Torah Portion: Exodus 25:1-27:19

Terumah ('Offering')

The Lord asked Moses to ask the Children of Israel to make an offering, contributing towards the building of the Tabernacle in the wilderness where He would meet with His people. The word used for this offering was terumah, which derives from two separate roots that mean 'separate' and 'elevate'. The people were required to separate their most precious treasures and lift them up to the Lord as an offering, something that required great sacrifice on their part, particularly when they had so recently fled from Egypt.

Once given to God, these gifts belonged to the Lord and became holy for His use. Such sacrifices, given with a whole heart as prompted by Him, would certainly bring those who gave into closer relationship with the Lord.

Skills and Talents

The Children of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for many generations, working under the ruthless authority of Pharaoh, building store cities and being forced into all kinds of work in the fields.

Somehow, skilled craftsmen such as Bezalel and Oholiab had grown up in the midst of such constraint and oppression. They now had the opportunity to employ their talents in the construction of the Tabernacle. They could work together with precision: measuring, calculating, hammering, sewing, treating animal hides and many other tasks. They were able to offer their labours, as well as their treasures, to the Lord for His house.

Purposeful Design

Three times in the passage, Moses is urged to make everything exactly according to the pattern the Lord would give him. God's holy house was to be of simple design but exact content and construction.

He did not require lavish external generosity or exaggerated pomp and show. This was to be a small structure - small enough to be packed up and carried in the scorching sun and wild winds of the desert days and nights, as far as the pillar of cloud and fire would lead them. It would be covered up to protect it from the eyes of men and the extremes of the weather and carried in the midst of the people as they travelled.

The work of the Lord was set apart and hidden from the rest of the world. He required His beloved people to come to Him in the secret place, in the place of the dry and barren wilderness, to find His strange work - His peculiar path, leading them to Himself alone. With Him as their sovereign Lord and King, they would go into the land of promise and find the fullness of life and joy He had planned for them.

And so, shall not we who have taken Him to be our Saviour and Lord through His suffering on the Cross on our behalf, and who walk with Him through the days and nights as He leads, shall not we be a part of His preparations for His coming Kingdom, of which the Tabernacle in the wilderness was a shadow of the wonderful reality yet to come?

Will we, like Bezalel and Oholiab and all who gave their terumah to the Lord, not give Him our very best as we also receive the very best that He has for us?

Author: Sally Denton