CRAFTSMEN FOR GOD
Sunday October 2, 2011
30 Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the LORD has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts— 32 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 33 to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic craftsmanship. 34 And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. 35 He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as craftsmen, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them master craftsmen and designers. – Exodus 35:30-35 (NIV)
One of the greatest blessings God has given to mankind is the ability to be creative. I say that in the sense of working with your hands to fix something, build something, assemble something, paint something or draw something. We might think of art only in terms of the “fine arts” like painting, sculpting, pottery and the like. But I believe that every craft is an art form. Cooking is an art, music is an art, rebuilding an engine is an art, decorating a room is an art and landscaping is an art.
I have had three daughters and a son that have been art majors in college. They talk about working with different mediums, that is different materials to do their art whether it be painting, sculpture, working with wood, metal or fabric. They get a lot of satisfaction out of being artistic and creative. I believe that is truly a gift and reflects the creative nature of our God.
Many of you may enjoy working with crafts, painting, writing, making greeting cards or working with computer graphics. Others enjoy music, either playing an instrument, singing or just listening to music. For others, cooking is an art and they are very good at it. For still others, mechanics is their art, taking apart an engine, fixing things around the house, solving an electrical problem, a plumbing problem or a construction problem.
There is something satisfying and self-affirming about working with your hands and being creative. The Bible says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom” – Ecclesiastes 9:10 (NIV). I have a sister who loves to work in her flower garden. She and her husband have raised award winning hostas. She said she is never more at peace with herself than when her hands are in the dirt!
My father was very good at working with metal. He worked with metal most of his life, from ship building in Sturgeon Bay during WWII to building cranes for Northwest Engineering in Green Bay. He always said he wasn’t much of a carpenter but give him anything with metal and he’ll do something with it. I still have a pair of garden sheers that he made. He also did a lot of small engine repairs. He was the “go to” guy in the neighborhood for fixing lawn mowers, snow blowers and outboards. He often had a big rusty old barrel in the back yard that he would fill with water to test out the outboard motors he was working on.
The plans of God usually follow a creative process. God always has a plan and a purpose for what He does. He doesn’t do things haphazardly, He doesn’t “wing it,” but always has a plan. He also involves us in the creative process. He uses people to do His work, not in their own strength or ability but in the strength and ability that He has given.
When God commanded the Israelites to build a tabernacle in the wilderness He had someone prepared to lead the construction. Moses wasn’t a construction man he was a shepherd. He knew what to do with sheep but he didn’t know what to do with wood, stone and fabric. He was also a prophet, called of God to lead when he was 80 years old to lead Israel out of bondage in Egypt, through the wilderness and to the Promised Land. Aaron was called to be a priest, to offer sacrifices on behalf of the people. And Joshua was a military man who would stand guard and lead Israel into battle. So who would lead the way with the construction of the tabernacle?
God had prepared a man who would be a gifted architect, a craftsman and artisan to spearhead the effort. His name isn’t exactly a household name but if you have any interest in art, in construction or crafts and you are a Christian, you should know the name of Bezalel (pronounced Bets–al–ale). Bezalel was the son of Uri, who was the son of Hur and was from the tribe of Judah, a very significant and influential tribe. His father Hur was a leader in his tribe. One time when Israel had a battle with the Amalekites, Moses sat up on a hill and held up his hands. As long as he held up his hands, the Israelites were winning the battle. When they got tired and he dropped them, the Israelites would begin to lose. So two men, Joshua and Hur held up his hands so Israel would prevail in the battle (Exodus 17:8-13). Bezalel was Hur’s son.
Bezalel’s name means “In the shadow of God.” Psalm 91:1 says, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (KJV). God is a shelter to His people and protects them in times of danger. Bezalel’s name was appropriate for his task as he was literally building a shelter for God. There is actually a school of art in Jerusalem, founded in 1906, named the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. It was established by Jewish craftsmen and is a state-supported institution that teaches a wide variety of Middle Eastern art. There is also a Bezalel Church in Atlanta, GA that advertises themselves as “a church with a passion for the arts.” They “strive to worship and serve God, the Master Artist.” Then there is a construction company in Tucson, AZ called Bezalel Builders that builds custom homes. So the name of Bezalel has been recognized and used as a name that is associated with art, creativity and construction.
Bezalel had some very unique qualifications. First of all, he was filled with the Spirit of God. In the Old Testament, being filled with the Spirit was usually reserved for prophets, judges, priests and kings. The promise that God would pour out His Spirit on all flesh was still in the distant future and would be a part of the church age (Joel 2:28). But here we have a man who is not a prophet, not a priest, not a judge and not a king, being filled with the Spirit of God. That had to mean that this was a very special project, not just a material project but a spiritual project. It had been commanded by God Himself. The specifications had been given by God Himself to Moses when he was alone with God on Mt. Sinai. But it would be Bezalel who would lead the actual construction. The tabernacle was a critical step in the nation’s relationship with God, therefore, it was essential that the man spearheading the work of constructing the tabernacle be a spiritual man as well as a technically gifted individual, filled with the Spirit of God.
Spiritual qualifications will always take precedence over gifts and talents when it comes to the work of God. In the early church they had a food pantry (Acts 6:1). The twelve apostles wanted to give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word (v.4) so a group of seven men were chosen to oversee the daily distribution of food (v.2). The apostles told the church to choose these seven men from among themselves and the qualifications would not be administrative skill, 9 years of experience in the fast food industry or manager of a family restaurant. The main qualification was that they would be men “known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom” (v.3). The spiritual qualifications took precedence over any gifts, talents and abilities they had.
Along with being filled with the Spirit of God, Bezalel was very gifted “with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts.” He could make artistic designs using gold, silver and bronze. He worked with stones, probably gem stones here not masonry stones as this was a portable structure and he was a carpenter, able to work with wood. This guy was a regular renaissance man, a regular Leonardo Da Vinci or Michaelangelo! Da Vinci was well known for being multi-talented. He is best known for being an artist with his paintings the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, but he was also an architect, a scientist, an inventor, a botanist, a mathematician, an engineer and a musician, among other things! While much of his talent seemed inborn, he did spend some years honing his skills as an apprentice in the studio of another multi-talented man named Verochhio.
Bezalel was well equipped to do what God wanted in the construction of the tabernacle . But he didn’t go to “craft school” to get these skills or serve as an apprentice to some other gifted individual like Da Vinci. God gave him these gifts and abilities. ie. they were supernaturally endowed upon him. God was essentially building the tabernacle through him! I believe that God gave Da Vinci and other talented figures like him their abilities too, whether they recognized it or not. But Bezalel’s seem to be a direct result of him being filled with the Spirit and being chosen for the work of constructing the tabernacle.
Some may have more gifts than others but that doesn’t make them any more valuable than those with less. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”-James 1:17 (NIV). God is the source of all gifts, including those we do with our hands. It’s what you do with what you have that counts and how much you use it for the Lord that counts.
It is also how much of a team player you are willing to be in terms of working with others on a project. God gives gifts not just for ourselves to enjoy but for the common good. Bezalel didn’t do the whole project himself, it would take other craftsmen as well as the contributions of the whole nation to bring it all together. Bezalel had an assistant by the name of Oholiab of the tribe of Dan, who had similar skills and would help him teach others. There was also a group of “skilled women” that spun fabric for the tabernacle (35:25-26). They would use blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linens. These no doubt were used for the tent itself as well as for the garments for the priests who would minister in the tabernacle.
There also had to be a frame for the tent constructed and poles to carry the various furnishings of the temple like the Ark of the Covenant, the table of the showbread, the sacrificial altar, the lamp stand and the laver for washing. Together they would lead a team of construction workers who would do the variety of work called for to build the tabernacle. They would work together and follow all the specifications God had laid out for them.
Bezalel was well suited to oversee the project of building the tabernacle, do some of the work himself and teach others how to do it. God had his man for the tabernacle just like he had his man to lead Israel in Moses, his man for the priesthood in Aaron and his man to lead the army in Joshua. There would be others, many others who would help but he was the one called of God to lead the way and train others to do the work.
What they were building would have a huge impact on the culture and life of Israel. It would shape their spiritual life and determine their destiny. It’s not that God can be confined to a single place or building, God is omnipresent and eternal. His ultimate home is in heaven. But He was separated from the world He created because of sin. That is why He set in motion a plan of redemption. Part of that plan of redemption was to call out a special people whom He could dwell among. In a worldly sense, God was homeless. Yes, that’s right, God was homeless.
His plan would ultimately make it possible for Him dwell in a human body whose name was Jesus: “The Word became flesh and dwelt (lit. tabernacled) among us” – John 1:14. But even then, at least in the days of his public ministry, he would be homeless (“The foxes have holes but the Son of Man doesn’t have place to lay his head”). His plan of redemption called for Him to dwell within our hearts, we ourselves would become tabernacles of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16). But before that could happen, He called for a dwelling place among His covenant people Israel and that dwelling place would first be the tabernacle in the wilderness, a portable place of worship, and later the temple in Jerusalem. God had the design for this structure but He wanted His people to build it for Him and it would take the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, skill and creativity to make it happen.
You might wonder where these former poor slaves got all this material to use for the construction of the tabernacle. One place they got it was when they left Egypt. They did not leave empty handed. God instructed them to ask the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. “The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians” – (Exodus 12:33-36). Another place was probably in a battle with the Amalekites (Ex. 17:8-16). Israel won the battle and the victors of war usually got the spoils of war. So we could probably say that the Egyptians and the Amalekites made healthy contributions to the building of the tabernacle! When God commands for a work to be done He also provides for that work to be done.
The creativity it took to construct the tabernacle showed that God is and always has been a creative God. It is most unfortunate that art, design and construction has often been used against God instead of for God. The Tower of Babel and the golden calf are but just a couple examples of that. That is why the first of the Ten Commandments deals with a prohibition against making any graven image and having any gods before the one true God:
“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God…” – Exodus 20:3-5 (NIV).
Man is notorious for worshiping the work of his own hands. That is what usually happens when he gets out of touch with the one true God. God created us with a capacity for worship. When we refuse to worship our Creator we are bound to worship something else and that something is usually something else created, whether it is other people, things or sometimes even the work of our own hands.
The unfortunate result of that is that sometimes in the church, we have thrown the baby out with the bath water. We have become suspicious of any artistic expression for fear that it might be worshiping the work of our own hands or might be used to express something immoral. Some artists over the years seem to have been preoccupied with nudity and themes that may be offensive to our Christian sensibilities. One of the most famous painters in the world was Pablo Piccasso. Though uniquely gifted, much of his art would be offensive to a lot of believers.
We see a lot of immoral themes promoted in not only paintings & sculpture but in drama, whether it be the theater, films or television. Because the message is offensive, we often associate the offense with the media itself. Music, for example is just music. It can be used to express an offensive message or a positive, uplifting message or a profound spiritual truth. It is not the medium that is evil, clay used for pottery isn’t evil, oil paints aren’t evil, and celluloid film isn’t evil. It is no more evil than stone, metal or wood. It is what we do with it, sometimes, that is evil. But if we use it against God, can’t we also reclaim it for God?
Creativity must be something special if the devil has seized it as an opportunity to dishonor God instead of honor Him. It must be a reflection of the Creator Himself whom the devil despises and is constantly warring against. He is sort of like a bully who sees a boy building a nice sandcastle. He not only puts a lot of work into it but it shows some real imagination and creativity. The bully is jealous and he is just plain mean. He goes over to the nice sandcastle and kicks it down and laughs. But God will have the last laugh. His plan and purpose will prevail. His creativity will be evident to all and in the end He will be glorified.
In the end it is we who are His materpiece. We His people are the ones through whom He will be glorified. Bob Kilpatrick said, “We are not so much a problem to be solved as we are a masterpiece to be finished.” God is a creative God and He is doing His best work in us. He is also using us to do His work in this world with whatever gifts, talents and resources He has provided.
