“Let all the skilled artisans among you come and make everything that the Lord has commanded: the tabernacle — its tent and covering, its clasps and supports, its crossbars, its pillars and bases; the ark with its poles, the mercy seat, and the curtain for the screen; the table with its poles, all its utensils, and the Bread of the Presence; the lampstand for light with its utensils and lamps as well as the oil for the light; the altar of incense with its poles; the anointing oil and the fragrant incense; the entryway screen for the entrance to the tabernacle; the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grate, its poles, and all its utensils; the basin with its stand; the hangings of the courtyard, its posts and bases, and the screen for the gate of the courtyard; the tent pegs for the tabernacle and the tent pegs for the courtyard, along with their ropes; and the specially woven garments for ministering in the sanctuary — the holy garments for the priest Aaron and the garments for his sons to serve as priests.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Although I’ve never read it, there’s a rather famous from several years ago called “I, Pencil.” The whole thing is about how a pencil is made from the standpoint of the pencil itself. Pencils seem like remarkably simple things, but their construction is far more complicated and convoluted of a process than you might imagine. The whole argument of the author is that no one really knows how to make a pencil. It takes all of the different people involved each doing what they know how to do in order to bring one into reality. God was directing the people to build a place for worship, where they could go and experience His presence. Putting it together was going to be a group effort.

We touched on these verses yesterday, but v. 10 and the list of tabernacle parts and pieces caught my attention enough that I wanted to come back to it one more time with you today. Moses’ call to the people was to “let all of the skilled artisans among you come and make everything that the Lord has commanded.” There are three ideas that jumped out at me here. Let’s touch on each one of them briefly.

First, Moses calls all of the skilled artisans to participate in the project. This was not a general call for everyone to be involved directly as these folks were going to be. This meant that a whole lot of folks were going to be left out of the production process. This didn’t mean they were worthless to God. This didn’t mean they couldn’t still give generously to the offering for supplies for the project. It just meant that they weren’t equipped with the skills necessary to be a helpful part of bringing the plans into reality.

Not everyone has the same set of skills and abilities and talents. And even if two people were to have all of those the same, our life experiences and passions are all unique meaning how those skills manifest and are used are going to be different. Let me give you a personal example. I build metal models as a hobby. You can go here to see what some of them look like. I’ve built somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 of them, and I have another 6-8 waiting to be built. They’re a lot of fun for me, but they’re not for everybody. They’re not for my sister, for instance. She wouldn’t build one of those unless she had to. But she does interior designing for mostly people who are fabulously wealthy and she’s really good at it. I couldn’t even begin to do what she does. Different people; different skills.

God gifts all of us differently, and this is His pleasure to do. He delights in making each of us totally unique and yet still all fully human. He delights in diversity like this. No one gift is more important than any other. All of them are necessary in different situations. All of them are capable of bringing Him glory.

Second, Moses calls all of the skilled artisans to do the work God has commanded the people to do. They were building this tabernacle as a place for God’s presence to dwell among them. As we talked about when we worked through the various parts and pieces when God originally gave their descriptions to Moses, how they looked mattered. Every part was intended to communicate something about God, His character, nature, and glory, to the people. Because of this, excellence was a high value. If the whole thing looked like it had been put together by a bunch of novices, that was going to communicate something. It was going to communicate that God wasn’t very great. It was going to communicate that He didn’t really care very much about His people. It was going to communicate that the people didn’t really need to care very much about Him. No, none of these things were going to be made explicit, but the messages would have been sent all the same.

In the same way, what we do for God today should be done with excellence. This doesn’t mean that only people who are capable of producing professional quality works should be allowed to give anything to God. Far from it. God invites all of us to participate in bringing Him the glory He deserves. I have a picture one of my sons made me for Easter one year hanging in my office. It’s not a Rembrandt. But I wouldn’t trade it for a Rembrandt either. He made it special for me and to the glory of God. God was glorified by that just as much as He was by Michelangelo’s work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. God is glorified when we bring Him our best, not merely the best. But He is nonetheless always deserving of our best.

One last thing, and this was where we started back in the introduction. Moses calls all of the skilled artisans to participate in the construction. This was not something any single one of them were going to be able to do on their own. When God calls us to something, He always equips us to do it. But He rarely calls and equips one individual. It’s nearly always a group effort. This case was no exception.

My own church recently went through a capital campaign for the construction of a new worship space and the renovation of our old sanctuary and education building. While the amount of money this people pledged to give was amazing, what was even more encouraging to me was the level of participation. Everybody has pledged to give something. Some gave a relative little. Some gave a relative lot. Everyone gave some.

This is how God does His work. He works through the whole body of Christ. Each member of the body is able to make a contribution that is unique to them, and necessary to the completion of the project. It wouldn’t be the same and wouldn’t be as successful without what they did. In this way, no one really understands fully how it was able to happen. It is bigger than any one, single individual. This too is to God’s glory. Ultimately, He is the only way His kingdom can advance. He is so powerful, and sovereign though, that He doesn’t have to simply do it Himself. He can inspire (not force) the willing contributions from a plethora of different people for different reasons, and accomplish just exactly what He wants to achieve. A God who can do that is a God worthy of our devotion.