A sermon based on Exodus 31:1-31:18

Our jobs comprise a huge part of our lives. Many have written about work and our love-hate relationship with it. Indira Gandhi observed: “My grandfather once told me that there are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was less competition there.”* But for all our attempts to deal with work at a humorous level, work is very serious business. Many of us wrestle with the question: “What’s the connection between what I do here in church and what I do there in the office?”

A man came across three workers cutting stones from a quarry. He asked them what they were doing. One replied: "I am cutting stones." The second said: "I am earning money." The third answered: "I am building a cathedral." Most of us are like the first two men. We think of our work in terms of what we actually do day after day. Or by what we earn and how those wages benefit us. If the third man’s reply seems presumptuous, could it be that he felt an inspiration in his work that seems foreign to many of us? "Inspiration" is both inspired work and inspiring.

- "Inspired work." For too many of us, those two terms just don’t seem to fit together, or we feel that much of what we do is mundane or repetitious, or receives little recognition.

- “Inspired work and inspiring.” What’s inspiring about what we do? We’re going to find a man who discovered and pursued inspiring work. His name was Bezalel and we encounter him in Exodus 31:1-11. The setting for this conversation between God and Moses is on Mount Sinai:

Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts -- to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you: the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony with the atonement cover on it, and all the other furnishings of the tent -- the table and its articles, the pure gold lampstand and all its accessories, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, the basin with its stand -- and also the woven garments, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests, and the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place. They are to make them just as I commanded you." (Exodus 31:1-11)

God was giving Moses detailed instructions for the construction of the tabernacle, and for all the articles to be used within the tabernacle. All these things were to be made in just the right way. God told Moses that He had chosen Bezalel to be His master craftsman and to lead the team that would build these articles. And God says something very significant about Bezalel. He says he has filled him with his Spirit. It was this infilling that allowed Bezalel’s work to be inspired. His inspired work was enabled by the Spirit.

Often when we think of being filled with the Spirit we see it as being useful for something “spiritual.” In the Old Testament, God’s Spirit came upon Gideon and Samson to deliver the Israelites from their oppressors. God’s Spirit came upon Saul and David to rule the Israelites. In the book of Acts, the filling of the Spirit which the apostles experienced enabled them to preach boldly and perform miracles in order to spread the gospel. Now we know that all who are Christians and follow Jesus as Lord are indwelt by the Holy Spirit at the moment of their new birth. But somehow we have a harder time with the idea that God would fill a craftsman with his Spirit in order to cut and hammer wood. But God did.

What does this say to us today? For one thing, it says that the enabling given by God’s Spirit is not just for sharing our faith or for teaching a Sunday school class. It’s not just for the "spiritual" things in life. It’s for all of life. God wanted the Jewish nation to be a beacon to the surrounding nations. Their laws were to be models of justice and guarantees of protection for the weak and oppressed. And their tabernacle and the articles within it were to be a reflection of God’s beauty. The craftsmen, under Bezalel, were to make something beautiful for God.

Bezalel’s work was to be inspired because it was to be done for God. But what about your work? Perhaps you wouldn’t exactly call it inspired. You may not feel like you are building a beautiful structure for God. In fact, in your particular situation, you may struggle with feelings that just maybe you’re building a monument to Satan. Or at least a series of shrines to someone else’s ego. Or perhaps even your own. Or do you find yourself up against things in your workplace that make it very hard to do your work for God? Drudgery, lack of recognition, office politics - all these things and more are the rule rather than the exception in many jobs. So what do we do?

Perhaps the first thing to do is to face the facts. Even though inspired work is enabled by the Spirit it is still performed in the real world, warts and all. In other words, we are called to do inspired work in a less than inspiring environment.

Every job has its less than inspiring elements. What can we do about it? We can see it as being done for God. We can commit it to Him. And we can take a healthy pride in it: the balance sheet you complete, or the room you clean, or the class you teach. Too often we just go through the motions. I’m not talking about arrogance or a kind of “I can do anything I put my mind to" attitude. I am talking about a healthy respect for what you’ve done and a pleasure in seeing the results of your work. And for those of us who are Christians, we have the added motivation that we are doing these things for God now. These things won’t necessarily take away the less than inspiring elements of our work. But they will help us along the path to doing inspired work.

We can see from the example of Bezalel that the Spirit enables us to perform inspired work even in a less than inspiring world. What about the other side of the coin? What about rest? We don’t really know a lot about it today. We are a leisure oriented culture but we don’t know how to rest. What does it mean to rest? More importantly, how can we receive inspiring rest? This is the subject of the second portion of our text from Exodus 31:

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, ’You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy. Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people. For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested.’" When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God. (Exodus 31:12-18).

It is no coincidence that the commandment concerning the Sabbath is the final one God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Why this emphasis on the need for a Sabbath ? God Himself rested after His work of creation. We serve a God who models for us what He expects us to do. God’s call here in Exodus 31 to observe a day of rest is not a new commandment. It was given earlier as the fourth of the Ten Commandments, so the first thing to realize about rest is that it was part of God’s plan from the very beginning. We serve a God who rested and calls us to rest. And that brings us to the second point: rest is something we really need. Just as we were created to work, we were created to rest. The rhythm of rest and work is an essential part of being human. We ignore it at our peril. We are marvelous creations capable of incredible achievements. But we are at the same time fragile, easily damaged by misuse. To ignore God’s intended rhythm of rest and work is like ignoring the manufacturer’s instructions for any piece of fine machinery. God has created us with certain tolerances and limitations. Let’s not ignore the Manufacturer’s design. We need rest.

But it’s crucial to realize that rest is more than just putting your feet up after a hard day at the office. Physical rest is essential, of course. We need a break from our physical labours. But true Sabbath, really is much more. To quote from Gordon MacDonald: "Since we have not understood that rest is a necessity, we have perverted its meaning, substituting for the rest that God first demonstrated things called leisure or amusement.... Leisure and amusement may be enjoyable, but they are to the [inner] world of the individual like cotton candy to the digestive system. They provide a momentary lift, but they will not last."**

So true Sabbath rest is not mere leisure or amusement. Then what is it? It is a period specifically set aside from work that allows us to interpret that work, and to bring meaning to it. It is time to answer questions like: “What does all this mean?” “Why do I do it?” It gives us time to sort out our priorities: "Who am I working for?” “What do I really believe?" It gives us the opportunity to affirm our desire to serve God. A true Sabbath rest involves stopping to look in three directions. Looking backward, to what we’ve done in the past, we press meaning into our work. Looking inward, to who we are at the present, we gain perspective. And looking forward, to what we desire to be in the future, we gain direction and motivation. This last element, that of looking forward, is especially important. In another quote from MacDonald: "Most of us think of resting as something we do after our work is done. But Sabbath is not something that happens after. It may in fact be something that is pursued before. If we assume that this rest comes only after work is complete, many of us are in trouble, for we have jobs where the work is never finished. And that in part is why some of us rarely rest; never finishing our work, we do not think to take the time for Sabbath peace and restoration....We do not rest because our work is done; we rest because God commanded it and created us to have a need for it.”***

How do I obtain true Sabbath rest?

We’ve already done the easy part, realizing what such rest is and what it is not, and recognizing that such is an absolute necessity. There remains the hard part, actually setting aside time to do it. No generation in history has had so many choices given it of how to spend its non-working time, or waste it. It’s up to us to make wise decisions. Is your rest mere cotton candy for your soul, or does it deeply nourish you? Carving out such time is tough. If you have children you can care for them for a time while your spouse takes rest. If you know a single parent, perhaps you can similarly give them the gift of rest they so desperately need. Pursuing Sabbath rest is not easy - just necessary. It’s necessary not just because we are a people who need Sabbath, but also because we are surrounded by a rest-less society that needs God’s rest-ed people.

Our culture’s frantic pursuit of leisure has left people rest-less. And they will continue to be rest-less until they find their rest in God. Only one of the three stone masons in our story was inspired in his work. What about your work? God stands ready to fill us with his Spirit - as he did with Bezalel - to perform that work. It can become inspired work even when done in a less than inspiring world. And when we realize our need for and begin to receive God’s offer of true Sabbath refreshment, God will draw us and use us to draw others to Himself. That offer is here right now. The writer to the Hebrews put it this way:

There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. ... therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4: 9-16)

That is God’s offer. Let’s receive it.

*Indira Gandhi, Bits and Pieces, April 1990, p. 11.
**Gordon MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World (Nelson, Tenn., 1985), p.164.
***MacDonald, p. 174-175.

Shortened form of a sermon preached by John Cuddeford, Hillside Baptist Church, in February 2000.      sermoncentral.com     Content distributed by HisChurchatWork.org > Used for non-profit teaching purposes only.