Read: 1 Chronicles 29:1-13; 2 Corinthians 8:2
Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to the LORD? (1 Chron. 29:5)
Some congregations have done away with the collection of money during Sunday worship services for fear that it communicates the wrong message to visitors and seekers. The sensitivity to those seeking Jesus is a good thing, but in every worship service there ought to be some means of offering our lives to God.
In today’s reading, King David did not die until he communicated to all Israel and to his son Solomon the materials for the building of the temple. Because of all the detailed accounting he recorded in previous chapters, some have understood the writer of Chronicles as a cold administrator only interested in the building of the temple. But here we see that is not the case. The Chronicler writes that King David gave willingly and from the heart. The biblical author records a little detail: the leaders give “10,000 darics of gold” (v. 7). A daric is not from the time of King David; it was a Persian standard of money. By using this unit of measure, the Chronicler is applying King David’s generosity for his own generation living four centuries before Christ. A practical way of expressing their devotion to God was giving willingly of their wealth.
The Christians of Macedonia gave willingly too, for relief to the mother church in Jerusalem (2 Cor. 8:2). We are the third temple, the New Testament one that’s no longer a building but a people. The offering in worship services is a down-to-earth way of expressing devotion to the Lord.
As you pray, rejoice that God gives you and his people a giving heart.
About the Author
Kent Fry is a retired pastor and visiting research fellow at the Van Raalte Institute in Holland Michigan.
