Being Filled With The Holy Spirit, Ot Style (Exodus 31:1-8) Series

So. Exodus 31:1. And we will start by reading through verse 5:

(1) and Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

"LOOK! I hereby call by name Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,

(3) and I hereby fill him with the Spirit of God/Elohim-- with wisdom/skill, and insight/discernment/intelligence/perceptiveness, and with knowledge, and with every [kind of; h/t Christo van der Merwe] craftsmanship--

(4) to devise designs,

to work with gold and with silver and with bronze,

(5) and with cutting stone for settings, and in the carving of trees,

to work in/with every kind of work,

Yahweh here formally commissions Bezalel for the work of building his tabernacle. He picks him out by name to be the head foreman and builder, and he equips him for this service. How?

Yahweh "fills him with the Spirit of God." Yahweh does here, what some Pentecostals say He never does in the OT-- He fills him with the Holy Spirit.

The verse then goes on to explain to us what the significance of this is (the dashed lines, -- , to the right are an elaboration, and this kind of the key here). What happens, when you are filled with God's Spirit?

Here, what it means is that Bezalel receives wisdom, and insight, and knowledge, and craftsmanship.

Now, whenever we see lists like this, we are maybe tempted to try to draw subtle distinctions between the Hebrew words. What's the difference between the words translated here as "wisdom," and "insight," and "knowledge"? We could try to do that, but I don't think it'd end up being very helpful (there is a ton of semantic overlap in meaning among the words). I think God piles up the different Hebrew words here, to help us appreciate what He did to Bezalel. And what God did, basically, is make Bezalel a ridiculously competent contractor.

We live in a day of specialization. People tend to be really good at one or two things. They can get by, probably, in a few others. But those one or two things are their bread and butter. Those one or two things are how they make a living (and I think it's Scott Adams, of "Dilbert" fame, who says-- I'm paraphrasing-- the secret to being successful in life, is being really good at two things).

Even today, when we think about contractors, it still often works that way. You have metal workers, who are welders for a living. You have carpenters, electricians, plumbers, roofers. It's not that those people can't work outside of their specialty, but the skill level, and speed, goes down. And when you ask someone to work outside of their specialty, you accept that you aren't quite getting what you're paying for.

Now, I say all of that, but contractors often have a wide variety of skills. The main guy who did my roof, Josh Satrom, has a great reputation in Jamestown for doing quality work, in lots of areas. If you want a $30,000 kitchen remodel done, with everything done at the highest quality, he's your guy. He's also your guy, if your roof is sagging, or you're remodeling a basement bedroom, or for just about anything else done around the house. As far as I can tell, he's really good at everything-- and his own dad, who is a great contractor in his own right, told me that Josh is the best roofer in town. When your dad has high respect for your ability, you know you're good.