Bible Commentaries
Exodus 31

Verses 1-18

Chapter 31

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: I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass ( Exodus 31:1-4 ),

So now God has anointed Bezaleel and given him certain talents and abilities.

It is marvelous to see people who have just innate abilities and talents that have been given to them by God. It's just in them, it's in their-it's encoded, I think, in their gene structures. There are some people who just have natural music ability. I don't care how hard you study music; you can never achieve what they have achieved just through natural, innate ability. There are people who are natural linguists. Languages just come naturally to them.

One of the translators of King James-and I'm gonna bring you some lessons on the King James translations one of these days and show you why I am opposed to anything other than the King James translation, why I believe that it was inspired of God, like no other translation has been since. There is an endeavor to put down the scholarship of the King James translation. But I'm going to show you some interesting facts of history of what really happened to translations. And I'm gonna show you the error of the reasoning of Westcott and Hort, who created the text from which all modern translations are taken, basing what they said, "the most ancient manuscripts would be the more correct manuscripts". I'm gonna show you the fallacy of their reasoning.

A conspiracy of Satan to rob us from the true Word of God. I'll be showing you the errors of a lot of these modern translations because they were taken from Westcott and Hort. "You know, the King James is so hard to read." Listen, there's nothing like it. Now they are coming out with a new King James, the New Testament is now out. They've gone back to Textus Receptus. This is one of the best things that has happened in translation, because I believe that the Textus Receptus is closer to the original text than anything else.

I think that the Westcott and Hort text is a gigantic perversion of Satan to rob from the deity of Jesus Christ, because of the Aryan influence in the early church and of the fifty copies that were made in Alexandria, in which they deliberately perverted and changed the scriptures that had to do with the deity of Jesus Christ, from which came the Codex Sinaiticus, the Codex Vaticanus, and also the Vulgate, for Jerome used it in his translation.

I'll show you where the true translations came from, the church of Antioch, which was interested in keeping the purity of the scriptures. Quite a bit there to learn and to know. Don't let anybody put down your King James. There are some eleven hundred and twenty-eight changes in the revised standards that are horrible. They are doing away with the deity of Christ. I do not respect or admire the so-called scholarship of Westcott and Hort. I think they were a couple of big plants.

They put down the scholarship of King James. And this is where I started; one of the translators of King James could read and write Hebrew when he was five-years old; a natural linguist, could converse in forty-five different languages. Some people are just born with that ability. Some people are born with mathematics ability. Some people are born with electronic abilities. Some people are born with artistic abilities. There are certain innate abilities that men have.

Now these innate abilities actually come as a gift from God. What you do with them is up to you. But it's tragic when a person takes an ability given to them by God, and prostitutes it for his own profit or gain. Whatever God has given to us, He has given to us to use for His glory.

Languages were the hardest thing in the world for me. I struggled with languages. It didn't come easy at all. And yet some people just have no problem with language, and the study of foreign languages comes so easy for them. It's just an inward gift; it's just something that is there. I've been looking for what God has gifted me with for a long time. One of these days I hope to find it. But I'm just Mister Plain Normal. But I love to see people who have been gifted of God. I love to see an artist, really gifted artist, as they're drawing or as they're working. To me it's just fascinating. I love to watch a gifted carpenter. People who have just been given that innate ability to do things.

Now God said, "I put my Spirit on Bezaleel for skillful, cunning work." This fellow who was just anointed of God to be the superintendent, and to oversee to make sure it was all done right. That to me is glorious that God has so gifted people in various areas. Now that's where the body is neat, because as we are here in the body, we have every kind of gift imaginable, here within the body. There's really probably nothing that we can't do collectively.

We announced the problem with the brakes on the truck at the camp. Fellow came up said, "Well, I drive a truck. I'll take my toolbox", and he went up and fixed the brakes. That's neat. If I'd gone up there to look at the brakes, I wouldn't know where to start looking. So it's glorious that God has brought together collectively in all of us, probably the abilities and the talents for just about anything. The whole body concept is beautiful, because as we pool the resources together, oh, so much can be accomplished for God, by the pooling of our combined abilities and talents. That's what God intends is that we each put our part in. The body is composed of many parts, and not all parts do the same thing. Your hands can't do what your feet were designed to do. Your feet can't do what your hands were designed to do, but each part is important to this functioning of the body.

So here we are the body of Christ, and God has you here for a plan and for a purpose. Your place within the body, to fill that place, and when the need arises in which God will give you those special talents and abilities, you can step in and say, "Well, hey I can do that. You know there's nothing to that." Oh, yes there is something to that if you don't know anything about it, if you haven't been talented by God in that area.

So the collective pooling of the resources are talents as we anoint, give them to God and let them be anointed as His. Because always, always your talent will find its greatest release when anointed by God's Spirit and doing the work of God. Anything less will always be a little unsatisfactory. You won't have a total sense of fulfillment until you've consecrated to God, let Him anoint it, and let Him use it and then, oh, then the glory that comes from consecrating my talent to God, and letting Him use it for His glory. It's really great.

So Bezaleel, a man anointed to devise the cunning works, to work in gold, silver, brass. He's just a natural at it.

And cutting of stones, carving the timber, and to work in all kinds of workmanship. [The guy's just skilled with his hands.] And I've given with him Aholiab, from the tribe of Dan: and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee; The tabernacle of the congregation, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat, the furniture of the tabernacle, The table and all of these things ( Exodus 31:5-8 ),

God just gave these fellows abilities and wisdom.

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths shall ye keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; and that you may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; it is holy unto you: everyone that defiles it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work on the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. [Capital punishment.] Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. And so he gave unto Moses, when he made an end of communing with him on mount Sinai, gave him the two tables of testimony, the tables of stone, written with the finger of God ( Exodus 31:12-18 ).

Now notice on the Sabbath day that it is a definite covenant between God and the nation of Israel, for their generations, "between Me and Israel forever". The Sabbath was not a law made for the Gentile. And nowhere in the scripture, except for a Gentile would move into Israel, would he to observe the Sabbath. But the Gentile church was never placed under the Sabbath law in the scriptures. In the early church when there was an endeavor to put the Gentile church under the law, a counsel was called in Jerusalem in which it was determined that they should not try to put the Gentiles under the law, which Peter called, "the yoke of bondage, which neither we, nor our fathers were able to keep" ( Acts 15:10 ). Why should we tie it on the necks of the Gentiles?

So when they wrote to them, the Gentile church of Antioch, concerning this relationship to the law of Moses, they said, "Keep yourself from fornication and from things that are strangled ( Acts 15:20 ). And if you do this, you do well. God bless you. But nothing about the observance of the Sabbath day. Thus Paul the apostle said in Romans fourteen, "In one day, one man esteems one day above another, another man esteems every day alike, let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind." In Colossians he said, "Therefore let no man judge you in respect to sabbath days, new moons, holy days, which were all a shadow of things to come, the real substance is of Christ"( Colossians 2:16 ).

Now what was the Jewish Sabbath signifying? That God wanted His people to rest in Him. But they never did rest in Him, even though they did nothing on the Sabbath day. Now Christ is the fulfillment of the Sabbath day, for Christ is our rest. We who are in Christ have entered into His rest, so we have a perpetual Sabbath. I have ceased from my own labors; I have entered into the finished work of Jesus Christ. And even as God is now resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ, as far as my salvation, I must rest where God is resting, and realize that there is no work that I can offer to God of my hands, that can save me.

The only thing that can possibly save me is Jesus Christ, and His sacrifice for my sins. And I rest in that sacrifice; that finished work of Jesus Christ. As far as my salvation is concerned, I'm resting that Christ is gonna take care of it. Through His sacrifice of His blood upon the cross, I'm resting; and thus, I have entered into the true Sabbath, that which the Jews haven't yet discovered, though they light their candles and say their prayers, and stay in bed on Saturday. How glorious it is to know the true rest of God, the true Sabbath of God, even Jesus Christ.

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