Skills or gifts?

I write this as the day of our annual Craft Show approaches. Sadly our chapel will host no more such shows after this year, certainly under current management, as it is due to close its doors for the last time at the end of July. With all the preparations for this big change, though, we are still looking forward to welcoming craft enthusiasts with amazing skills in a variety of areas – pottery, card making, woodworking, painting to name just a few.

A Christian who is good at crafts will not claim the credit for what they can do that others can’t. Even if it is a “natural” aptitude in one direction or another, it is given by God who created us all to be just as we are.

So is there any dividing line at all between being naturally skilled and having a God-given gift? I find myself thinking of a character who crops up in the story of the building of the Tabernacle, the portable temple which God ordered His people to build while they were on their long journey between Egypt and Israel.

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you ...’” (Exodus 31:1-6 ESV)

Someone with a purely worldly outlook would say that Bezalel was artistic and nothing more. Maybe his parents were skilled at crafts, they would speculate. Maybe they were keen to pass on their techniques to the young Bezalel, and he was keen to learn. Or maybe it was somewhere in the genes. They would expect to find that a certain part of Bezalel’s brain was highly developed and gave him a predisposition to be good at handiwork. The Bible, however, is up front in crediting the Holy Spirit with the gifts that Bezalel enjoys.

“Wherever a willing heart commits itself to hear the call of God and to do the will of God, the filling of the Spirit of God may reverently be assumed. Helping and administration are as much his concern as healing and speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:28),” comments Alec Motyer.

And Bezalel with his special skills is simply one of a massive bunch of labourers who will be working on the Tabernacle. His gifts do not make him one of a race apart. Immediately after Bezalel’s commissioning, as Motyer wisely points out, God re-emphasises the Sabbath laws. The uniqueness and holiness of the workers’ task do not allow them to sit loose to the law of God.

In the same way, Christians’ unique standing as people for whom Christ died does not allow us to play fast and loose with God’s will either.