ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE
Day 31 - Exodus 35-38 (The Sacrament of Talents)
“And Moses said to the children of Israel, "See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and understanding, in knowledge and all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood, and to work in all manner of artistic workmanship. And He has put in his heart the ability to teach, in him and Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. He has filled them with skill to do all manner of work of the engraver and the designer and the tapestry maker, in blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine linen, and of the weaver--those who do every work and those who design artistic works.” (Exodus 35:30-35)
You may be wondering why I entitled my post The Sacrament of Talents. The word sacrament has its origin meaning to consecrate or make sacred. I chose to use the phrase because our text clearly teaches that God gives us our gifts and talents in varying measure according to His purposes which of course are sacred. To Bezalel, God gave a generous outpouring of artistic skill for the specific purpose of designing and creating the articles for the tabernacle including the Ark of the Covenant upon which God would sit and dwell with His people, the Israelites.
No doubt Bezalel acknowledged his gifts as having come from God and that he must have felt humbled and highly honored at the same time for being chosen to oversee all of the design and creation of the articles to be used in worshipping almighty God. I would have loved to watched his expression when he found out from Moses that he would be in charge of creating the Ark of the Covenant!
The fact is, every gift given by the Holy Spirit to all believers are given for the purposes of God. Paul clearly teaches this truth in his epistles such as in the passage below:
“But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men." ... for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,...” (Ephesians 4:7-12)
If you are a believer reading this, you have been given at least one spiritual gift, not to use on yourself, but for the body of Christ, the Church. Paul writes about the different kinds of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 and and also explains that every believer is a vital part of the body of Christ without which the whole body suffers. That’s how important each one of us is to Christ and to the ministry of the Church. It really is no different from the gift God gave to Bezalel; and you and I can feel just as highly honored that God would call us for His sacred purpose.
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