Demanded or Freely Given
Have you ever had the experience of offering to do something nice for someone who instead of thanking you, immediately began making demands regarding the gift? An offer of service might be given a hard deadline along with strict performance requirements. An invitation to a meal could lead to the necessity of inviting three or four others as well. It’s a sticky situation that increases the workload beyond what was volunteered and can tarnish the joy of the offer. It then becomes challenging for the giver to function with grace and without resentment.
While this fortunately doesn’t happen all the time, it occurs often enough to make it noteworthy when there appears to be a gift requested or received with no negative or contentious response. That happened when God told Moses to plunder the Egyptians before leaving for the Promised Land by asking for precious stones, articles of silver, gold, and the like. Most of us envision plundering as taking valuable property from others by force. But this was an audacious request that was met favorably by the Egyptians to give abundantly. It happened again in the desert when God gave the Israelites the plans for building the Tabernacle as a place to meet with Him. The design was beautiful, requiring costly materials for the tent of the Tabernacle, pure gold for overlaying the furnishings, and precious stones in gold filigree settings for priestly garments. God instructed Moses to ask the community to contribute these materials and the Israelites freely gave more than enough. There was no forced participation, and no one hoarded their wealth.
This was an early demonstration of the way God wants us to give. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 9:7, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” History is replete with examples of God’s lavishness from giving His people houses they did not build and fields they did not plant, to His ultimate gift of Jesus, His Son, as our Savior. Because man is naturally selfish, we eagerly participate in receiving but are challenged with giving. Jesus tried to teach one particularly hard concept. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.” (Matthew 5:38-40)
Now, as it was then, people find this teaching difficult and even objectionable. We have many justifiable excuses for noncompliance, ranging from the need to disavow injustice to not promoting laziness and greed. Afterall, isn’t it wrong to reward bad behavior? Yet, to do any of that is taking matters into our own hands according to our human reasoning, rather allowing the Lord to be God Almighty in the moment. Jesus was trying to teach the power of sacrifice as the greatest gift; what He ultimately modeled for the salvation of the world. On a much lesser scale, we have the opportunity to die to our flesh (selfish) nature so that the unexpected kindness extended to others can prick a hard heart. But it does require giving up our “rights,” something no one wants to do these days. Even as the Egyptians gave costly objects so that the Israelites had something to give to God, God is the One Who gives us “rights” we haven’t earned or deserve. So, when He asks that we give those away, why are we so resistant? Jesus said, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:25)
This is a level of obedience beyond what most of us feel we can do. It requires total trust and dependency on our Savior that is so unshakable that we would not be moved by threats to life, well-being, or property. Thankfully, God does not despise small beginnings. Perhaps I can start by changing my attitude the next time a person makes a demand for a gift that goes beyond what I was prepared to give.