Building in the Background

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with the spirit of God…” 

Exodus 31:1-2, KJV 

In church this month, my class has been going through the book of Exodus. Exodus is a rich and wonderful book, full of miracles, wonders, rules, revelations, and God’s will for the young nation of Israel made manifest. In the passage I quoted though, there is a peculiar thing. This singular man, Bezaleel, is called out by the LORD by name, and later by Moses (Exodus 35:30) and described to be “filled with the spirit of God”.  

And really, that’s it. That’s basically all we know about him. All we know about this guy is that he was a skilled craftsman, filled with the Holy Spirit. He comes up 5 more times in the Bible other than this, always in either a genealogy or describing his work. So we know him, his grandpa, his father, and some of his work. No description otherwise. But we do know that he did a mighty work for God in building the tabernacle.  

We do know that God might not have recorded most of his ministry, but we do know that he rewarded it all the same (Hebrews 11:6). The thing about Bezaleel is, we don’t need to know more, because we already know the most important thing about him anyways – that he served God with his whole heart!  

Many people today want recognition for their work – they want to make a name for themselves, they want to be famous, they want people to know who they are! Those aren’t bad things, but not as many people today are willing to be servants. See, having a figurehead like Moses might be great, but without people like Bezaleel, willing to work in the background and obey (a servant’s job, by the way), and do what it takes to succeed, not for recognition, that’s where the real work gets done.  

An attitude of service is better than anything you can do publicly (1 Samuel 15:22). That’s how you please God, that’s how you get the work done, and that’s how you achieve satisfaction in life. Maybe it’s in the plan for you to be famous, maybe it’s not, but people with grit don’t really care about those things.