Exodus 36:1-38 - The Lord had given skill and ability

36:1-7

The work of Bezalel, Oholiab and every skilled person is mentioned again, with emphasis on the fact that the Lord had given them the skills. 36:2 says “and who was willing”. God gives abilities to all sorts of people, but not all are willing to use them for the glory of God. In this case the people as a whole were very willing, bringing so many contributions along that the craftsmen asked Moses to stop them, they didn’t need any more. So Moses gave the command to the people, “and so the people were restrained from giving more” because they already had all they needed to do the work. Cole in his commentary talks about those who delayed giving and says they must have felt left out and regretted not giving sooner. However, there is nothing in the text to indicate this. The picture presented is one of everyone giving freely. There is often a sad state of affairs in churches that people are unwilling to give sufficiently. When the grace of God is poured out it produces a generosity of spirit within the people.

36:8-38

This is a virtual repetition of Ex 26, except for a change in tense. In Ex 26 it is about what God told the people to do. Here we have the people carrying out these instructions. So the people were carefully following the commands of the Lord. In the history of Israel there are times, such as these, when they do obey the Lord, but these times are relatively rare, and it is much more common for them to be in rebellion against the Lord.