Skillful Workmen

"Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twisted linen and blue and purple and scarlet material; you shall make them with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman... You shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet material and fine twisted linen; it shall be made with cherubim, the work of a skillful workman." -Exodus 26.1, 31

God continues to instruct His people on the construction of the tabernacle. Here He begins to describe how they are to make the tent itself, and in these two verses we see that the work is to be done by a skillful workman. They aren't just supposed to grab the first volunteer, it needs to be someone who knows what they are doing. Someone who has trained and developed their skills to be able to do the intricate work that is required. Afterall this is going to be the place where God dwells, it demands their very best.

As I read this text my mind goes back several years. I think it was late in college, but it could even have been late high school. My grandpa and I were going to the church my dad was serving at to build some cupboards in order to hide jobs that were done halfway decades earlier. In the fellowship hall the electric panel was placed in the middle of the one wall, right in plain sight. In the men's room the plumbing looked like it had been thrown together in about ten minutes, and all of it was running, fully exposed, up the corner. I don't remember most of that day, but I remember my grandfather saying, "No one would ever do that kind of job in their own house, so why is it good enough for God's?"

If we enter into the service of God, which all of us are called to do, then it is our duty and responsibility to develop our skills for His service. God has created, called, and equipped us to take part in His story, we need to be prepared.

Men, are you honing your skills so that when the call comes for a skillful workman you can be seriously considered for the task? Or is your mindset more along the lines of "Anything is good enough for God"?

There is a difference between, "Anything is good enough" and "This is the best I can do". I remember being in a church in Thessaloniki, Greece and wondering what Paul would have said about the ornamentation of the building had he been there today. I asked a professor I was with who brought up that question and told me about a time he was at a church on an island somewhere in the South Pacific. He said that Sunday the people of the church had covered the altar with tropical flowers. They didn't have the gold to decorate as the church in Greece did, but the offered the best they had.

What do you offer? The best you can, or the leftovers because it's "Good enough"? Let us always strive to give our very best to God, and always strive to improve so that we may continue to offer Him better and better. Let us hone our skills so that we may be called upon as skillful workmen.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor