5 And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.
6 And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee;
7 The tabernacle of the congregation, and the ark of the testimony, and the mercy seat that is thereupon, and all the furniture of the tabernacle,
Exodus 35:25-27
25 And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen.
26 And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats' hair.
27 And the rulers brought onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate;
Exodus 35:30-35
30 And Moses said unto the children of Israel, See, the Lord hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah;
31 And he hath filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship;
32 And to devise curious works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass,
33 And in the cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of wood, to make any manner of cunning work.
34 And he hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he, and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan.
35 Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning work.
Daniel 1:17
As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
The major point of this article is to show we aren't alone when wanting to accomplish various things in this life. God does in fact give us various abilities and skills to bring to perform that which we're called to do - whether it's related to the church or the world.
What I want to immediately say is this wasn't some type of magical thing God did with the men and women mentioned above. The skills they had would have been worked on developed to the point of them being experts in their crafts. The overall thing the scriptures are teaching us here is that without Him, we can do nothing. Even the skills we have, no matter how hard we work at improving them, ultimately come from God; only He gets the glory.
It also should relieve some of us of pressure when we practice and work on improving, knowing it is something we have received from God, but are expected to excel in to the upper limit of the gift. That said, we don't know what that upper limit is, so we need to continue to work on the skill or skills He has given us.
I also wanted to point out that the skills, wisdom, workmanship, and whatever else God has given us, is for the purpose of working amongst His people or in the world. By the world, I don't mean sin, but that we are to have our expertise and calling go beyond the people of God only.
All that means is some of us have different callings, and need to know what the parameters of that calling are at any given time, and operate within them unless God reveals to us something different.
One interesting thing to consider in all of this is the wisdom given to those to work on the tabernacle, was primarily practical wisdom, what we could describe as blue collar work wisdom. The wisdom given to Daniel and his three friends, was wisdom associated with management skills. Both are completely legitimate, and are needed to bring about God's kingdom on this earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment