The Israelites gave very generously of their possessions in order to construct the tabernacle; for so inconsistent are men that they will offer gifts freely to the true God one day and worship veal the next. People are only consistently good or bad in books. When the satyr turned the poor man out of his cabin for blowing on his soup to cool it, and then on his fingers to warm them, (he would have nothing to do with one that could blow hot and cold, he said,) he merely did it after his manner, satirically. He knew very well that the whole human race could blow hot or cold at will, and that even he who said the more he knew of men the more he liked dogs was probably not a great deal better than his fellows. Nor was he who said his countrymen were so many millions “mostly fools,” much wiser (though unquestionably more learned) than the bulk.
When the different materials were collected for the building, much necessarily has to be done before the tabernacle is finished, and this is accomplished by human instrumentality. A number of artificers led by Bezaleel (an ancestor and type of Christ) are called, who take up the materials and so design, fit and perfect them, that they are worthy to be built in with the rest of the sacred edifice. The tabernacle being by one aspect a type of the body of believers, we have before us then a figure of the place and value of ministry by human instruments.
The same principle is seen in another connection in Psa. 45. There is “the gold of Oplair “; that is what God gives. It is put in the ground and men stoop and pick it up. No man can make it, though they have been trying for ages (and have indeed succeeded in making something like it). This gold is the divine nature of which we are made partakers, which is communicated in the gospel. Then there is the “wrought gold,” that is where human design and labor are worked into the God-given gold. The bride had a third attribute too—raiment of needlework: this she had of course prepared for herself; “the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints.” These last are in the tabernacle symbolized by the hangings of the court.
But it is to the ministry by human agents that we are directed in this passage. Bezaleel and his assistants took the rough-hewn members of the tabernacle as they were brought, and by their patient and ingenious care, design and labor, they gradually developed and perfected the character of each, till they were formed finally into one glorious and harmonious whole. The important place given in the sacred records to the mention of these artificers may suggest to all who know and serve the Lord a consideration of the great value and importance of their work; and not only to those whose sphere of work is public and prominent, but as Peter says, “As each man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another.” If there is by grace a faculty, there is also a responsibility. We are all given the care of the characters of one another. We are called to be cunning artificers in human souls, so to care for, study, and act upon, one another as that the impression of the divine idea shall be wrought out in each according to his position, nature, and capacity.
What work this is! There is nothing more important in the universe. Flow infinitely more important than all the carving and sculpturing in literal wood and stone could ever be, how important soever were it. It is the spiritual artificer who has most right to say, “Art is long though life is short.” When Michael Angelo was told by his friend that some finishing touches, that he had been weeks in giving to a statue, were only trifles, he replied that all these trifles constitute perfection, and that perfection is no trifle. When told that he worked slowly, the great artist merely replied, Yes, but that he worked for a long time. And the artificers of the Lord work for a long eternity: as eternity exceeds time, so does the work of the spiritual sculptor surpass the physical, but, alas, so does no his sense of the importance of his work, it is to be feared.
Mutual soul influence is hourly going on everywhere for good or evil whether we recognize it or not. Let each consider whether the influence he is exercising on others is of Bezaleel or Beelzebub. Is the form we are carving to be a Galatea or a Frankenstein; to be animated by the spark from heaven, or the fire of hell? And let us consider, too, that to exercise an influence for evil on one human being for a moment has a baleful effect that can perhaps never be canceled, nor can it be compensated for by beneficial influences exercised on others, however large. The man of God who wrote hymns a century ago of such strength ar d grace that millions of Christians still sing them and find them a soul-forming power—that man used to say that he never could forget nor cease to sorrow for the bad effect of his own conduct on a young shipmate of his in his early days.
Let us therefore consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Let us make it a matter of consideration, of thought, of effort, of design: endeavoring to produce in each the impress of God, the semblance of Christ; not using the same tools and methods with each, but having some care as to what is appropriate. Nor let us be discouraged if some are more difficult to manipulate than others. Beech and oak are much harder to work than deal, but the result is worth the extra labor. If there be knots in the wood—or eccentricities in the character—the patient and able artificer can often turn these to adornments by careful treatment. Who would not prefer walnut wood to pine? If there be a discipline implied in all this, well, then if the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness: here again “to be beautiful one must needs suffer.”