Made by the Master's Hands
A daily devotional
Note: This is a sample of the devotional content that will be developed over the course of the next few years, and will be available under the paid plan. The goal will be to reach 250 devotions, the typical number of working days for guy who only gets a week or two of vacation time.
Read or Listen to: Genesis 1:1-2:7
If you’ve ever read through (or tried to) read through the Bible, you will know that it starts off with a lot of exciting stories. But about halfway through the book of exodus, the story turns into something much more technical. Your eyes may have glazed over as you read about the regulations of how to worship and the instructions for building the tabernacle.
But as you gain more experience in life, different things begin to strike you in different ways. As a craftsman and a builder, the details around the story of the tabernacle become much more interesting. This is an area that we will explore quite a bit, but to start off, here’s a basic thing to keep in mind.
God appoints two men to be in charge of the tabernacle construction - Bezalel, and his helper, Oholiab. Both of them are blessed by God to become teachers of others (Exodus 35:34); much like the men who teach for Tectonic. So for a massive job like building the tabernacle, their most important task is to teach others.
“All the skilled men among the workmen made the tabernacle…” (Exodus 36:8) As you read through the entire story, it says over and over - “they made . . .”, but it says “Bezalel made the ark”. Bezalel could teach the men how to make all sorts of things. They had more than enough material, so they could afford to make mistakes to teach the craftsmen well. But when it came to crafting the Ark, the most important piece of the tabernacle, Bezalel made it himself.
Let’s compare this to another piece of scripture. In Genesis 1, God creates by speaking. He says, “let there be light” and there was light. And as he continues, He tells the earth “bring forth plants”. He tells the water to “teem with living creatures” and the ground, “produce living creatures”. God tells them what to make. But in the next chapter, it says this “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground.”
Bezalel could delegate much of the work to the men under his employ. But He made the ark himself. Likewise, God could give instructions for most of creation - but when He made humans - He did the work Himself. God is the creator of everything - but His specialty is people.
He didn’t stop forming people with Adam. God is continuously shaping us into the type of people He wants us to be. If you’ve seen pictures of what the ark was supposed to look like, none of them are exactly the same. God chose Bezalel because He knew that when Bezalel heard the description of the Ark, the image in his mind would be exactly what God was looking for. In the same way, God has a vision for each of us - and what He has in mind is far better than what we would imagine. But getting there can be difficult. We might admit we have a few rough edges that need to be knocked off; God won’t stop there. He will make us completely new. He may try to nudge us with a gentle word. If that doesn’t work, He has much sharper tools.
So remember this story if you feel like you are being chipped away, or even ground down to dust. God has a vision for your life. He is making you into something far better than you can imagine.
Questions to reflect on: Can you look back and remember an experience that you did not enjoy, but that helped you grow?
While you work: As you go about your tasks today, consider which choices will change YOU, growing in skill and character, even if they make your work harder today.
After work: Try to identify a choice that helped you build a skill, a good habit, or growth in character.
For teachers: If the opportunity arises for you to do something that your students can’t yet do - Try to show them what you are doing, and share how you gained the skill to complete the task.