God’s Workmen
Exodus 31:1-11
If you have been keeping up with your daily Bible reading, you should have read this passage just a few days ago.
It is easily overlooked by the details of the Tabernacle design before it and the incident with the golden calf after it.
To get the context, I think you need to go back to at least chapter 19.
In chapter 19, the children of Israel arrive at Mt. Sinai.
There they commit to follow whatever the Lord tells them to do.
God begins revealing His law in chapter 20, starting with the ten commandments.
Miscellaneous commands and regulation follow until chapter 24.
In that chapter the nation of Israel enters into a blood covenant – swearing by their very lives – that they will follow the Lord.
Moses goes back up to Sinai, and from chapter 25 to 31 the focus is on preparing for the Tabernacle.
Instructions are given to build the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Shewbread, the Golden Candlestick, the Altar of Incense, the Brazen Altar, the Brazen Laver, the Tabernacle structure, and the fence surrounding its courtyard.
Instructions are also given on the garments for the priests and the proper rituals to perform for their consecration to God’s service.
All of these are extremely detailed.
I believe there is even further instruction not recorded, and that basically Moses saw the blueprints of what was to be built.
This was not the kind of project I get myself into.
Anything I try to work on looks like I worked on it.
I was not blessed with any sort of carpentry skills whatsoever.
When you read about the various things that must be done to build the Tabernacle, it is daunting.
You needed someone who could work with animal hides for the other covering.
You needed someone to work with fabrics and embroidery for the curtains and the fence.
You needed someone who knew woodworking to build the frames that would be overlaid with metals.
Speaking of metals, you need someone who could work with gold, silver, brass – that is a copper alloy.
Those metals would be worked into sheets to plate over wood.
They would need to be molded and shaped and forged and beaten.
You needed someone who could work with jewels and precious stones.
We all know too there is a great difference between people who can do the work and those that are master craftsmen.
Anyone can wipe a brush of paint across a canvas, but not everyone is a Van Gogh or a Rembrandt.
Anyone can chisel stone into a shape, but not everyone is a Michelangelo.
The Tabernacle project did not just need someone who could do – No, it demanded craftsmen who could create a work of art worthy of God’s honor.
I kind of wonder if that was on Moses’s mind as he received all these instructions.
He was a genius himself I am convinced.
Maybe as a young man in Egypt he was trained in some of these things.
But even if he possessed them, he had no need to use such talents for over 40 years as a shepherd in Midian.
He knew he had a lot of brick makers in the nation and a lot of shepherds.
Artisans, though?
He had to be wondering how in the world he would find the people to do this great work.
Friends, rest assured that whatever God calls or commands you to do that He will supply what you need to do it.
The great missionary to China, Hudson Taylor, said it this way:
“God work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”
Maybe as I was talking about the great need for craftsmen to build the Tabernacle you were wondering where they would even get the gold and silver and so on.
The Egyptians had willingly given to them!
Exo 12:35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment:
Exo 12:36 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.
You read in history of conquering armies spoiling their defeated foes and taking all their wealth and goods.
That is exactly what happened for Israel – God conquered the Egyptians and they just handed over their wealth to the Israelites.
By the way, where did they get all that wealth?
Rewind a few hundred years when Joseph warned them about the seven years famine that was coming.
All the wealth of the region was brough to Egypt to buy food.
God had been working at this for centuries preparing for the day when they would need.
I saw one estimate that it was around 7 and a half TONS of metals – over 1 ton of gold and almost 4 tons of silver.
I did some math on it, and I think it was over $180 million dollars in gold and silver.
That is not something that slaves would have access to!
But God brought all that wealth into Egypt to get it to His people to build His Tabernacle.
If He did all that, don’t you think He knew they needed someone to work with it all?
That finally brings me to the text.
We meet two men specially prepared by God to oversee the work.
First there is Bezaleel.
Second there is Aholiab.
Who were these men?
We can piece something together about them here.
I believe they were godly men – note that it says the Bezaleel was “filled with the Spirit of God” in vs. 3.
They were gifted men – God had given them extraordinary abilities that He could work through.
They were experienced men – this type of work must have been their employment.
These are not things you pick up as a hobby if you are slave.
Like Esther, God had prepared them “for such a time as this”.
Now, I want to make a few observations and applications using their example.
I. God Knows Our Person.
Moses did not have to have tryouts or request resumes.
No, God had the right men for the job ready to go.
He tells Moses exactly who they are.
Bezaleel was the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
Aholiab was the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.
God had a need and He knew exactly who to use to fill it.
It is a humbling thought to realize that God knows us – the individual, unique us.
He knows us better than we know ourselves!
In Jeremiah 1:5 he told the young prophet: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;”
Matthew 10:30 says He knows how many hairs are on your head.
He knows our personalities, our strengths, our weaknesses.
He knows our possibilities and our potential.
Here’s the amazing part – He has a purpose for each of us.
Let me illustrate:
Someone once said they didn’t know if they enjoyed crafting or enjoyed stockpiling crafting supplies.
This is true with paint brushes.
When I get a canvas out on my easel, I have dozens of brushes that I have collected so far.
Which I use depends on a lot of things.
Am I painting with acrylics, oil paints, or watercolors? – Some types work better in certain mediums.
Am I painting a large area or a small area? – That determines the size.
Am I painting over a still wet layer or blending? – I need a softer brush.
Which brush do I use? The best one for the job at hand!
So it is with us – each of us are created for a purpose to be used for the glory of God.
II. God Knows Our Past
Sometimes we ask ourselves what we would change if we had to live our lives again.
My problem with this is that
one, we cannot do it so why waste time on it
two, if I change things, it also changes me.
Yes, there are heartaches I would love to have avoided, there are valleys I wish I could have not walked through.
But all of the experiences of life mold and shape us into who we are.
Not just the good, but the bad also.
I think about Bezaleel and Aholiab.
I am pretty sure they would rather not have grown up as slaves.
I bet they wish some of the horrible things they endured or witnessed had not taken place.
But God had worked through their experiences to prepare them for this moment.
All the hours working their craft as slaves gave them the skill and experience, they needed to oversee the Tabernacle project.
You know, God could have just spontaneously given some random purpose the talent to do what was needed, but He did not.
He did what He usually does – carefully cultivating a life and person to be an instrument He can use for His glory.
Think about Joseph.
God could have just transported him to Egypt and put a crown of authority on his head.
But God instead cultivated the man, his faith, his character, and his abilities through his service to Potiphar and his time as trustee in prison.
By the time he was elevated by Pharaoh to be second in command, he knew how to manage people and put a plan into action.
He could not have done what he did in the palace without Potiphar or the Prison.
So it is with us – God has carefully molded us through experience for our appointed tasks.
III. God knows our Potential.
God would not have called Bezaleel and Aholiab to do the work if He knew they would fail.
I doubt they had ever taken on a task such as this.
There are not many parallels in history you can find to working with so much gold and silver.
He knew who they were.
He knew how He had prepared them.
He also knew they would follow through.
There are so many mysteries in this world, and chief among them is why God uses people.
We constantly disappoint Him and fail to faithfully follow His call.
Yet He still sees a need, then He finds the right person, and He places a burden on their heart.
I’ll confess sometimes that burden is overwhelming – you cannot bear it in your own power.
But we do not have to.
God provides the strength we need.
If God calls you to a work or to meet a need, I guarantee He can use you to do it.
Whether that is a call to the ministry, a call to serve others, a call to just encourage some downtrodden soul – I do not care what it is – If God called you to do, He can do it through you.
Think about David the shepherd boy.
Samuel would have picked any one of the other brothers that day, but God knew the person, the preparation, and the potential of the one the dad did not even think to call.
1Sa 16:7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
Take courage in this!
If God wants to use you He can and will use you to amazing things for His glory.
CONCLUSION
- Be ready when God’s needs you.
- Be listening for His call.
- Be surrendered His burden.
- Be quick to act when the moment arises.
- Remember that is about God and not us.
- He is to be glorified, not us.
- God has is calling the sinner today.
- He has prepared your heart for this time and this place to hear this message.
- Do not put off responding!