Photo: Clint Fisher

See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.

God is highly interested in your talent, not only is He interested, He has sanctioned it. By sanctioned, I mean He has commissioned you, endorsed and given you power and everything you need to prosper in your work.

As we read in the introductory text which was taken from the book of Exodus [Chapter 31, verse 2], God has a specific plan - create a Tabernacle - and He chose some specific people, here Bezalel is first referenced, to carry that plan out.

The plan of the Tabernacle and the ceremonies associated with it, are explained with intricate and precise detail ¹. God was extremely thorough with Moses and revealed tremendous things both great and small about Himself and His plans.

What that practically means to you and I as artists and children of God, is that once we carry out our intentions of creating our work, we need to have a great expectation of direction and guidance from the Lord.

In order to do this, we have to put a couple of things into perspective. First, we are not Moses, and yes Moses had the privilege of experiencing a face to face relationship with God that has only been surpassed in intimacy by the relationship of Jesus and his Father.

However, even though you and I aren't Moses, that has absolutely NO bearing on how God relates to and communicates with us.

Bezalel & Oholiab

Case in point, we can look to the example of Bezalel, and before we go too far let's look at who else the Lord has sanctioned for this project:

Exodus 31:6:

God really is making it clear to Moses that HE is the one ordaining this and is choosing another artist by the name of Oholiab to help Bezalel. There is so much to be said about the immense comfort it brings to us if we recognize the fact that we as artists are chosen and that with this choosing, comes all the help we need to carry out our work.

Bezalel and Oholiab with their talents.

Illustration: Clint Fisher

David reminds us of this help when he says in Psalm 33:20:

In Hebrew that is translated as "Jehovah Ezer" (The Lord my Help).

This is comforting, especially in those times when the work we have to do can seem overwhelming. I can't imagine what was running through Bezalel and Oholiab's minds as they thought about the task of building a Tabernacle for the God of all creation. Yet, we can speculate from an artist's perspective, I'm sure they both wanted their work to be awe-inspiring and the absolute best quality they could possibly create.

In addition, I would propose that while these two artists were of the most talented, the task before them of visually representing God's presence on the earth was way beyond their abilities and skill level.

As Moses proclaimed to God "Who am I?"² when God called him, I can hear Bezalel and Oholiab saying something along the lines of "Who are we?". God's response to Moses was "I will be with you"³, and as we see in our example of Bezalel and Oholiab, God was with each of them as well.

The Holy Spirit

While we are on the subjects of "creating", "help" and "comfort" let's remind ourselves of where these come from.

Creating

Exodus 31:3-5
"And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of worksmanship."

Psalm 140:30
"When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth."

Genesis 1:2
"Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

Job 33:4
"The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life."

Comfort & Help

John 15:26
"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

John 14:16
"And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever."

These are just a few scriptures referencing the Holy Spirit as the Creator, Comforter and Helper, truly, a lifetime could be spent in the study of the Holy Spirit.

What is important to grasp here is to know that every time you and I set out to create, we have the Creator helping us, giving us all the Comfort and Help we need, when we need it.

Alright, let's get back to creating this Tabernacle.

If we examine our text in the New Living Translation we see this:

Exodus 31: 1-5:

I love this translation, it's almost funny in how much God is endorsing Bezalel here for Moses. Why is God doing that? Well, God can so heavily endorse Bezalel's talents because they came from Him!

Notice the passage doesn't begin with a list of Bezalel's talents and qualifications, it begins "I have chosen... and I have filled him with the Spirit of God..."

Remember this the next time you are lacking in confidence, as long as you are focused on God's work He is guaranteeing to do it with you and thru you.

The other reason I believe that God is so heavily endorsing Bezalel is to simply comfort and reassure Moses that all is in good hands. As a leader, that gives Moses one less thing to be overly concerned about and to try to "manage" himself. We all know Moses' history of trying to handle everything himself. ⁴

If we continue on with our example text, we'll see something else revealed that aids in completing the picture.

Exodus 31:6:

Hey Bezalel and Oholiab, you need some more help? God knew the scope of this project and the amount of work that it was going to take to complete it and He also knew that Bezalel and Oholiab couldn't do it alone.

Again, we see here that the other artists were "gifted" because God gave them "special skill". The gift always precedes the talent.

Now, there's one key thing missing in this project and we have to go back to the mountain with Moses to find it.

Exodus 25:1-8:

The list includes things like precious metals, fabrics and skins, stones and wood.

In verse 8 we read:

Well, this answers the questions of "What are we going to build this all with" and "Where are we going to get it?" Which were probably questions that Bezalel and Oholiab had running through their minds.

Additional artists and the people play their part.

Illustration: Clint Fisher

And if you think about it, you can see how God had planned this much earlier as the supply of offerings came from all of the bounty they carried with them out of Egypt.

The people equipped the builders to build because they were first equipped by God with what was needed.

We also see God again comforting and informing Moses that there was a detailed plan coming up for him to follow.

One other key to the above text is that God wanted people with giving hearts and generosity to be the ones who contributed in the building of His Tabernacle.

God was not only focused on the quality of the materials and the execution of the work, but He's focused on the quality of the hearts of His people.

This is just one example of an artistic project that we find in the Bible, a great companion study can be made in the construction of the Temple, which started in David's heart and then was carried to fruition by artists and God's people thru David's son Solomon.

Yeah, but...

I can hear some of you speculating about your own work in comparison to Tabernacles and Temples.

Just as we looked at our relational position with God as compared to Moses, we need to look at our work in this same manner. True, you and I are not building the original Tabernacle or the Temple of God.

But, remember how God called Bezalel and Oholiab by name in conjunction with their talents?

God knows your name as well. God knows the talents He has given you. God has plans for you and for those talents.

He has called you, He has commissioned you and He is confident in you and your abilities, because they aren't yours, they're His and it's His good pleasure and His good heart to offer them to you to build His desires, and where His vision is, His provision follows.