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Amen. Well, Exodus chapter 35,
tail end of 35 and into 36, it's one of the most exciting passages
in the whole of Scripture if you're an artist. And everybody
in this room will say, oh, I'm not an artist, I don't have a
creative bone in my body, and all that stuff that we're sometimes
been taught in school. At least if you were in my generation,
you were certainly taught that. Art was very much way, way, way
down near the bottom of the curriculum. So, we're going to have a look
at that whole passage tonight, but before we do, just by way
of warm-up and introduction, where is it set? It's set right
in the heart of the book of Exodus, and it's set between the beginning
and the end of the construction of the tabernacle of God. And
if you've got Bibles, and I hope you have, because they're much
more interesting than looking at my bald head on that screen
there, turn to your Bibles, Exodus chapter 25, and we've got the
beginning. And the story here is that Moses
has been up the mountain of God, Mount Sinai, and he has revealed
himself to Moses, and he's given the Ten Commandments, all the
law of God, the wonder and the ways of God for his people Israel. And these Ten Commandments are
to be the way in which the people live in relation to him and in
relation to one another. But then something very strange
happens. God reveals that not just living
on the mountain is adequate for him, not just coming down when
heaven touching earth, but he wants to live in the heart of
the people. And so he introduces to Moses
the most amazing thing ever, and that is the concept of building
a sanctuary or a tabernacle or a holy tent. In verse 8 of chapter
25, then have them make a sanctuary for me that I may dwell among
them. make this tabernacle and all
its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you. So, on an equal par to the revelation
of the Ten Commandments comes this revelation of what the tabernacle
is to be like. This is the design of God. This is the very creation of
God. This is what he has dreamed up,
and it's filled with shapes, it's filled with lengths, it's
filled with metals, it's filled with wood, it's filled with fabrics
of purple and scarlet and blue and gold threads. It's filled
with the most amazing and glorious beauty. this is all God's design. This is coming out of the very
being of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit on the mountain of
God. And he is revealing this to his
prophet Moses. Now, Moses wouldn't have had
a clue about putting together a tabernacle for God. How would
he do that? except God revealed every single
detail. This is what I want, and this
is what you have to command and have done. And so begins this
whole revelation, and it goes all the way through—this revelation
goes all the way through to chapter 31. And if you turn over to chapter
31, You'll see that both the tabernacle,
the contents of it, and the priesthood are all instituted in this section. And then in chapter 31, you've
got the people who are going to actually do it. Then the Lord
said to Moses, see, I've chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of
her of the tribe of Judah, and I filled him with the Spirit
of God. with skill, ability, and knowledge
in all kinds of crafts to make artistic designs for work in
gold, silver, and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in
wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. Moreover, I've
appointed a holy ab, and he's going to be the assistant. And
so we've got this revelation, not just of the tabernacle, what
it's to look like, how big it's to be, what it's to be made of,
and all the inside bits, the ark of the covenant, the incense,
the table, the bread, the perfumes, the robes of the priests, the
whole lot. Not only have we got that, but
now we have the provision of God for how it's going to come
from heaven in design, through the prophet Moses in instruction,
to the craftsman who would actually take the instruction, design
it all out, and actually make it. So this is the make-it-happen,
boys. These are the people who are
hands-on. They're not theoretical people. Now, I happen to be a bit of
a contemplative, and people say, oh, but what does it look like?
What does it feel like? Tell me how you're going to do
it. I find that a struggle. But this is for people who like
to see tangible things, expressions of a creative spirit. So that's
the revelation. And you may think, well, that's
great, but that's not our passage. And you're right, because what
happens next is we've got chapter 32. where there is a direct warning
in the experience of God's people about the whole creative process. And the warning comes when eyes
are taken off God up the mountain with Moses in the cloud, and
eyes start wondering and saying, well, where has he gone? Well,
let's make something. Let's create something of our
own idea. So that spirit of creativity
is immediately seen in the beautiful—yes, beautiful—calf made of gold,
of all the offerings of the people, all the earrings, necklaces, all melted down and
formed into this beautiful calf. And everybody says, Oh, these
are our gods who brought us out of Egypt! So you see, there is a direct
and dangerous warning here that the creative spirit can operate
from the wrong place. And here in chapter 32, it's
operating from the wrong place, and it becomes idolatry. And then in 33 and 34, we've
got Moses in the tent of meeting, and we've got God saying to him,
well, you get going. On you go, lead the people. I'm
not coming with you. And Moses is pleased with God,
and he says, well, if you're not going, we're not going. And
he has this encounter with God, and he says, show me your glory,
Lord. And up the mountain, God shows
him the back of his glory in the early verses of 34. And then he comes down the mountain
from that experience, having interceded for these sinful people
in their idolatry of their creativity, and he comes down the mountain,
and his face is radiant. He's displaying the very nature
and beauty of God, whom he's spending time with up the mountain,
and his face is physically radiating. bit like Stephen, his face was
radiant when he was being stoned. Moses' face was radiant. The people—oh, no, don't look
at us! They had to put a veil over him.
He was so bright, so beautiful. And then 35, we've got Moses
speaking to the people and actually getting down to business. And
he retells what God has told him up the mountain. He retells
it in terms of the tabernacle and all its furnishings down
the mountain. And then we come to our little
passage in 35 verse 30, where the focus is on Bezalel and Oholiab. And then all the instructions
for tabernacle, ark, altar of burnt offering, courtyard, priestly
garments, ephod, breastplate, all the garments, and so on,
these are all carried out. So they're made, they're tangible,
they're completed. And so at the end of 39, we've
got Moses inspecting the work and seeing all that the people
had done, and it was just as the Lord had commanded him. So
the operation was complete. And then in 40, we've got the
establishing, the putting up of the tent, and the putting
in place of all the contents of it. And then the most wonderful
point of the whole exercise, what began in God saying, I want
to have a tabernacle, and this is what it will be like, now
has got to the point where all the bits are lying on the ground,
and they're being put together, and everything's been put inside,
and then God comes. So what was a creation of man
becomes filled with the glory of God. And so at the end of
Exodus, we've got this absolutely glorious passage. Then the cloud
covered the tent of meeting, verse 34, and the glory of the
Lord, the Shekinah, filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter
the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and
the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. God had come
to dwell. in the midst of his people, in
the tabernacle, ordained from before the creation of the world
to be his tabernacle in the presence of his people. So, that's the
story. And in the middle of that, there
are these two men who are singled out. And in a sense, I want to
focus mainly upon Bezalel. When Moses was up the mountain,
it was God who said, see, I have chosen Bezalel. This was not a volunteer exercise. This was not a sign-up sheet. This was divine ordination. I have ordained," says God, the
Glorious One, Yahweh, I have ordained that that man, Bezalel,
who is the son of Uri, who's the son of her, he is the man
that I want to do this job. Now, in old-fashioned parlance,
that is the call of the Spirit, or the call of the kingdom that
we sang about earlier. It does not originate in feelings. It does not originate in the
human heart. It does not originate in people. It originates in the eternal
heart of the Almighty God. But when that call comes, all
the glory of God's creating of that individual for that time
and that place and that task are fulfilled. And Bezalel, who
had grown up as a grandson of her, and remember that her was
an assistant to Aaron, Moses' brother, Her was also one of
the ones who held up Moses' arms when the battle was on. Her was
a man of standing in the community, and it was his grandson who was
being singled out. Now, names in Scripture are very,
very important, and let's not gloss over it. Bezalel simply
means shadow of God, or in shadow of God. Now, that's an interesting one.
Me and my shadow. You see, you can only be someone's
shadow if you're close to them. You can only be someone's shadow
if you're copying exactly what they do. You can only be that
shadow if you are in the light. Ironically. So here was Bezalel, this youngish
man. We don't know how old he was,
but we assume that he's relatively young, and that her was still
alive. We assume that he's youngish,
but his name, you see, gives a clue to where he positioned
himself in his relationship to God. He was a man who was intimate
with God, who dwelt in the shadow of the Almighty. And because he dwelt in that
shadow, he was able to pick up the very heartbeat of God. He
was able to hear the slightest whispers of Almighty God. He knew what it was to see God
work and then him do the same. A foreshadow of Jesus himself,
of course, who did everything he saw his Father doing. Bezalel, shadow of God. Son of
Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, Ah, that's interesting. Judah means praise. So this man
is in the line of praise. That's in his blood, the praise
of God, the worship of God. So not only is he in the line
of worship and praise and glory to God, but he's also in the
shadow of God, in communion with him. And it's in that place of intimacy
that a transaction takes place, or an impartation takes place,
that this young man who's been formed and shaped in his mother's
womb from all eternity is brought into his very standing as a man
of God. And that standing takes place
when God fills him with God's own Spirit. This is a divine impartation
of the Holy Spirit on this young man. And it's very rare to read
of the Holy Spirit filling someone in the Old Testament. That comes
in the New, It comes for every single one of us, being filled
with the Spirit in Christ Jesus. But here, in the Old Testament,
this man is singled out, and God fills him with His Spirit. Now, what does that look like?
Well, one thing it doesn't look like is it doesn't look like
what we often see in God TV, for instance, people who will
say they're filled with the Spirit. Here it looks like He can design
things. can take a little pad of paper
and, oh, yeah, well, I can see how that would… Yeah, yeah, that's
fine. What measurements? Oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, well, decorate it with this and… Yeah, and the
pomegranates? Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, it's all
coming together now. Oh, yeah, I can see it. And it's
a Spirit-given ability to actually see what is in the
heart of God and what has been instructed. It becomes a very
visual thing. So, Bezalel, in the shadow of
God, with the instruction that was given to Moses and had been
handed to him—the brief, if you like—the Spirit of God brought
the brief to life before him. and enabled him to see exactly
what God had in mind. And so he was able to craft the
wood, the stone, the fabrics. Oh, he knew how to use a sewing
machine. He knew how to knit. Horror of
horrors, guys! But this is way beyond gender.
You see, what he's been called into is a participation in the
very work and desire of God. I want you, Bezalel, to be my
craftsmen. to listen to me and hear my inspiring
moves of my Spirit in your heart, so that you craft that piece
of wood exactly as I want it. What a task! What a holy calling! But it wasn't just to him. He
got a helper. and his helper's name was given
to us here, Oholiab. Now, interestingly enough, Oholiab
means Father's Tent. That's Oholiab's name, Father's
Tent or Tabernacle. Methinks that there's some divine
conspiracy going on. because Oholiab was formed and
shaped in his mother's womb, unique, and at circumcision he was given
his name, Oholiab, to grow into Father's tent, Father's tabernacle. And he would become truly the
man of God that he was created to be as he received this commission
to construct the temple, the tabernacle, the tent of the Father
of Israel. Beautiful. And he was called
in to participate as well in this glorious creative work.
you know what? Both of them. This is what's
not told from the Exodus 31 version. What we're told here is that
the Spirit of God not only showed them what God wanted, by way
of the priest's robe and the stitching and the breastplate
and the stones and the order of them and how they were to
be cut and the turban of the priest and all those things,
not only did they show him, but they were given the gift of teaching
other people, other craftspeople. So they were able to go to the
Women's Guild sewing brigade and say to them, ladies, we need
this done and we need it to look like this. And immediately, by
the power of the Spirit, the lady said, ah, we know exactly
what to do. And so they got sewing, and they embroidered, and they
made beautiful designs, all to the praise and glory of God in
response to the teaching and the enabling of Oholiab and Bezalel. There's always room for apprenticing. In whatever sphere you work in,
in whatever way a church is run, There is always scope for apprenticing
someone to come alongside and learn from you. I have a great
passion, and this is a slight aside, if you'll forgive me,
but I have a great passion that young people in the Lord should
be mentored and be taught and be shaped by older Christians. who have got a life story ahead
of them, or behind them, rather, and who've got so much to tell
and so many ways of saying, this is how the Lord worked in my
life. How is he working in yours? And
you see, when you have someone alongside you like that in a
learning capacity or in a teaching capacity, the kingdom grows. No one is left thinking, oh,
I don't have a place. because everybody does. Everybody
can have a place, old and young alike. Those of experience can
teach those who haven't got a clue. That's the richness, and that's
what's going on here. Bezalel and Ahab teaching. sharing, bringing others in to
participate in what they were given to participate in—the glorious
construction and creation of the tabernacle according to the
design of God revealed to Moses. He has filled them, verse 35,
with skill to do all kinds of work as craftsmen, designers,
embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn, and fine linen,
and weavers, all of them master craftsmen and designers. So,
this isn't some tacky little Blue Peter effort. Oh, I'm sorry. My mum does treasure the date
box that was made into a pencil case by taking the lid off and
covering it inside with sticky-back plastic and other accoutrements. This was not tacky. This was
the very, very finest This was beauty such as had never been
seen before, even in the beauty and the creativity and the glory
of the Egyptian temples. And any of you who have visited
the Valley of the Kings or Karnak or any of these places will know
that beauty. Far more beautiful than that.
because this beauty has divinity in it. This beauty has life in
it, which is the Spirit of God. And so, verse 1 of 36, Bezalel,
Oholiab, and every skilled person to whom the Lord had given skill
and ability to know how to carry out all the work of constructing
the sanctuary are to do the work just as the Lord commanded. And
that's just what they did. And so, at the end of 40, we've
got it complete. And we've got the glory resting
where God wants to be, in the heart of His people. Now, what about this business
of calling? When I was a young believer,
I received a calling. And it wasn't a calling that
I wanted, I was sitting in St. George's Tron Church in the center
of Glasgow. And I was, any of you who know
St. George's Tron, it's similar to
this, only not quite as spacious. And I was sitting up in that
seat there, right beside the pulpit. Well out of harm's way,
I thought. So the word goes forth that way,
I mean, it never gets to slightly behind the preacher. However,
George Duncan, who was then minister of St. George's Tron, he had
the happy knack of punching the air with his finger. He was one
of those preachers. And he was able to pirouette
as well, because what he did was he was speaking about the
preaching of the Word of God. And he did a complete 90-degree
turn like that and did one of his punches in the air and said,
you never know, you could be God's preacher. And he was pointing
directly at me. I was sitting there, what? I was a Christian for three months
when that happened. But you see, there's a danger
in me even telling you that. because it kind of makes it something
special, a preaching calling. It sets the calling of a ministry
into a different realm from everybody else. Moses was called to be a prophet
preacher. He had to go up the mountain,
he had to see God, he had to hear God, and he had to tell
what he saw and heard. And that is preaching. But Bezalel
did not have that calling. He had the calling to take these
things and turn them into reality. And that's an equal calling. There is no gradation of calling
in the kingdom of God. And so if you have had that sense
of calling from God that you are to be a teacher, then you need to respond to that
calling and say, Lord, I have no idea how to teach. I have no idea what the professors
and what the teachers at the college are going to teach me.
I have no idea whether I'll be a better teacher by the time
I've trained. I have no clue at all. But you
know what? I believe you're calling me,
and I'm going to say yes. And I'm going to ask you to fill
me with your Spirit, that I may teach in your power. my subject, because all wisdom
and all knowledge and all understanding begins in God himself. And then you'll be a good teacher,
because you're teaching not out of your flesh, but you're teaching
out of the Spirit within you. Perhaps one of the areas that
people joke most about is accountancy. And I have several accountant
friends who say what I said at the start, that they've not a
creative bone in their body. Well, I can assure you that they
have. Anyone who can make sense of
a church balance sheet at an AGM is a genius of creativity. Or am I the only one? You see, the calling to do figures
is a calling of the Spirit, because there are some things that have
to happen in this world. And that happens to be one of
them. I worry, you see, when people
come to me and I, for some reason or other, I end up spending a
lot of time exploring people's callings with them. They come
to me and they say, oh, I'm an accountant, or I'm doing this
and I'm doing that, but I really feel that God's calling me. And
I immediately will say, well, are you sure? Tell me about that.
Because often God is not calling them out of something at all.
God is calling them deeper into it. He's calling, and He's saying,
do it by my Spirit. Take my life into that office. Take my life into that court.
Take my life into that lecture theater. Take my life into that
work in the shop. Take my life, because I want
to be in the heart of the people. I need you to do it." That's the call of the kingdom. Basil's primary call was when
God said, I've chosen you. And God has chosen every single
one of you tonight. You may not feel that, but that is the truth. He has chosen you as a woman
to bear the creative glory and beauty of God. He's chosen you as a man to bear
the beauty and glory of God. Every one of us is chosen to bear His glory. That's the call. How it outworks
is what's different. to some who are given the gifts
of prophecy, to some who are given the gifts of apostles,
to some preachers, to some evangelists and some pastors. You see, this
is where the whole doctrine of the church comes alive. It comes
off the page and starts to live in human flesh, and God comes and dwells right
in the midst and his glory is so strong and so palpable and
so wonderful that we can barely bear it. God Almighty, through his own
Son who became flesh, has come to indwell us by his Spirit. so be His living tabernacle. Not a bunch of curtains. To be His living priesthood,
not all dressed up to the nines. To be His fragrance Not that
stuff that catches you in the Boots perfume department and
nearly kills you, but to have that fragrance of the very Lord
of heaven, the fragrance of Christ, as Paul puts it. Do you hear the call? Do you hear who's calling you? Do you hear the Father? Do you hear the Spirit? Do you hear Jesus? I formed you and I've shaped
you. Now it's time. It's time. Be my man, be my woman, and bear
my glory in what I give you to do, whatever I choose. Let's pray. Lord, we bless you
and praise you that as we are here this evening, we are on
holy ground. as Moses stood on holy ground
on that mountaintop, as Bezalel stood on holy ground as he was
commissioned by you. So, we're on holy ground. Your
same Spirit is here. Your same glory in Christ Jesus
is within us. And so you call, I've chosen. Lord, may we answer like Bezalel in the shadow of your presence. May we answer your call. Help us, Lord. Help us when everything in us
almost rebels against you. We're frightened. We don't want
to. Holy Spirit, break through all
that and bring us to that place of
oneness in Christ. doing the will of Him who calls
us and who has sent us. As the Father sent me, so send
I you. Amen.
Choice And Creation
Series Guidance
| Sermon ID | 11211141273 |
| Duration | 39:15 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Exodus 35:30 |
| Language | English |
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