Marbim Ha'am Le'havi

In this weeks parsha, in Perek lamed vav, passuk hey, Moshe says "Marbim Ha'am Le'havi." Bnei Yisrael are bringing to many donations to the Mishkan. A message was then sent out to everyone to tell them to stop bringing Trumah.
At first glance this seems to be a strange little episode. Even if there was more donations than were actually needed, why make such a big deal about it and tell people to stop bringing. Why couldn't they just store the extras and appreciate the enthusiasism that Bnei Yisrael had for this mitzva.
Imagine if today a tzedakah organization put out an announcement that they have recieved enough money, and they are no longer accepting donations. Its hard to imagine, not only because the needs of these organizations are endless, but because making such a statement would be foolish. In the future people would be less likely to donate to them, as it seems like they don't want or need the help of their donors. If you want to help someone, and they say "stop, I don't need you I have enough help," it might discourage you from offering again.
On a superficial level, it seems that Moshe did exactly this.
I think that examining a Ramban at the begining of Sefer Beraishis will help us understand what was really going on in our parsha.
Many people are probably familiar with the first Rashi in the Torah, and Ramban's questions on this Rashi. Rashi quotes for us Rabbi Yitchak, who says that the Torah really should have started from Hachodesh Hazeh Lachem, the mitzvah of sanctifying the new moon, for this is the first Mitzva in the Torah. The reason that the Torah starts with the history of the world is so that we will have what to say to the nations when they claim Eretz Yisrael is not ours.
The Ramban finds Rashi's question to be somewhat lacking, as it makes perfect sense to start the Torah with the creation of the world and all that followed. The ideas and stories in Sefer Beraishis and the begining of Shemos are all fundamental parts of Judaism, how could it be that the only reason all of it was written is to give us proof that Eretz Yisrael belongs to us.
Rav Chaim Freidlander, in the Sifsei Chaim, explains that Rashi's question is not how we understood it to be at first glance. Rashi is asking why the Torah did not start with the first mitzva of Kiddush Hachodesh, and then backtrack and tell us the history of the world. Rashi does not think that all of Sefer Berashis is unecisary! The Torah does not need to be in chronological order, so why not start with the first mitzva?
In order to appreciate the strength of this question we must truely understand the significance of recieving the first mitzva. The whole world was created for no other reason than for Torah and Mitzvos. The Sifsei Chayim explains that the giving of the first mitzva to Bnei Yisrael changed the way the entire world was run. Beforehand, the world was run purely by Hashgachat Hashem, independent of the deeds of Bnei Yisrael. Hashem chose Avraham and the the Jewish people to be the Am Segulah, they did not have any zechuyot to merit this. Once they were given the first mitzva of HaChodesh Hazeh Lachem, the world began to run on a completly new path. Now the Hashgacha of Hashem is dependent on our actions. It's the deeds of Bnei Yisrael that determine how Hashem will run the world.
What Mitzva is more appropriate to change the world this way than Kiddush HaChodesh. This mitzva epitomizes how Hashem puts matters into the hands of man, and it is they who determine how everything will be. It is man, and not G-d who proclaims the new month, thus determining when all the holidays will be.
We can now understand Rashi's question on a greater level. Of course the Torah should start out by telling us the ideal way for Hashgacha to be in this world.
So why does the Torah start by telling us that Hashem created the world, and ran it independent of our deeds?
The Gemara in Shabbos tells us that when we are being mehader a mitzva we can not spend more than an extra third to make it beautiful.
The Maharal explains the reason for this limit. Mitzvos involve taking something physical, like an esrog and making it a spiritual object through using it for a mitzva. When we spend more than an extra third on making it beautiful, the pysical aspect of the mitzva starts to become the ikar, the main part of the mitzva, and the spiritual aspect becomes secondary. The mitzva becomes more about us than Hashem.
This is what began to happen in the Mishkan. Bnei Yisrael were so excited and so generous in their donations that they began to loose sight of why they were donating. Giving Trumah to the Mishkan must be done with the proper intentions and awareness of the significance of this Mitzva. Moshe did not want people donating without feeling an awe at the importance of this act.
Thats why he told them to stop coming. The Mishkan should not be built from materials donated without thinking or without pure intentions.
The reason that the Torah starts with the story of Berashis is to remind us that despite our ability to do mitzvos and influence the way the world is run, Hashem is the sole power behind everything, and we cannot loose sight of that! Doing mitzvos is about doing what Hashem wants, not for any other reason.
The two practical lessons that I think we can learn from that are
1. Our actions have a real effect on our own personal hashgacha's as well as hashgacha for the klall.
2. We must never loose sight of why we do mitzvos and why we are mehader in mitzvos.