“Moses then said to the Israelites, ‘Look, the Lord has appointed by name Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. He has filled him with God’s Spirit, with wisdom, understanding, and ability in every kind of craft to design artistic works in gold, silver, and bronze, to cut gemstones for mounting, and to carve wood for work in every kind of artistic craft. He has also given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all the work of a gem cutter; a designer; an embroiderer in blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen; and a weaver. They can do every kind of craft and design artistic designs. Bezalel, Oholiab, and all the skilled people are to work based on everything the Lord has commanded. The Lord has given them wisdom and understanding to know how to do all the work of constructing the sanctuary.’” (CSB – Read chapter 35; read chapter 36)

Leadership matters. Nothing of significance happens without good and effective leadership. The last piece that needed to be put in place before Israel was going to be able to build the tabernacle was leadership…but not from Moses. Moses could do a lot of things, but as far as we know, he wasn’t a craftsman. To build something like the tabernacle, Israel was going to need craftsman. So, God raised some up. Let’s talk for a minute today about Bezalel and Oholiab, and what the most effective leadership looks like.

Bezalel and Oholiab are interesting characters in the Exodus narrative. They only appear in the context of talking about the construction of the tabernacle. After that, they go back into the closet of historical anonymity. But they make a big enough splash here that I’ve heard more than one sermon and read more than one devotion dedicated solely to exploring the two of them and their impact on Israelite history. I’m not going to quite jump on that particular bandwagon here, but since we are talking about the passage where they feature more prominently than just about anywhere else they show up in the narrative, let’s at least dip our toes in the water.

Moses had been given the plans for the tabernacle, and had effectively communicated them to the people, but that was about the extent that he could do himself in terms of making the thing a reality. To see things go beyond this point, he was going to have to extend his leadership into new places. Well, they weren’t totally new places. His father-in-law had set him on the path to be able to do this a few months before, but he was likely still working out the kinks in such a mindset shift in leading groups.

When leading a group, if the group is small, an effective leader can probably do most of what needs to be done by himself. He’s still not wise to take such a path, but it’s at least possible. When a group crosses a certain size threshold, though, things have to change. Where exactly this threshold is depends on the individual leader. Different leaders have different levels of leadership capacity. Still, the threshold exists for every leader. Rather than even making a pretense at doing everything himself, the leader must actively and intentionally empower others to assist in the leading.

This raising up of others to assist in the duties of leadership can itself take two different forms. The first is to merely raise up assistants. These are not people invited to think for themselves and look for opportunities to expand on the vision of the leader. They are merely there to help carry out the duties of leadership that the leader cannot handle by himself. With a very high-capacity leader, this kind of an approach can work to see that an organization is run fairly smoothly and well, but even then, it’s not the better of the two approaches.

The second approach here is to raise up others who are empowered and invested with the authority of leadership themselves. This requires giving more attention to sharing mission and vision effectively and well because these leaders are going to be sent out to expand the organization along the lines of its stated goals and purpose. In doing this, they will themselves be given the permission and authority to pass on their mantle of leadership to still others. The top leader needs to be aware of the expansion work to make sure the mission and vision are being effectively communicated on down the organizational structure, but this approach allows for an organization to grow much more effectively and successfully.

This is the approach Moses takes with Bezalel and Oholiab. In turn, they become effective leaders in their own right. I think there are actually three good leadership principles we see put on display here. Let’s quickly touch on each one, and then you can go look to put them into practice in your own organization.

The first principle we see here is that effective leadership requires competence. If you are going to lead something, it is necessary to know something about it. From their description, Bezalel and Oholiab were expert craftsmen. They had the skills to do the job thoroughly and well. If we are going to lead effectively, we need to know about what it is we are leading.

Now, this doesn’t mean you need to know the details of how to do every single thing that happens in the organization. But you need to have at least a passing familiarity with it. Without that, you cannot provide effective direction. This means that if you are a leader, you also need to be a student. You need to be committed to constantly learning more about what it is you are leading. This is so that you can propose new methods and directions when those become necessary, but also so that you can understand what your people are talking about when they come to you for help.

Personally speaking, while I cannot do all the things that need to be done in order for my church to run smoothly nearly as well as the people who do them regularly, there aren’t very many things that I don’t know at least something about so that I can support and serve when necessary. I find that to be a pretty good balance. It keeps people from depending so heavily on me that they aren’t growing themselves, and it keeps me from pridefully thinking I could do a better job than they could (when the truth is that I most emphatically could not).

The second principle here is that effective leadership requires collaboration. Moses didn’t just appoint Bezalel to the task of building the tabernacle. He appointed Bezalel and Oholiab. While there are some leaders who simply have a leadership capacity that goes well beyond what most people could even dream of reaching, that’s not the case for most of us. Instead, we all have specific gifts and talents that are shaped by our passions and experiences such that we are more effective in some areas than others. I’m really good at writing, teaching, and preaching. Those come easily enough that I hardly have to try. Pastoral care, on the other hand, takes a lot more effort and energy for me to do a passable job. Being an effective pastor, though, requires both. If I try to do everything by myself, things are not going to go very well. I need to have people around me who share in these duties of leadership.

One of the best ways to effectively share the duties of leadership is to create leadership teams. In a leadership team, each member is chosen specifically because of the expertise and wisdom he or she brings to the table. Some members are better at one thing; some are better at others. All of them are necessary. Yet while teams like this are a good and wise investment to form, there still needs to be a clear leader on the team – a first among equals, if you will.

Without this, the overall leadership coming from the team is going to be diminished in its capacity and clarity. Accountability among the members will be difficult to maintain. Genuine problems are less likely to be addressed effectively because it will be too easy to pass them off to someone else. Indeed, the only things with more than one head in nature are monsters and mutants. Effective leadership is collaborative, but it still requires a top dog. While Bezalel and Oholiab were both called to take on the task of building the tabernacle, from the nature of the narrative, it becomes clear that while the pair worked together, Bezalel was the main leader.

One last principle here, and we’ve already touched on it some. Effective leadership requires raising up and equipping others to help with the leadership. That’s something that is clear in this passage. When citing their qualifications to lead, Moses doesn’t simply list out all the different areas of craftsmanship in which they were experts. He notes in v. 34 that God had “given both [Bezalel] and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others.”

If you are not actively raising up, empowering, and encouraging other people to take part in the leadership, you are eventually going to wear yourself out, burn yourself out, and then your organization will fall apart. The most effective leadership eventually works itself out of a job. You won’t be able to do what you are doing forever. Unless you are intentional about identify, training, and unleashing new leaders on a regular basis, your organization will plateau and then decline. These leaders cannot simply be yes men whose job it is to rubber stamp and implement your orders. They must be leaders in their own right who are given the authority to move forward in directions they identify as necessary. This means you must train them carefully for the task, but unless you do, they’ll never really grow, and neither will the organization.

Sometimes what we find in the Scriptures are deeply spiritual truths that have the power to transform us from the inside out. Other times – like we see here – we find very practical insights that have the power to enable us to accomplish God’s purposes with far greater effectiveness. They are truths that are relevant far more broadly than merely growing God’s kingdom, but they are especially effective when we unleash them in that direction. Growing God’s kingdom requires good leadership. Let’s learn the necessary lessons so we can do it wisely and well.