So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing. The craftsmen leave the work to deal with the abundance of materials being brought. The interruption of the work by the excess of giving is one of the most remarkable problems in the Old Testament. The craftsmen who were working have to stop to go tell Moses that the community needs to stop giving. The work is interrupted not by scarcity — the normal threat to construction — but by abundance. The reversal of the usual problem is the mark of a community moved by God to give beyond calculation.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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