Object Lesson
159
wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of
the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer ... and of the weaver,
even of them that do any work, and of those that devise cunning work”
(
Exodus 35:30-35
). “Then wrought Bezaleel ... and every wise hearted
man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding” (
Exodus
36:1
). Heavenly intelligences cooperated with the workmen whom
God Himself chose.
The descendants of these men inherited to a large degree the skill
conferred upon their forefathers. In the tribes of Judah and of Dan
there were men who were regarded as especially “cunning” in the
finer arts. For a time these men remained humble and unselfish; but
gradually, almost imperceptibly, they lost their hold upon God and His
truth. They began to ask for higher wages because of their superior
skill. In some instances their request was granted, but more often those
asking higher wages found employment in the surrounding nations.
In place of the noble spirit of self-sacrifice that had filled the hearts
of their illustrious ancestors, they cherished a spirit of covetousness,
of grasping for more and more. They served heathen kings with their
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God-given skill, and dishonored their Maker.
Unbelieving Workmen Employed
It was to these apostates that Solomon looked for a master work-
man to superintend the construction of the temple on Mount Moriah.
Minute specifications, in writing, regarding every portion of the sacred
structure, had been entrusted to the king, and he should have looked
to God in faith for consecrated helpers, to whom would have been
granted special skill for doing with exactness the work required. But
Solomon lost sight of this opportunity to exercise faith in God. He
sent to the king of Tyre for “a man cunning to work in gold, and in
silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue,
and that can skill to grave with the cunning men ... In Judah and in
Jerusalem” (
2 Chronicles 2:7
).
The Phoenician king responded by sending Huram, “a cunning
man, endued with understanding, ... The son of a woman of the
daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre” (
2 Chronicles
2:13, 14
). This master workman, Huram, was a descendant, on his
mother’s side, of Aholiab, to whom, hundreds of years before, God