindly did what they were told and had no free will.  My granddaughter loves to put the leash on my dog Ella and pull her around the house everywhere she goes.  As you can imagine, Ella does not love that.  She wants to be with Hadley, but she likes to be able to leave and come back when she chooses.  Hadley does not understand why she doesn’t stay with her all the time doing exactly what she tells her to do.  I try to explain that if she will just let Ella free that she will come back because she loves her and that will be more fun, but if she forces her to stay in the room with her she will whine and bark.  I don’t have to keep Ella on the leash to keep her near me.  She rarely leaves my side.  When I go to another room, she is right behind me.  When I sit down, she lays beside me.  When I go to sleep she curls up beside me.  She loves me and wants to be with me.  I don’t have to force her to stay near me.  When I was talking to Hadley about this it occurred to me that God could force us to do what He says.  He could have made us like marionettes on strings that He controls with no ability to do wrong, but He didn’t want that.  He loves us and He wants us to choose to love Him.  He wants us to be in relationship with Him.  If we had no choice but to obey, there would be no relationship.   

            God wanted the children of Israel to love Him.  He could have demanded that they give everything they had to build the tabernacle.  He had rescued them out of Egypt and they owed Him their very lives.  He could have demanded that they do anything He wanted, but that wasn’t His desire.  He desired relationship.  His instruction to Moses was that whoever was willing should bring an offering to build the tabernacle and those who were skilled in different areas should make all the things for the tabernacle.   God didn’t even need them to build the tabernacle.  He could have spoken the word and it would have appeared in the wilderness in front of them.  But that wasn’t His plan.  God, in His infinite mercy and love, wants to include us in His ministry.  He made us because it pleased Him and He wants to commune with us.  He wants us to want to be with Him, to want to obey Him and to want to serve Him, not out of obligation or because we don’t have a choice, but out of love.  Willing hearts honor Him and bring Him joy.