Tuesday, August 23, 2016

II Chronicles 24: The Joy Of Giving

Here's something new - God's people actually looked forward to paying the temple tax and gave it joyfully!  


King Joash, in one of his finer moments (and not all of them were, by the way!), ordered Jehoida and the Levites to restore the Temple to its former glory in II Chronicles 24.  "A proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness.  All the leaders and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until it was full" (vs. 9-10).  

The people responded marvelously, so that there was more than enough funds to make the repairs.  "So those who were engaged in the work labored, and the repairing went forward at their hands, and they restored the house of God to its proper condition and strengthened it" (vs. 13).  With the extra money, they made utensils, ladles and vessels for the Temple (vs. 14).

When you give to the Lord's work, do you do so with such a joyful spirit of generosity?  Look upon your tithe or "tax" not as a dry, compulsory obligation but as a way to experience a life-giving, meaningful participation in God's kingdom!

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