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Wise-Hearted Ones: An Artist Ordained
206 Plays10 months ago
An Artist Ordained with Lisa Smith
What if HOW we create is just as important as WHAT we create due to this divine call? Artists selected by God have a high calling — one that requires everything be surrendered to the Maker. Continuing the Wise-Hearted Ones series, Lisa Smith dives into the artistic giftings God gave to master artisans when he ordained them to create the Tabernacle. Take time to consider this self-sacrificial call, filled with joy, freedom, and efficacy, and ponder what that means for us as we seek to bring to life the gifts the Spirit of God has filled us with.
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Transcript
Introduction to Be Make Do Podcast
00:00:10
Speaker
Hello, welcome to Be Make Do with Soul Makers Podcast, where we explore what it takes for you to live out your call in the arts with spiritual wholeness and creative freedom. I'm your host, Lisa Smith, here with my producer, Danny B.H. Hello, everyone. And we're excited to hopefully encourage you to become who you are created to be, make what you were created to make and do what you were created to do.
00:00:34
Speaker
So far in our story of the wise-hearted ones from Exodus 30 to 35, we've seen that God calls artists and crafts people of all varieties and media by name and by heart to carry out his plan to create the tabernacle as a dwelling place and witness.
00:00:53
Speaker
Well, we've already talked about in the series that so many artists struggle with the value and impact of their work.
Is Art a Divine Calling?
00:01:01
Speaker
This question of does it really matter that you make art? But we are advocating that this is soul work. So in this episode, we're going to take it a little further. And I'm actually going to go out there and say that this is an ordination story and invite you to consider the possibility that this links to your call as well. Let's begin.
00:01:23
Speaker
Let's do it. Is there a unique calling for artists? And if so, what are we called and what's required? Ordination is a call to self-sacrificial service, basically surrendering all your gifts and talents in that service and relying on God to equip you beyond your capacity.
00:01:54
Speaker
In the Bible, God blesses those he calls in specific and sometimes unexpected ways. Moses argues with God for a long time about his inability to speak in public, and God gifts him with Aaron to help him along the way.
00:02:09
Speaker
Jonah is blessed with humility and courage through an ordeal in the belly of a whale. Abraham and Sarah are blessed with faith for the days to come as they build their family that would become more numerous than the stars.
Bezalel: The First Spirit-Filled Artist
00:02:24
Speaker
And in Exodus 35, 30 to 35, we read that Bezalel was given an abundance of gifts in proportion to the task set for him.
00:02:35
Speaker
See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel, son of Uri, the son of Her, of the tribe of Judah, and He has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with all kinds of skills to make artistic designs.
00:02:53
Speaker
And he has given both him and a holy ab son of Ahisamech of the tribe of Dan the ability to teach others. He's filled them with wisdom of heart to do all kinds of work, all of them skilled workers and designers. Exodus 35, 30 to 35.
00:03:15
Speaker
By looking at this ordination passage, we get a picture of what it could look like to form our practice in the way of bezelel and the wise hearted ones. What gifts to pray for and how to tune and train our hearts. We start to see that how we create is as important as what we create. Our soul craft becomes the basis for our artistic craft.
00:03:44
Speaker
Now, Bezalel's task was to lead a company of artists on a grand scale. And for this work, God ordained that he would need special ability. So he gave him these gifts of the Spirit for artists. Exodus 35, 31, again, it says, and he has filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom and understanding and in knowledge and in all craftsmanship.
00:04:08
Speaker
Now, before we go on, it's worth pausing here to note that the ordination of Bezalel is the first recorded instance in the Bible of anyone being filled with the Spirit of God.
Challenges of the Christian Artist
00:04:21
Speaker
The last time we hear of the Spirit, it was hovering over the waters in the creative drama of Genesis. And now the Spirit returns in the most significant creative act since then, the creation of God's dwelling place on earth, the tabernacle.
00:04:37
Speaker
I'm probably inclined to overstate all of this, but when I read that the ordination of Bezalel in a holy app is the first instance of any human being being filled with the Spirit of God, it knocked me back. So much conversation around art and artists from a Christian perspective has been fraught, but it's so intentional here, so special.
00:05:02
Speaker
I've heard many sermons and teachings about how artists need to learn humility and tame their egos and submit to authority. Watch out for idolatry and be careful with their witness. But I've never heard a teaching that points out why. Not because artists are inherently dangerous or crazy or difficult, but because they have been given a high calling.
00:05:26
Speaker
One which God wants to bless and fill. One that is filled with great power that requires deep discipleship, discernment, and a life dedicated to
Art Beyond Evangelism
00:05:38
Speaker
prayer. It's a self-sacrificial call that requires everything from the artist.
00:05:44
Speaker
And while all people have the capacity for creativity and many people pursue and exercise artistic talent, the full joy, freedom and efficacy of that call is only found in service to the creator.
00:06:01
Speaker
And this call isn't limited to devotional or evangelical or apologetic purposes. It includes those things, but it is so much bigger. We are to emanate the reality of God's presence in all the world through everything we create.
00:06:19
Speaker
I don't even think we scratched the surface of what artists dedicated to working in this way might contribute. Working in the tradition of the wise-hearted ones, I believe we can find the freedom and power God is waiting for us to ask for.
Bezalel's Divine Gifts
00:06:36
Speaker
All right, so let's go back and look at the artistic spiritual gifts God gives to his master artisans at their ordination.
00:06:45
Speaker
So in addition to this incredible gift of the Spirit poured out on them, Bezalel is given wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and craftsmanship. Now at first glance, that might just sound like different ways to say the same thing.
00:07:01
Speaker
But a look at the Hebrew words helps us understand the nuance and that these are different gifts. So let's start with wisdom. It's, and forgive my Hebrew pronunciation, but it's Bei Shammah.
00:07:18
Speaker
So that means a capacity for acting wisely, skillful, talented, or prudence. So that's the definition of the Hebrew word for this kind of wisdom. It connotes a capacity for, like I said, acting wisely. It's talented, but also being prudent. So as a craftsperson, it speaks to a commitment to artistic craft, but also a capacity for vision.
00:07:47
Speaker
And there's a sense here of maturity in both daily and religious life. So it describes one who exhibits faithfulness.
00:07:57
Speaker
So it's here we first see the idea of being wise hearted. Bezalel is gifted with spiritual and creative maturity that allows him to act freely out of his innermost self because he is deeply rooted in and connected to the will of God. So that's the first one, wisdom.
00:08:20
Speaker
The second gift is understanding. So this is bitfuna, which the translation means discernment, to diligently consider, pay close attention, or taste.
00:08:33
Speaker
So once again, for Bezalel, this understanding gift has both spiritual and creative implications. Having been given this capacity to discern God's will and intention for his people, Bezalel was then capable of interpreting God's instructions and blueprints with a heart knowledge beyond what was literally conveyed by Moses.
00:08:58
Speaker
So even though Moses gave him the instructions, he still had to interpret that and turn that into something and communicate it to others and be able to read between the lines and make the kinds of decisions that were needed to make it come to life.
Craftsmanship as Spiritual Integrity
00:09:15
Speaker
Simply put, Bezalel was given the discernment to understand the difference between idol making and tabernacle building.
00:09:24
Speaker
And this discernment carries over into his creative sensibility as well, giving him extraordinary powers of perception. That discernment mixed with his skill and capacity for vision gave him a discerning taste, a fundamental but seeming ineffable quality that was essential, and creating as something as intricate and extraordinary as the tabernacle and all that went in it.
00:09:47
Speaker
This connection between discernment and taste is something we need to pray for and cultivate in ourselves as well. It's something that allows us the ability to engage critically the issues facing our world with spiritual and artistic integrity.
00:10:04
Speaker
Now, on to the next gift, knowledge. Uva de at. Again, I apologize. We'll put these words in the show notes so that you can look them up yourself and figure out how they're supposed to be pronounced. So, knowledge, this kind of knowledge in the Hebrew is experience or proficiency, ability. The idea is to own one's craft.
00:10:29
Speaker
This is really about knowing what you are doing, having the mastery of the disciplines of your craft, really owning it. It's knowledge that can only come from practice and experience. This kind of knowledge is about proficiency and the ability to deliver on the vision set in front of you, the ability to turn an idea into something real.
00:10:52
Speaker
Bezalel and Aholiab were called for a particular purpose with a clear vision of what was to be accomplished and why for the season they were in.
00:11:01
Speaker
And then finally, we come to craftsmanship, melachach, which is occupation, work, craftsmanship. That's the Hebrew definition of this word craftsmanship, occupation, work, craftsmanship. So the Hebrew word comes from the same word, interestingly, from the same root word, melach. And that word is used for a messenger, or an ambassador, or an angel, an envoy.
00:11:30
Speaker
So, these artists are set to work as conduits for God's message. So, they are conveying through the work of their hands the will of God's heart. Here, God gives bezelel and then a holy ab, skill and knowledge in all the crafts and trades in order that they can supervise and teach others.
00:11:55
Speaker
He gifts them with capacity beyond their own, using their disciplined experience and knowledge to grow into new forms of creative expression and craftsmanship. These artists were artistically prepared and practiced. They had honed their natural talent and gifts to proficiency.
00:12:14
Speaker
And artistic integrity is just as essential as spiritual integrity.
Artists as Living Temples
00:12:20
Speaker
I can say this because for the artist, they're actually linked. There is no secular sacred divide here. Artistic craft are the tools we use to embody and bring to life the gifts of the spirit God has filled and blessed us with.
00:12:36
Speaker
So these wise-hearted ones were called to a specific task at a specific moment. But as we discussed earlier, that task radiates outward through time to us. The Israelites were called by God to be a witness to all the nations. They did strange things like carrying around a tent of meeting in the desert to testify to the reality of God's glory and presence among them.
00:13:03
Speaker
Later, the temple took the place of the tabernacle, another ornate space in which God's presence lived and dwelled, and then God took up embodied residence with us in the person of Jesus. And when He sent out His Spirit at Pentecost, it was to live and dwell in His people, the Church.
00:13:22
Speaker
At which point we Christ followers all became living temples or tabernacles. We were commissioned to live as witnesses and as was said early to create spaces for God to fill with His glory. Matched with the call of Genesis to make and create cultures, all people are called to this beautiful work. We each live this out in our own way with our giftings.
00:13:53
Speaker
To me, it seems pretty clear that God's intended work for artists is exactly that of the wise-hearted ones. The work continues, not limited to one house of worship, but to permeate all aspects of all cultures through all the works of our hands and voices and imaginations.
Cultivating Spiritual and Creative Growth
00:14:14
Speaker
Practically, we can live and work in the way of the wise-hearted ones by committing ourselves to practices of spiritual disciplines and soul craft, developing a conscientious and disciplined self-knowledge, cultivating empowering relationships, developing an aptitude for discernment and critical thinking in order to constructively engage the issues facing our world.
00:14:37
Speaker
developing a clear sense of vision and vocation, and the ability for courageous action, along with a proficiency in our work. This is the way of the wise-hearted ones, of soul-makers, to walk and work in this way and to pray for the gifts of the Spirit for artists, for wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and craftsmanship.
00:15:04
Speaker
so that we too may convey through the work of our hands the will of God's heart.
Preview of Next Episode
00:15:25
Speaker
In our next episode, we're going to step back from the teaching and have a conversation with Marlita Hill, dancer, choreographer, multi-published author, educator, speaker, and founder of the Kingdom Artists Institute. One of the things I say is without God, I don't have an art life. This was his idea from the jump and the whole time.
00:15:47
Speaker
All I've been doing is following him. I wasn't thinking about this. Marlene is an incredible dancer and coach, but she's also a living example of a wise-hearted one, a soul maker. And I'm looking forward to hearing her perspective on the artist's call. See you next time. Thanks for listening to Be Make Do, a soul maker's podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating on Spotify or a review on Apple podcast.
00:16:15
Speaker
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