THE THEME OF THIS DEVOTION IS:
God calls each of us personally, by name—which is our divinely affirmed identity in him—and endows us with the gifts that through their godly usage will cause us to fulfill our destiny. We should walk in the Spirit with Him—in the secret place beneath his “Shadow”—so that we may not only know our calling and gifting but also that we may learn from him daily how to perform that for which he has designed us in Messiah Jesus.
Exodus 31:1-2,
VA’YE’DA’BEYR Y’’H EL-MOSHE LEY’MOR
And THE LORD spoke to Moses saying,
RE’AY KA’RA’TI VE’SHEYM BE’TZAL’EYL
See—I have called by name Betzalel
BEN-URI BEN-CHUR LE’MAT’TAY YE’HU’DAH
Son of Uri, son of Hur of the tribe of Judah
From this calling God further told Moses that Betzalel was divinely gifted (“LA’A’MAL’LAY, “I have filled”) with the Holy Spirit of God (RU’ACH ELOHIM) in Wisdom, Insight (Understanding), Knowledge and Craft (Technical Skill). This demonstrates the spiritual root of all natural wisdom and its application to real life in the temporal world.
Science would do well to take heed to this. Business would do well to take heed to this. All functions of humanity would do well to take heed to this. There will be no survival without God. There will be no prosperity, which is first of all spiritual, without God. The decline of nations is directly proportional to their disconnect from the Spirit of Revelation from God. (Hosea 4:6) The Bible demonstrates in the lives of Pharoah and Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus that even Gentile Kings receive life-saving revelation from God for the benefit of their peoples. Wise are the kings that listen to the still small Voice that prompts them toward the Light (“Uri”—see John 1:1-17).
Betzalel’s name means, “in the Shadow (Protection) of God.” His father Uri’s name means, “Flame”—especially the East, the region of Light, and the direction that the Tabernacle faces from the Holy of Holies outward toward the rising of the sun. [Strong] Hur, the name of Uri’s father (Betzalel’s grandfather) means variously, “white linen, pale, to bore, the crevice of a serpent, a hole.” All of these images of identity depict Betzalel as a man whose life is hidden in God away from the bite of the serpent—which is Sin (1 Corinthians 15); instead, he is made pure like a flame; he is made righteous before God, walking in the priestly garment of linen. Therefore, to him from his hidden walk with God comes forth endowments that are supernatural in origin so that he is able to build in the wilderness the miraculous construction of the Mishkan—the place where the Divine Presence abides to instruct and lead the people of God safely through the Desert of Death to the Flesh (Luke 4).
WOW! WHAT A MAN OF GOD IN THE DESERT OF THE WORLD!
May each of us—Men and Women alike—be such people!
[See Romans 12 with 1 Corinthians 12-14 and all of 2 Timothy, et al.]
