The Leadership ChallengeNäide

Challenge 4

BEZALEL: USING YOUR NATURAL GIFTS

READ: Exodus 31:1–11

During Moses’s time, one of the promises God makes to Israel is that they will be His people and that God will live in their midst (see, for example, Exodus 25:8–9 and 29:45–46). Until the building of Solomon’s temple many generations later, God chooses to dwell among His people in a tent. This elaborate portable tabernacle becomes a holy space, the focal point of Israel’s worship. Its structure and symbols evoke memories of the Garden of Eden where humans walked in perfect harmony with God. In this passage, God gives Moses instruction about how this “tent of meeting” and its furnishings will be built—and by whom. The Lord filled Bezalel with His Spirit and gave him the intelligence, knowledge, craftsmanship, and artistic ability to create the beautiful and intricate designs to make the temple a place of awe-inspiring worship.

God continues to give people natural abilities to use for His glory in every sphere of life to advance His work of restoration. Has God given you a specific mission? What natural strengths has the Lord given you? According to the reading, what else was needed in addition to talent for successful mission accomplishment?