The greatest works of the Kingdom of God are done by ordinary people who have yielded themselves to an extraordinary God. Bezaleel is mentioned by name six times in the Pentateuch. God points him out to Moses and describes him this way:
Exodus 31:2-5
(2) See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah:
(3) And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
(4) To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
(5) And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.
Alongside him, God also mentions Aholiab and singles the pair out as leaders amongst those whom God had put “wisdom that they might make all that I have commanded thee” (Exodus 31:6). If we could have met and talked with either of them and asked them to describe themselves, they would probably have said they were just a couple of ordinary people. Yes, they had excellent abilities but they knew those abilities came to them from God.
Slaves in Egypt
In all likelihood, these men learned their trade while they were slaves in Egypt. Certainly, their God-given talents stood out even then and the Egyptians likely employed them in specialized work because they were gifted craftsmen. Now God was calling them to their greatest work ever: the construction of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. Because they yielded their abilities to God, God magnified their abilities.
A Little Lower Than the Angels
If He wanted, God could have called angels down from heaven and had them build His tabernacle and that would have been miraculous. But God’s greatest glory comes to Him when He takes ordinary people to do extraordinary work for Him. Any talent, no matter how ordinary, is magnified when yielded to the will of God. Missionaries past and present are just ordinary people who have yielded themselves to an extraordinary God. That wrinkled old dollar bill that you put in the offering plate is just ordinary money, but it’s ordinary money you are yielding to an extraordinary God. As cliché as it sounds, money and talents given to God yield eternal benefits.
Servants of the Most High God
Bezaleel and Aholiab while slaves in Egypt had to use their talents in obedience to their Egyptian taskmasters, but they are forever immortalized for the work they did for God:
And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the LORD commanded Moses. (Exodus 38:22)
The tabernacle they built is long gone, but what they did lives forever in the heart of God. The same holds true for everything we do in service to our Lord. The things we do will fade with time, but what we do for God will live forever in His memory and will be rewarded above measure, no matter how ordinary the work may have seemed in our eyes.
Bezaleel and Aholiab weren’t captains of industry. They weren’t white-collar CEO’s. They weren’t high-end coders living in Silicon Valley. They were just a couple of ordinary blue-collar guys who served an extraordinary God.
[Photo by Clark Young on Unsplash]
Grace in Waves 