Be a Bezalel 

Bezalel ”The LORD said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,  and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship,  to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.” Exodus 31:1-5. 

Here’s a trivia question for you.  Approximately how many people were in the group of Jewish exiles who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years? While there is no exact figure, we can get a pretty good idea.  Moses was asked to take a census of the male population over the age of 20, who were able to go to war, and it amounted to 603,500.  Now let’s take into consideration all the older men, the whole tribe of Levi, younger men and boys, women and children, and you have a number reaching 3 million, give or take. Consider, if you will, that the population of Chicago is roughly 2.7 million, and you get a mental snapshot of the enormity of this group of sojourners. What did they do with their time besides fashioning golden calves and complaining about the food?  It appears that those activities did consume a goodly portion of the early days, but after being set straight, and having the rules written out for them in stone, twice, God set them with a big task.  Build the tabernacle!  No, not bake a pumpernickel or lance a carbuncle, although the people were kind of a festering boil sometimes, but fashion the moveable version of the Temple, where God met with his flock.  This was not merely pitching a tent in the sand, oh no!  In my reading and now rereading of the book of Exodus, I happened upon the name of Bezalel.  Normally I’d file him along with those other unpronounceable Old Testament names, and move on, I had the first time I read it. This time, however, God had me linger over this passage.  God was embarking on a gargantuan undertaking and he needed a specific person to help him accomplish it.  No, he didn’t post a want ad, or ask for sealed bids, instead he looked over all those 603,500, and Bezalel got the call.  Not only was he called, but God filled him with his Holy Spirit, with intelligence, ability and knowledge. Talk about on the job training!! We don’t know what qualifications Bezalel had in Egypt, but that doesn’t matter because God qualified him.  Here was a regular guy, sitting around bored and whittling on a dry bone, when Moses tapped him on the shoulder. I won’t bore you with the details of the construction, you can read about it in Exodus, suffice it to say it was quite an undertaking.  What I do want to emphasize is that God needed a man who could build it exactly the way He wanted it done.  Bezalel might have done it on his own, before God filled him, or he could have looked up similar projects on Pinterest, but that was not God’s way.  Moses received the blueprints, directly from God the architect, verbally explained them to Bezalel, and viola, he understood perfectly and got right to work.  The rest of the population chipped in gold, cloth, silver, gems, oil and everything that was necessary for the completion of the work.  In fact, so much stuff was donated that Bezalel had to tell them to quit bringing any more.  The Ark of the Covenant was chief among the projects, but certainly not all. Altars, lavers, drapes, priestly robes and utensils to name but a few. As I mentioned, read it for yourself, or Google images of the tabernacle. Amazing! So, what, you might ask.  That’s ancient history, doesn’t apply to us now.  Au contraire, my friends, it applies more than ever.  I think a lot of us are sitting around whittling like old Bezzie, waiting for something to happen.  He had a talent, maybe he didn’t even know it, but God saw it, called him, pumped it up and the rest is history.  What talent do you have?  You know you have one, but even if you aren’t sure, ask God. I didn’t know I could write, but He did, with His Holy Spirit’s help. Don’t just watch others on HGTV or some other creative show, apply for the job.  God is waiting to fill you with His Spirit, ability, talent and knowledge.  Oh, what we can construct for his kingdom when we work in conjunction with Him.  Let’s roll up our sleeves, and get started! Oh, by the way, there is a University in Jerusalem named after this obedient servant