The weekly offering.
cf. 1 Corinthians 16:2; 1 Timothy 5:17, 1 Timothy 5:18. Along with the everlasting light from the golden candlestick, there was to be in the holy place a presentation of bread, which was made on the sabbath and lay before the Lord on the prescribed table all the week, becoming the property and support of the priests when they brought the fresh loaves on the succeeding sabbath. The loaves were to be twelve in number, to correspond to the tribes of Israel; they were arranged in two piles, upon the top of which there was placed a little incense, which was duly fired and thus ascended to heaven. The incense sanctified the offering. Now this "bread of the face," as it was called, bread intended for the Divine presence, was the dedication on the part of the people of the staple of life, first to God, and secondly to the support of his priests. As previously observed, it was the perpetual meat offering. Here it is interesting to notice it as a "weekly offering" prescribed in the Old Testament economy. What Paul urges on the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 16:2), "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come," is the exact counterpart of the shewbread. The Lord's day is to be the time for a weekly offering for the support of his cause.
I. WE ARE SURELY TAUGHT HERE HOW SYSTEMATIC OUR OFFERINGS SHOULD BE. There should be a regularity about them like the return of the holy day. It is only when this periodicity characterizes them that the Lord's cause is likely to be properly supported. A weekly offering is much more likely to be successful than a monthly, or quarterly, or annual offering. Liberality is to be a weekly exercise, like the ordinances of our holy religion.
II. OUR OFFERINGS SHOULD BE SANCTIFIED BY THE INCENSE OF PRAYER. This is only to say that liberality should be a religious act, part of our religious service. Then are we likely to be conscientious in discharging our obligations, when we carry our gifts into the presence of God. As Jesus stood over against the treasury in the temple, and saw the extraordinary liberality connected with the widow's two mites, so is he watching our offerings at his shrine, noticing whether they are generous and cheerful or given with a Nudge, observing whether they are perfumed with incense or rendered obnoxious by worldliness and ostentation. It will tend to purify our liberality to envelop it in prayer.
III. GOD'S OFFICERS SHOULD BE REGARDED AS RECEIVING THEIR SUPPORT FROM HIS TABLE. That is to say, they are to be regarded as receiving their support from God, not directly from the people. It is this element of sanctity in the service of liberality which saves the dignity of the Lord's officers, and prevents them from being beggarly dependents upon the people. Conscientious people lay their offerings before God, and then God's officers receive their portion as from their Master in heaven. "And it shall be Aaron's and his sons';" and they shall eat it in the holy place.
IV. THE WEEKLY OFFERING SHOULD BE THE OUTCOME OF AN EVERLASTING ENGAGEMENT WITH GOD. "Every sabbath (the priest) shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant." That is, liberality is to be no spasmodic outburst, but a steady outcome of an engagement that is perpetual. God has laid his people under such obligation by his rich provision in the gospel, that we feel we can never adequately discharge it. Hence week by week our offerings are laid upon his altar, and we recognize the arrangement as a lasting one.
Amid all the changes of times and of Churches, here have we sound principles of Church finance. It is to the religious spirit of the people we must ultimately commit the interests of God's cause. When they bring regularly, prayerfully, perpetually, and at the same time realize that the Church officers are God's servants and depend upon God's altar, then is there no fear of any failure. God will stand between his servants and his people, and secure the interests of both.—R.M.E.
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD