Here’s the challenge: try to outgive God. In this you will always find yourself a happy failure.
When we get away from the Lord, the only thing to do is to go right back to the place we got off the track. In other words, to go forward, we need to go back. The Lord says to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke” (Ex 34:1). Once again the Lord lays out the terms of the covenant with His wayward people. Another 40 days and nights pass as Moses rendezvous with the God of the universe, and all during this time “he neither ate bread nor drank water” (v 28). Clearly he was supernaturally sustained by the Lord in this. When Moses arrived again at the base of Sinai, his face glowing with God’s glory, it was no use giving this second set of tablets to the people; they were chronic law breakers. Eventually the stones were placed in the Ark of the Testimony which, as we saw, is a picture of the Lord Jesus. Only He could perfectly keep the Law, and thus be the spotless Lamb needed for our sacrifice. Now chapter 35 shows Moses repeating the detailed instructions the Lord gave him regarding the construction of the tabernacle. Here follows one of the bright spots in the record of this generation of Israelites. When they were given the opportunity to donate materials to be used for the tabernacle, “everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the Lord’s offering for the work of the tabernacle…They came, both men and women, as many as had a willing heart” (v 21). In fact, there was such an outpouring of generous giving that the craftsmen said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for the…work” (36:5). May their tribe increase who give as God has given to us!