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(clever, ingenious) works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of
stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship" (see
also Exod. 35: 30-35).
Here was the Spirit of God specially equipping this man to make objects of beauty for
the dwelling place of God in the Tabernacle. God is worthy only of the best. The second
best will not do, and this is a lesson we can all learn. Too often God has been offered
anything but the best by His people. It is easy to say "our best is nothing worth" and
make this an excuse for giving Him anything no matter how inferior it is. We need the
spirit of David when he assembled all the costly materials for building God's permanent
house, namely the Temple. I Chron. 29: should be read carefully and there we shall
see how David gave the very best that he could obtain. He could say "I have prepared
with all my might for the house of the Lord" (verse 2) and then follows a list of exceeding
precious things of gold and silver, wood, marble and all kinds of precious stones and at
the end of it all David said "for all things come of Thee and of Thine own have we given
Thee" (verse 14).
In our service let us never offer the Lord anything but the best of our ability, even
though this is far from perfect.
The activity and enabling of the Holy Spirit is clearly seen in the book of Judges. We
see Him coming upon Othniel, Caleb's younger brother, to execute his duties as judge
and also deliver Israel from their enemies:
"And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel, and went out to war:
and the Lord delivered Chushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his
hand prevailed against Chushan-rishathaim" (Judges 3: 10).
Exactly the same thing happened with Gideon (Judges 6: 34). So much so that God
reduced Israel's army from 32,000 men to 300, and He said "The people that are with
thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt
themselves against Me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me" (Judges 7: 2). How well
God knows the frailty and sinful pride of human hearts! No wonder He has devised His
mighty redemption plan so that no man may "have a finger in the pie" as it were, and
boast of his own achievements. The most man can do is to exercise faith in what God has
accomplished on his behalf. It is "not of works lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2: 8, 9).
God plans to have all the glory at the consummation. "Unto Him be the glory in the
church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever" (Eph. 3: 21).
No.4.
pp. 61 - 65