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Will, Bill, Skill
By daniel | October 31, 2004
Favored ones,
Before we begin I?d like to pause and say I love you. As I sit down to write I?m filled with a certain pleasure ? the satisfying feeling you get when you have a meaningful talk with someone dear to you. And you?re just that. Dear to me. I love you, and I enjoy loving you. So thanks.
On Monday I started the reading for weeks one and two. I started and kept right on going?I couldn?t stop. Feverishly I read and feverishly I scribbled passages and gleanings in my little black notebook. It was an exhilarating morning. This morning I?d like to draw our attention to a few matters in Exodus 35 and 36. My comments will revolve around the concepts of will, bill, and skill.
First, the will. Conspicuous in these chapters is the lack of coercion. The building of the “tent of meeting” was the most significant undertaking to date in the life of Israel. Nothing so far had been this important, and the mandate from heaven to the prophet was to “whoever would like to bring a freewill offering.” We have seen how devoted God is to this project ? the building of a house for Him in the earth ? and here we see that, while our cooperation in this endeavor is necessary, God is only interested in what we will freely commit to it. God invites us to choose, and He won?t take from us. He?ll only receive what we freely give. And that makes me want to give and give and give. Apparently, the Hebrews felt the same way; whoever was of a willing heart acted on it (Ex.35:5,21-24,29; 36:5).
Then there?s the bill. God asked the people for gold and silver, jewels and treasures, acacia wood and expensive cloth (35:5-9). He didn?t ask for costume jewelry and ply wood. But here we have a problem. The tabernacle was made from the peoples? stuff; the church is made of the people themselves. Frankly, I think I have more in common with the ply board than the acacia. I don?t exactly feel like the kind of material God would want for His grand house for the ages. A holy, magnificent house is made of holy, magnificent stuff and I?m feeling a little under-qualified.
But here?s the deal. Jesus bought me with His blood and for His house. He bought me as a wretch, with intentions to extensively remodel. But He doesn?t think of me as a “fixer,” or as part of a fixer. He thinks of me as a really good buy. And because of that generosity I want to make the purchase worth His while. I may yet be more ply wood than acacia, but He has the power to transform me into the kind of material that can make a real contribution in the house. So I choose to cooperate with that power. I choose to be intentional about my own sanctification ? not to morbidly self-scrutinize, but rather to give Him room to point out what He wants to add or subtract, and where He wants me to participate in that math. That kind of commitment to change is painful and costly. But that?s the bill, and, like David, I will not offer to God that which costs me nothing.
Finally, the skill. Moses called for every skillful man and woman to come and to make what Yahweh had commanded. Anyone and everyone with any applicable skill whatsoever was enjoined to devote that capacity to the building of God?s house ? the parts and the whole. And it?s fascinating too that God appears to have granted new skills and magnified old ones in the people specifically for the purpose of engineering the tabernacle (35:30-35).
Every last one of us has been granted such skills ? the spiritual gifts mentioned in Romans and I Corinthians. If the Spirit is in you, you have at least one. Finding it is merely a matter of exercise. And so is honing it. Further, we?ve been granted these capacities specifically for the purpose of building God His house. When I see the care and attention of Bezalel and Oholiab (Ex.35 and 36) I?m inspired to treat the building of the church in the same way.
We each are gifted, some more obviously than others, and each of us are responsible to contribute ? ourselves, our skills, and our devoted attention ? to our life?s work, the completion of our Master?s house. So, I?ll leave you with these two exhortations from our reading:
?and every skillful person in whom the Lord has put skill and understanding to know how to perform all the work in the construction of the sanctuary, shall perform in accordance with all that Yahweh has commanded. (Ex.36:1)
Now set your heart and your soul to seek Yahweh your God; arise, therefore, and build the sanctuary of Yahweh God? (I Chron.22:19a)
Grace and peace,
Virgil
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