Exodus 37

“Good Inside”

Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood... and he overlaid it with pure gold within and without. Exodus 37:1-2.

I wonder how many little girls here are like one whom I once knew? She was bright, with rosy cheeks and dark eyes. She delighted in the colors of things; furthermore she liked to be prettily dressed. But but her mother told me she had a very bad fault. She would know there was a hole, say, in her sock you all know that sock holes come very easily but instead of trying to mend it, or getting someone else to do it, she would put the sock on, saying to herself, “No one will notice it, if I push the hole well down into my shoe.” When she looked into the mirror, of course no hole was visible.

Then I had a friend. Everybody liked him, he had such pleasant manners; but but if his father asked him to do any work, like raking the garden or weeding the flower-beds, his raking and his weeding were what we call “sloppy” work. One thing this boy could do well draw funny faces cleverly. People used to advise his father to make him an artist. He might have made a good one, but I doubt it; for a real artist must first of all learn to take infinite pains.

I have a special artist in my mind. He was a great painter, and his name was George Frederick Watts. It is told of him that he had a habit of reminding his servants that even their smallest duties ought to be performed with the utmost care. Sometimes he added three words of counsel “Remember the daisies.” What did that mean, do you think? It meant that one of the tiniest and most common works of nature was exquisitely finished, and therefore the most trivial duties one gets to do, should never be ignored. To George Frederick Watts the humblest and the highest duties were as one each was just a little bit of his life; and to live that life aright was, he considered, the greatest work that had been given him to do. Some day he hoped that God would be able to say of it, “Behold, it was very good.”

Now, I like to think of this Bezalel in the Old Testament as being an artist rather than a craftsman who simply worked to order. What a wonderful catalogue of his works we have in Exodus! And there is no more interesting item mentioned in it than the chest called the “Ark of the Covenant.” I believe that, like Watts with his painting and with his life, Bezalel felt the eye of God upon him as he made the Ark. It was going to be placed in quite a dark room; only the high priest would see it, and that but once a year even then but the outside of it. But Bezalel knew that God would see it all, and he overlaid the Ark with pure gold within and without.

Some people have an impression that artists never take trouble over things, and are satisfied if they are able to produce a certain effect with their pictures. There are, of course, careless artists as well as good ones, just as there are good and bad ordinary people. But I know this, that a really great artist thinks thinks, remember before he gives even one touch with his brush or one cut with his chisel.

The early religious sculptors, preparing themselves for their task by prayer, and gazing on beautiful things, would put no imperfect work out of their hands, even when so placed that it could not possibly be seen; and when questioned why the concealed parts of statues, removed from human sight, should be so exquisitely made, they said that the eyes of the gods were there.

Now, every one of us is an artist, and we have been given what is called a commission by the great God. It is to live our lives to make our arks. And, boys and girls, even the youngest among you has begun. God will see the work when it is finished. He sees it now, and has wonderful patience with our mistakes, for we constantly add touches that grieve Him. But I feel sure that in your hearts, not one of you would wish to spoil your ark altogether. You hope that some day God will be able to say that it is good.

A little Scotch girl was taken to church on a communion Sabbath. Her mother went with her to the gallery that she might see the solemn service. When she got home she pondered by the fireside, and after a little said, “Mother, I would like to wear a white dress next time Jesus is in the church, and I'm going to try to be good inside.”

Little folks do get an inkling of the right thing sometimes. And Jesus is very willing to help them when they try to put in the gold lining to be “good inside.” If you keep company with Jesus Christ, boys and girls, you will be “good inside.”