An unknown guy gets a special job.

Exodus 31 is a chapter about a very special person called Bezalel. He was called by God to lead a team of artisans to build the Tabernacle so God could display His presence amongst His people. While reading this chapter about Bezalel's calling I did wonder why God would want the Israelites to build the Tabernacle and not just create one Himself? 
Bezalel by Paul Tissot

To a certain degree God did all of the ground work to bring the Tabernacle into existence anyway:
  • He planned what He wanted and spoke the detail to Moses,
  • He provided the resources and building materials via His creation,
  • He made special rare and precious materials available from the gifts that the Egyptians gave to the Israelites as they fled Egypt (Exodus 12:35-36), 
  • He provided specialist artisans to lead this task, and 
  • He provided the remaining work-force from His people.
However, he didn't just "zap" the Tabernacle into being as this would mean the relationship with His people would be one-sided and there would be no "buy-in" from them. God always seeks to work with His people and not just impose His will on them.  For example:
  • Moses was given the task of being God's messenger to Pharaoh, 
  • John the Baptist was called to prepare the way of the Messiah, and 
  • Jesus gave the task of building of the Kingdom of God to His disciples.
This spiritual collaboration is well documented throughout the Bible. Paul the Apostle describes how we are God's fellow workers in 1 Corinthians 3:5-11 and Mark records how the Lord worked with the disciples after His resurrection (Mark 16:20).

The key message here is that God wants us to collaborate with Him and experience His joy when His kingdom is extended. We are all called to participate in this but sometimes there are people who have a special calling because of the natural gifts that God has placed in them and Bezalel was one of these. 

Bezalel was called by name,

When Bezalel was called he was an unknown member of the tribe of Judah. He was the grandson of Hur who famously, with Aaron, supported Moses' arms when Israel battled the Amalekites at Rephidim (Exodus 17:8-16).  His father is simply known as Uri and, like Bezalel, nothing is known about him.

However, although unknown, it is interesting to note what God said about him and what God saw in him that others never knew. 
  • God had called him by name,
  • God had filled him with the Spirit of God,
  • God had filled him with wisdom,
  • God had filled him with understanding,
  • God had filled him with knowledge, and lastly,
  • all manner of workmanship.
If you look at these items you can see that they start with God's actions and end with the temporal skills that Bezalel had. God was making the point that what we are called to do must flow from a foundation of close relationship with Him, and not just our skills in their own right. We have a tendency to reverse the order and indulge our skills first with God further down the list.

Moses wasn't told to just go and "round up a few volunteers" to build the Tabernacle, instead God asked for the best. He knew Bezalel's heart because He knew Bezalel had diligently developed his spiritual life first. I have come to this conclusion because: 
  • Firstly, the meaning of his name. In the Old Testament a person's name often reflected their present or future character. In this case Bezalel's name means "In the shadow (or protection) of God". I can't help but think that Bezalel was a person who stayed close to God (within His shadow) all his life. 
  • Secondly, his grandfather's support of Moses (Exodus 17:8-16) indicates a family heritage of faith that encouraged a faithfulness to God. 
  • Finally, throughout the building of the Tabernacle there appears to have been no conflict amongst the artisans and no disapproval from Moses or God about the finished building, furniture or utensils. 
It is important to note that Bezalel was probably a very skilled craftsman already but God called him specifically because of who he was as well as his craftsmanship.

Bezalel's calling is an important message to us that tells us that our spiritual gifts require some effort from us to develop as Paul encouragement to Timothy about his gifts in 1 Timothy 1:6-7 and 2 Timothy 4:12-16 describe. What many of us don't understand is that God won't "magically" fulfill our calling without any input from us. For some crazy reason God gives us permission to be part of the process! God yearns to see these gifts grow and He provides all the spiritual resources possible to allow this to happen. (Philippians 1:6, 2:12-13). 
 

Bezalel was filled with the Spirit of God,

It is also very interesting that Bezalel was the first person in the Bible who was  described as being "filled with the Spirit of God". Generally, in the the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would only "come upon" someone intermittently or temporarily (Numbers 11:25, 1 Samuel 19:18-22). The only other pre-resurrection people filled with the Holy Spirit were John the Baptist (Luke 1:15), Elizabeth (John's mother Luke 1:41) and Zechariah (John's father Luke 1:67) who were all part of the preparing the way for Jesus to dwell amongst us (John 1:14)¹. John the Baptist, Elizabeth and Zechariah were Jewish believers who were preparing the way for a new covenant to be instituted. This new covenant would result in God's Spirit permanently dwelling in the hearts of all believers  (John 7:38-39, John 14:16-17) because Jesus was glorified and the Spirit was sent. 

So why was Bezalel filled with the Spirit?  The answer is that the Tabernacle was the first symbolic dwelling that God used to manifest His presence amongst His people and the Lord was making a clear statement that God's dwelling place can only be built by the Holy Spirit even though He uses the minds and fingers of His children to help Him do so! 

It is surprising that the instructions God gave to Moses included items that had no dimensions (for example the Bronze Laver Exodus 30:17-19). Yet we know that Bezalel constructed it as stated in Exodus 38:8 and it was set up for priestly service without issue. Subsequently the presence of God filled the Tabernacle and Moses was unable to enter it (Exodus 40:30-35). Did Bezalel just make it up the missing detail? I don't think so, as the Holy Spirit dwelling within Bezalel would have helped him build something that was pleasing to God. Jesus told the disciples in John 14:26 a similar thing when He was explaining about the role of the Holy Spirit who would come after He had ascended to the Father:

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."

Bezalel was filled with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge,

Although we know very little of went on in Bezalel's life when the Spirit filled him God indicated he was also filled with wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. These three attributes are part of God's character and become manifest because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 12:7-10 for detail on the spiritual gifts especially the gifts of words of wisdom and knowledge). Throughout the Bible these three "go hand-in-hand", for example in Colossians 1:9:

"For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding",  

and in Proverbs 9:10:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."

But what is the nature of the relationship between these three things? They are closely related but are individually distinct items in their own right and form a continuum starting with knowledge and ending with wisdom. 

Firstly, knowledge is the accumulation of facts and how we become familiar with these facts. As we go through life we gather millions of facts and we learn to distinguish what are truthful or correct facts and what aren't. Secondly, we gain understanding when we can correctly organize and order associated facts and learned truths. Finally wisdom is being able to practically apply correct knowledge and understanding. Knowing what what to do, when to do it and with who to do it is wisdom.² 

God said He had filled Bezalel with these attributes but at the same time Bezalel still had to do gather knowledge, learn to understand and in time become wise. Bezalel started with gaining knowledge of God that in turn would have enabled the Holy Spirit within him to strengthen his spiritual walk with God. This in turn would have released the supernatural aspects of his "natural" skills. 

Bezalel was filled with a spirit of workmanship.

We now come to the final "filling" and that is Bezalel's workmanship. This was listed by God last because it is the one thing that could have been an impediment to Bezalel's successful completion of what God wanted. Bezalel was most likely highly skilled already and there would have been a temptation to rely on his own skills. However Bezalel had learned to dwell in God's shadow and as such could be trusted to rely on God rather than his own strength in this task. 

So it is with us, we are all have various gifts and these are often the things that we are naturally good at but as the Psalmist says:

"Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it" (Psalm 127:1). 

We are to be good at what we do but above all this, we are called to be faithful followers of Jesus.

Notes:

¹ It is worth noting the Greek word "dwell" in John 1:14 means to "fix one's tabernacle" and just as the Lord's presence dwelt in the original Tabernacle, the Lord "tabernacled" amongst mankind while Jesus walked this earth.

² This description of knowledge, understanding and wisdom has been summarized from Agapegeek's very useful discussion of the relationships between Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom. This discussion can be viewed here: https://agapegeek.com/2010/03/27/bible-significance-of-knowledge-understanding-and-wisdom/


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