Exodus 38 Devotional

Every Gift Counted

Bezalel builds the bronze altar and then the bronze basin, made from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting (38:8). Then the chapter takes inventory. The Levites, under Ithamar, record the gold from the offerings, the silver, and the bronze (38:21-31). The silver came from the half shekel paid by every man counted in the census, 603,550 of them, and it was cast into the bases on which the sanctuary and its veil stood (38:25-27).

The gifts were not lost in the total. A woman's mirror became part of the basin. A man's half shekel became part of a silver base. God's house literally stood on the gifts of ordinary people, and the record kept track of them. Hebrews tells believers that God is too just to forget their work and the love they have shown for his name by serving his people (Hebrews 6:10). Whatever you give or do for him, even the small and unseen, is neither wasted nor overlooked.

To think about: What small or unseen work have you been doing for God that you fear goes unnoticed?