and he has filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship,
God calls one man by name and fills him with His Spirit. The gift that follows is craftsmanship. That raises two questions the commentators press: why does the making of the tabernacle need the Spirit at all, and what do the four gifts named here actually give a worker? (Older translations render the terms as "wisdom, understanding, and knowledge," where the ESV has "ability and intelligence, with knowledge"; the writers quoted below comment on the older wording.)
God chooses the worker, equips him, then appoints him. Not one of those steps is the worker's own.
Whether it is "the work of the tabernacle" of old or "the work of the ministry" now, God must do the choosing, the calling, the qualifying and the appointing. Everything must follow His commandment. No man could choose, call, qualify or appoint anyone for the work of the tabernacle — not even himself. Neither can he do so for the work of the ministry. It was, it is, it must be, wholly and absolutely divine.
Bezalel may well have had talent already. The filling gave him something talent cannot supply.
"I have called by name Bezaleel." He was not just a man with natural ability and skill — he may well have had these. For this work God filled him with His Spirit, in wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge. People point out this difference between a photograph and a portrait drawn by an artist. The photograph gives the exact features, so it may be very like the person. But an artist can put a living look into the picture by his own genius and spirit; so we say, "It is a speaking likeness." The tabernacle and its vessels had to be a living, "speaking" picture of the things in the heavens, and they had to reflect the mind of God. That called for a man filled with the Spirit of God to build and shape them with divine wisdom and knowledge.
The reason lies in what the finished work was meant to show.
I believe it is a great mistake to think that these men were simply skilful workmen. It is also a mistake to think we have here nothing more than a recognition that God gives all ability. There is something special here, and when we remember what the tabernacle was to show forth, we are not surprised. Our Lord said of the Spirit, "He will glorify me" (John 16:14). God intended the tabernacle to display the glories of Christ. Need we wonder, then, that the Holy Spirit gave such special gift and oversight, so that every part would express the thoughts of God exactly?
Another writer notes what still surprises readers here: the Spirit's power went into objects you could touch.
To Christians it may seem strange to consider men filled with the Spirit in order to give craftsmanship and skill, but so it was… The artistic ability was given by God. We recognise that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual power, altering our lives and enabling us to offer spiritual sacrifices, but in Exodus the things produced were tangible. Yet, though made with hands, Divine power was needed.
Each word in the verse does a distinct job. The last one turns the other three into finished work.
God fully equipped Bezaleel with wisdom, understanding, knowledge and all workmanship. He comes before us as one fully qualified by God to bring every detail of the tabernacle into being. With wisdom he would have all the hidden resource he needed. With understanding God would enlighten him. Knowledge would give him a grasp of the details of the various articles. All workmanship shows that he used what God gave him to produce results.
The gifted worker never becomes the source of the work. He stays a carrier of it.
The workmen were the gift of God. The wisdom and understanding their work needed came from Him too, through the action of His Spirit. He also gave them the ability to teach others… We may see in these workers the pattern of all true servants in every age. They were not able in themselves to think anything as coming from themselves; their sufficiency was from God (2 Cor. 3:5). Human skill, human wisdom or inventions would only have spoiled the perfect divine design. So the workmen were to be only vessels — vessels to display divine wisdom and understanding and teaching.
The meaning of the names points past this man to a greater builder.
Bezaleel means "in the shadow of God"; this tells of his trust, filled with the Spirit of God in wisdom and understanding. We may well take him as a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Uri means "Light of Jehovah," and Hur means "white." All these words point to the great workman God chose to build a dwelling place for Him… Bezaleel did everything as God commanded, and God was pleased. In the same way our Lord has done His work in perfect wisdom, to the eternal glory of God His Father.
- Called — God does the choosing, the calling, the qualifying and the appointing. No one appoints himself to God's work.
- Filled — natural skill could copy the pattern. Only a man filled with the Spirit could make it a "speaking likeness" of the mind of God.
- Equipped — wisdom supplies hidden resource. Understanding gives light. Knowledge gives the details. Workmanship turns all three into finished work.
- Shared — God gave him the ability to teach as well as to build, so the gift multiplied instead of ending with one man.
- Emptied — the worker stays a vessel. His own inventions would only spoil the design; his sufficiency is from God.
and to devise artistic things to work in gold, and in silver, and in copper,
Moses tells Israel that God has chosen one man, Bezalel, and equipped him to design and build the tabernacle's furnishings. So where does the ability to do God's work come from, and what is it for?
Where did such skill come from?
The artistic ability was given by God. We know that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual power. He changes our lives and enables us to offer spiritual sacrifices. But in Exodus the things produced were physical. Even so, though human hands made them, Divine power was needed. This should not surprise us, because everything Bezalel made was a picture of Christ.
Natural skill may have been there already.
It is evident that to do God's work mere natural ability is not enough. Bezaleel may have had a natural aptitude for such work; if so, it was not enough. God had to fill him with His Spirit to do it. If that was true when the work involved material things, how much more is it true when the service of God concerns spiritual things and the welfare of people's souls.
Two separate acts stand behind the craftsmanship of this verse: God named the man, and God then filled him.
Whether for "the work of the tabernacle" of old, or "the work of the ministry" now, God must choose, God must call, God must qualify, God must appoint. Everything must be done according to His commandment. Man could not choose, call, qualify, or appoint anyone for the work of the tabernacle. Neither can he do so for the work of the ministry.
Writers apply this to the servant's own certainty about what he is doing.
It is true that God does not call His servants by name in this present age — at least not since the days of the apostle Paul. But every servant should look for God's own certainty about his work. Whatever he is engaged in, he should be sure beyond doubt that he is doing God's will. Such a conviction is the source of both confidence and courage.
Exact copying was not the whole task.
People say there is this difference between a photograph and a portrait drawn by an artist. The photograph gives the exact features, so it may be an exact likeness. But an artist can put a living look into the picture by his own genius and spirit. So we say, "It is a speaking likeness." The tabernacle and its vessels had to be a living, "speaking" picture of the things in the heavens, showing the mind of God. That took a man filled with the Spirit of God.
More than skill was at work here.
I believe it is a great mistake to think these men were only skilful workmen. It is also a mistake to see here no more than the truth that God gives all ability. Something special is happening, and it is no surprise when we remember what the Tabernacle was meant to show. It was said of the Spirit by our Lord, "He will glorify me" (John 16:14). The Tabernacle was intended to set forth the glories of Christ.
Each of the three metals carries its own meaning.
Without question the purity and value of gold would suggest in a special way what is wholly Divine — God's righteousness and glory in particular. Silver, used for ransom, would speak of God known in redemption through grace. Brass, tempered in the furnace, would perhaps show His judgment of evil.
What the ESV calls bronze, these writers call brass.
Skill like this is also found far from God.
The descendants of Cain were given unholy skill to make a cursed and groaning earth a delightful place, without the presence of God. "Bezalel and Oholiab," by contrast, were given divine skill to beautify a sanctuary that the presence and glory of the God of Israel would make holy and bless.
And no one is excused by not being a Bezalel:
Remember: not all Israel were Bezalels or Oholiabs, yet all of them could serve the interests of the sanctuary. There was an open door for everyone to give a share. It is the same now. Each one has a place to fill, a ministry to carry out, a responsibility to meet.
- Called — God named the man before He equipped him. No one appoints himself to God's work. Every servant should be sure he is doing God's will.
- Filled — natural talent was not enough, even for physical work. The Spirit gave the wisdom, understanding and knowledge behind the designs.
- Designing — exact copying was not enough. The vessels had to be a speaking likeness of heavenly things, showing the glories of Christ.
- Materials — gold, silver and bronze each carry meaning: God's righteousness and glory, redemption through grace, and judgment of evil.
- Spent — the same skill can beautify God's dwelling or a world without Him. And where the gift is smaller, the door to serve stays open.
and in cutting of stones, for setting, and in carving of wood, to execute all artistic work;
God chose one man to build the tabernacle and filled him with His Spirit. Verse 33 lists what that filling produced — stonecutting, wood carving, every kind of skilled craft — so why would handwork need the Spirit of God?
The Spirit here produces craftsmanship, not preaching:
To Christians it may seem strange to think of men filled with the Spirit to give them craftsmanship and skill, but that is what happened… God gave the artistic ability. We know that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual power. He changes our lives and enables us to offer spiritual sacrifices. But in Exodus the things produced were physical. They were made with hands, and still they needed divine power. This should not surprise us, because everything Bezalel made was a picture of Christ.
Israel did not lack craftsmen. Egypt had trained them. But no workshop could teach what this work needed:
The arts and trades the Lord used to build His sanctuary had reached their highest level in Egypt long before Israel left. Israel had lived in the land, so they had materials, tools, and knowledge for the work. But artistic and mechanical power was not enough. Turning the ideas shown to Moses on the mountain into shape and form needed special understanding. So God gifted the chief artists with unusual wisdom. By it they could grasp the thoughts of God and express them with artistic perfection. All could give, if only a few could make. One simple principle decided whether their offerings were acceptable — a willing heart. What decided whether their work was acceptable was a wise heart.
God gave exact patterns. But a careful workman could copy every measurement and still miss the point:
There is said to be this difference between a photograph and a portrait drawn by an artist. The photograph reproduces the exact features, so it can be exactly like the original. But an artist can put a living look into the picture by his own genius and spirit. So we say, "It is a speaking likeness." The tabernacle and its vessels were to be a living, "speaking" representation of the things in the heavens. The mind of God was to be reflected in them. This work needed a man filled with the Spirit of God, to build and shape them with divine wisdom and knowledge. What was needed was not mere accuracy of construction by human skill, but the true reflection of the wisdom of God.
One writer reads the two crafts in this verse as pointing to different sides of Christ:
The cutting of stones would display the various personal and official glories of Christ. The carving of wood would point more to His moral glories in Manhood. All the carving of wood would of course be in acacia wood. That was the only wood used in the tabernacle, and it is the well-known picture of the incorruptible Manhood of our Lord.
God's call did not make these men self-sufficient. It made them dependent, and it gave their work a fixed test:
God called them by name, filled them with His Spirit, and made them dependent on the Lord for the wisdom and understanding to carry out the work entrusted to them. Man's wisdom is of no use in the service of God… There can be no understanding or wisdom apart from God — none at all, except what we receive from Him. If His servants remembered that, they would be kept in constant dependence. That is the only condition on which wisdom is received… The proof of divine wisdom in service is that the thing done is according to the word of God.
The gift did not stop with what Bezalel could make himself:
Besides this working ability, God also gave him the ability to teach, so that others could follow in similar work. Another man, Aholiab of the tribe of Dan, is to work alongside Bezalel. Dan was the tribe that went first into idolatry and unfaithfulness… Bezalel of Judah symbolises the government of God in His house, but Aholiab of Dan pictures the grace of God. God can restore even from serious failure.
- Called. God names His workman first. The gift follows the call.
- Filled. The skills in this verse — cutting stones, carving wood — came from the Spirit of God, given for work you can touch.
- Shaped. Egypt taught Israel the trades. Only the Spirit could teach them to grasp God's thoughts and give them form.
- Speaking. Exact copying was never the aim. The work had to be a living likeness of heavenly things, because everything made was a picture of Christ.
- Shared. The gift came with the ability to teach, and with a partner. What one man received passed into many hands.
and he has put in his heart to teach, he and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan
God names two men in front of the whole assembly and tells Israel where their skill came from. This verse adds something the earlier account of the same workmen never mentioned. God also inspired them to teach. Why would a building project need teachers?
The two men stand in front of the whole nation. One writer notes how the passage explains their ability.
From verse 30 to the end of the chapter, we get the two men whom God had chosen pointed out to the people. The plain hint is that the skill they now had for this detailed work was not their own. God gave it to them.
Exodus had already named and described these two men in chapter 31. Here the list of their gifts is longer.
Once more the passage names the two leading workmen and tells us that the Spirit of God fitted them for the work. But it adds something here which we do not find in chapter 31... Besides having the spirit of wisdom, they also had the gift of teaching, to pass on to others what they had learned.
The gift of teaching was not an extra. It explains how a crowd of other craftsmen came to work beside these two.
The workmen were the gift of God. The wisdom and understanding they needed for their work also came from Him, through the working of His Spirit. He also gave them the ability to teach others. So alongside them worked every skilled man in whom the Lord had put wisdom and understanding, men who knew how to do every kind of work for the service of the sanctuary, exactly as the Lord had commanded. ... Human skill, human wisdom or inventions would only have spoiled the perfection of God's design. So the workmen were to be only vessels — vessels for the display of divine wisdom and understanding and teaching.
One writer finds meaning in the names of these men, and in the two tribes they came from.
Oholiab, Bezalel's assistant, means "tent of my father." Ahisamach has the meaning "brother of support." ... Bezalel belonged to the tribe of Judah, the leader in the camp of Israel, and Oholiab to Dan, the last in the camp. So the first and the last were chosen to do the work.
Dan's later record in Israel makes the choice of Oholiab surprising, and commentators read that surprise as the point.
Working with him, however, is one from a tribe we would least expect to see in such a place. He comes from Dan — the tribe that later led Israel in turning away from God. This is how God's grace can work. If we know that all is grace, why should we wonder at it? But along with these two, there is work for all who had wisdom — in whose heart God had put wisdom — none is refused.
Another writer sees in the second name a picture of teaching passed on from one group to the next.
If Bezalel means "in the shadow of God," suggesting the apostles, Oholiab may suggest another company formed by their work... Paul, writing to Timothy, says, "what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2).
Willing hearts and skilled hands built the tabernacle. One writer carries both into our own day.
For the work of God today the same two things are needed — first the willing heart, and then the skill. Both are the gift of God, and in our day the skill expresses itself in the prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers, of whom we read in Ephesians 4:11. These gifts are given, not for the construction of a tabernacle, but "to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ." God's work still has the character of building up; the older translation's word here, "edify," simply means to build.
- Called. God named two men in front of the whole nation and made plain that their skill came from Him, not from themselves.
- Filled. Wisdom, understanding and craftsmanship all came through the Spirit. The workers were vessels to display God's wisdom, not the source of it.
- Taught. This verse adds the gift of teaching. These men could pass on to others what they had learned.
- Multiplied. That teaching drew in every skilled man God had equipped. There was work for all, and none was refused.
- Built. The same pair still stands: a willing heart and God-given skill. Today it shows in teachers who build up the body.
he has filled them with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work of the engraver, and of the artificer, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in byssus, and of the weaver, [even] of them that do every kind of work, and of those that devise artistic work
Exodus 35 ends by naming the men God had equipped, and the last verse lists what their hands could do: engraving, designing, embroidery, weaving. Why would God fill a man with His Spirit so that he can cut stone and dye yarn?
Israel had come out of Egypt, a country famous for its craftsmanship. They carried its tools and know-how with them. Yet trade knowledge could not turn the pattern Moses saw on the mountain into cloth and metal. Where the ESV says God filled them with skill, other translations read "wisdom of heart."
Israel had lived in Egypt as foreigners, so they had materials, tools, and knowledge for the work. But artistic and mechanical power was not enough. Shaping the ideas God showed Moses on the mountain took special understanding. So God gave the chief artists unusual wisdom, and by it they could grasp His thoughts and express them with artistic perfection... If God was going to live among men, He had to be His own Architect and Designer. So every part of the structure had to be formed exactly according to His patterns.
The filling described here produced nothing invisible. It produced woven cloth and carved work.
To Christians it may seem strange that men were filled with the Spirit to give them craftsmanship and skill, but so it was... God gave the artistic ability. We know that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual power, changing our lives and enabling us to offer spiritual sacrifices. In Exodus, though, the things produced were physical. Even work made with hands needed divine power. This should not surprise us, because everything Bezaleel made was a picture of Christ.
The verse does not say they could make things. It names separate crafts. One writer reads the crafts as different kinds of ministry, each doing what the others cannot.
With wisdom of heart these men carried out all kinds of work. This may describe the different parts of the ministry, which together produce the unity of the faith in its completeness... We need all truth, whether it is the truth of the engraver or of the embroiderer. The engraver may suggest what is cut in: inward impressions of truth in our souls. Certain lines of ministry produce this. The embroiderer makes his work stand out, and certain lines of what we call practical truth produce this.
The weaver adds a third thing to those two — not depth or display, but connection.
Then the thought of weaving would suggest what binds together, and how much we need this... Truth is worked into our new moral being and forms us after Christ. That in turn shows the character of Christ in our lives, while we walk in unity with the saints in the bond of love. The engraving, embroidering and weaving seem to suggest these results.
God also put teaching in their hearts, so the skill did not stop with these two men. And since everything came from God, the workman had nothing of his own to add.
The workmen were the gift of God. The wisdom and understanding their work needed also came from Him, through the working of His Spirit. He gave them the ability to teach others too... In these workers we may see the pattern of all true servants in every period... Human skill, human wisdom or human inventions would only have spoiled the perfection of the divine design. So the workmen were to be only vessels — vessels to display divine wisdom and understanding and teaching.
Bezalel came from Judah. His partner Aholiab came from Dan — and later history makes that pairing striking.
Dan was the first tribe to fall into idolatry and unfaithfulness (Judges 18:30-31). Yet in the end, "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel" (Gen. 49:16). Bezaleel of Judah stands for the government of God in His house, but Aholiab of Dan pictures the grace of God, who can restore even from serious failure.
Chapter 35 has been full of willing hearts bringing materials. It ends with wise hearts able to use them. Both halves are still required.
For the work of God today the same two things are needed — first the willing heart, and then the skill. Both are the gift of God, and in our day the skill expresses itself in the prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers, of whom we read in Ephesians 4:11. God gives these gifts, not to build a tabernacle, but "to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ." God's work still has the character of building.
- Filled — Egypt taught them the crafts, but not the wisdom. God filled them so they could grasp His thoughts and express them.
- Physical — here the Spirit produced things made with hands, because everything Bezalel made pointed to Christ.
- Varied — engraver, embroiderer, weaver: truth cut into us, truth displayed in us, truth binding us together. No one craft covers the work.
- Passed on — the same God who gave the skill put teaching in their hearts, so the gift spreads instead of stopping with the gifted man.
- Undeserved — Judah leads and Dan, the tribe that later fell into idolatry, works beside him; grace chooses the workmen, and the workmen are only vessels.