Following the lead of Bezalel & Oholiab

We have a glorious calling that is not talked about, in most cases. As you know, if you are one, artists are not well understood by the general population. This is especially true in the church. The whole concept of creativity is seen with suspicion because [ya’know] we really don’t know what they’ll do. There is good reason for many of these suspicions.

But let’s look a bit at a pair of artists we see in Exodus.

[Exodus 31: 1-6] 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. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you:

When we think about it, the Lord who created Yosemite, Lake Como, Banff & Lake Louise, and all the rest would certainly care about the beauty of everything. So, after he gave all his instructions for th tabernacle to Moses, he made sure that it would be done to his standards and anointed the artists to produce it. That just makes sense.

But He Paid For it Too

He had Moses make the following announcement:

[Exodus 35: 4-5a] Moses spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the LORD has commanded, saying, Take from among you a contribution to the LORD; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as the LORD’S contribution

Listen to the list of materials

[Exodus 35: 5b-9a] gold, silver, and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet material; fine linen, goats’ hair, and rams’ skins dyed red; porpoise skins; acacia wood; oil for lighting; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; onyx stones and setting stones

And he touched the people by His Spirit to give. In fact, so much came in that the artists and craftspeople had to beg Moses to have them stop.

[Exodus 36: 5-7] they said to Moses, “The people are bringing much more than enough for the construction work which the LORD commanded us to perform.” So Moses issued a command, and a proclamation was circulated throughout the camp, saying, “Let no man or woman any longer perform work for the contributions of the sanctuary.” Thus the people were restrained from bringing any more. For the material they had was sufficient and more than enough for all the work, to perform it.

Obviously, the Lord not only cared enough to specify the design but also to anoint the artists and provide the materials.

So the obvious question is:

How do we get that for our projects?

What do you think?