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Prophets and Kings
and understanding.”
Exodus 35:30-35
;
36:1
. Heavenly intelligences
co-operated with the workmen whom God Himself had chosen.
The descendants of these workmen inherited to a large degree
the talents conferred on their forefathers. For a time these men of
Judah and Dan remained humble and unselfish; but gradually, almost
imperceptibly, they lost their hold upon God and their desire to serve
Him unselfishly. They asked higher wages for their services, because
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of their superior skill as workmen in the finer arts. In some instances
their request was granted, but more often they 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 indulged
a spirit of covetousness, of grasping for more and more. That their
selfish desires might be gratified, they used their God-given skill in
the service of heathen kings, and lent their talent to the perfecting of
works which were a dishonor to their Maker.
It was among these men 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 could 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, “the son of a
woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre.”
Verse 14
. Huram was a descendant, on his mother’s side, of Aholiab,
to whom, hundreds of years before, God had given special wisdom for
the construction of the tabernacle.
Thus at the head of Solomon’s company of workmen there was
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placed a man whose efforts were not prompted by an unselfish desire
to render service to God. He served the god of this world, mammon.
The very fibers of his being were inwrought with the principles of
selfishness.
Because of his unusual skill, Huram demanded large wages. Grad-
ually the wrong principles that he cherished came to be accepted by