Exodus 31:1–11

Hey, hey, friends. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions is where every day you and I, we get together. We have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, make it from Genesis through Leviticus. So glad to be with you today. We are at Exodus chapter 31. Why don't we have some coffee? We'll pray and we'll jump into God's word. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. What a blessing it is to follow in your ways. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to understand your word this morning. We pray that your spirit would be with us and that you would apply these things to our hearts and lives in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. So Exodus chapter 31. Beginning at verse one, and we'll read through verse 11, here we go.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Batsael, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship. to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of workmanship. And I, indeed I, have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have put wisdom in the hearts of all the gifted artisans, that they may make all that I have commanded you, the Tabernacle of Meeting, the Ark of the Testimony, and the Mercy Seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the Tabernacle. the table and its utensils, the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the laver and its base, the garments of ministry, the holy garments for Aaron, the priests, and the garments for his sons, to minister as priests, and the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place, according to all that I have commanded you they shall do.
Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So what's this passage about? God is wrapping up all the description of everything in the tabernacle, and now he's come to them and he's telling Moses, I got two guys. I've got two guys who I've given my wisdom to. And my spirit is with them. And they're going to do the work of actually overseeing the building. It's going to be more than just these two guys, right? The two guys' names here are Betzalel. Betzalel. Betzalel. There you go. And Ohaliab. Ohaliab. Ohaliab. There you go. Ohaliab. I'm getting this all messed up, right? These are these two guys' names, right?
Interestingly, neither of them are Levites. Neither of them are from the tribe of Levi, it seems. Her is most likely one of the people who actually held up Moses' arm. And if we go to 1 Chronicles, he's from the tribe of Judah. And then Ohaliub is from the tribe of Dan.
So God is using different people from different tribes in Israel to actually come together and make The tabernacle, the whole of Israel is going to have contributing and an investment into the tabernacle. So God says, my spirit is on them, my spirit is with them, I've chosen them. And God is enabling them now to go according to the pattern he's shown and to make all that they've done or to help them in all that they're making.
So what's the best verse to summarize this? Well, I don't know, probably in my Bible. I have a whole bunch of little stuff underlined. In verse two, I have called by name, Bezalel, and then indeed, verse six, I have appointed with him Oholiab, So I have that underlined. And then part of verse 11, according to all that I have commanded you, they shall do. Right. So I don't I was trying to figure out how to underline different parts to make this a cohesive whole.
This is God choosing two specific men to lead the building, the construction of all these different things. There's a lot of stuff for them to make. They've got the basin. They've got the altar. They've got the lampstand. They've got this table for the showbread. They've got the instance of altar. They've got the Ark of the Covenant with the mercy seat. They've got all the sockets and all the poles and all the curtains. I mean, they got a lot of stuff to make.
It's interesting here that God doesn't just say, all right, guys. Go for it now. No, he desires his worship to be holy because he's holy. And so he gives his Holy Spirit to these people to now do this work. So how does this affect us? What are we called to do in response to this? Well, I think this is one of those beautiful points in which we see if God has called us for the work and he has given us his Holy Spirit, then we could pray to him for wisdom. And with the training we have, we can do our work for His glory.
Now you might say, oh Brian, you're kind of stretching that a little bit, don't you think? I don't think so. Right, where do you think Bezalel and Oholiab What do you think they learned these skills? Do you think when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they just like, like all of a sudden they knew how to do the work of an engraver and all of a sudden it was like the matrix, you know, just Holy Spirit and all. And I know not how, I know how not to work with silver and gold. I don't think so.
These were trades that were taught in Egypt. There were entire apprenticeship schools for this. So I think these men actually had this training, but God singled them out, God called them out, and he chose them by name. And with the training that they received, now they were receiving the Holy Spirit to allow them to specifically do the work in the exact way that God had commanded Moses. But their training was done just like you going to school.
And so when we ask God for wisdom and his spirit of wisdom, the Holy Spirit is upon us, we can do our work for his glory. Whether that means that you're working in the field, training children at home, working a factory job, going out and building things or repairing things, whatever it might be, you might work to the glory of God in accordance with your training because God gives his spirit. And God uses each and every one of us for his kingdom work. Not just in evangelism, not just in the sacred things, but even just the dominion mandate. building stuff, making things, creating beautiful stuff, training children.
This is what the Lord does. This is one of the beautiful things in how he works. But in this special instance, he set apart these men for this work. And sometimes I think he still does that. When he sets apart someone, in a special way to go do missions work or to go preach in a different place or to become a shepherd of his people.
But each and every one of us can pray to that same God who gives wisdom. And each and every one of us who are one of his redeemed spirit, one of his redeemed children have his spirit in our hearts that we can cry out Abba Father and he hears us and he can also give us wisdom. Let's pray to him now. Father, we thank you so much that you are the God who hears our prayers and you give us wisdom. Lord, we pray now because we often lack wisdom. We either don't know what we're supposed to do in certain situations, or we don't know how we're to accomplish what we know we ought to do. And so, Father, we pray that you would please give us direction and ability. in a way that would bring you glory. Even this day, Lord, we pray, fill us with your spirit that we might do according to all that you desire.
In Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you next time. Bye. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week.
If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.