A Team Effort
Exodus 31:6
“And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you.”
I’m in the middle of coaching my son’s soccer team for the fourth season running and it has been a privilege to watch him and many of his teammates grow over the past two years. If you’ve ever watched young kids play soccer, you’ve noticed that they tend to swarm around the ball like bees around a honeycomb. It takes the repetition of specific drills and constant reminders that soccer is a ‘team’ sport to help kids progress beyond that. What a pleasure it is for me as a coach to get to witness progress firsthand. Some of the kids who could barely kick a ball two years ago are now scoring great goals. Some who just dribbled endlessly now look up and pass to a teammate. Some who followed the ball wherever it went are now staying in their positions. Best of all: defenders cheer on strikers after a goal; strikers cheer on goal-keepers after a save; and mid-fielders cheer on defenders after a block. We used to lose games four or five to zero back in the day. Now we’re winning seven and eight to zero, not because the Scorpions are a group of individual superstars, but because they’re a good team. And that’s much stronger.
In this tabernacle enterprise, God could’ve effectively handed the ball to superstars like Moses and Aaron and Bezalel and said, “It’s all on you now!”, but His vision is far greater than that! His mission passes through thousands of hands—not just a few. After all, He’s the ultimate team-builder and nation developer and church constructor! So immediately after recruiting Bezalel, He brings in Oholiab too, and then hundreds, maybe thousands, of other willing helpers, to dig in and break ground and stack stones and bake meals and complete the work together.
Friend, like I tell the kids on my team—and I’m writing this to myself most of all—pick your head up today! Look beyond your own two feet and notice others. Celebrate when your brothers succeed and help them when they fail. Just like Oholiab, we’ve been recruited by God for a special role; so let’s give it our all!