God gives inspiration through arts and words

Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:

What did I like about today’s passage?

I love what happens when David’s understanding of how to be faithful to God gets turned into physical expression with hundreds of talented, faithful artists.

In our society, people enjoy the arts but some wonder about the point of them, and arts tend to get threatened first in times of funding crisis. But in Israel, look at how many people were born and destined for brilliance with musical instruments, singing, tailoring, visual arts, writing and finding the perfect words for just the right times. The Levites who led this ministry were not on the fringe of their culture either, but physically central along with God’s presence at the heart of life, whether settled in the promised land or unsettled in the years of moving through the desert towards it.

Why is this important? It enables God to engage the nation and the world with far more than the idea of his existence. The presence of God is marked by a multi-sensory feast, engaging the eyes and ears, emotions and mind. It inspires joy and movement, encouragement and comfort, understanding and wonder.

A co-ordinated display like the one described in chapters 15-16 is about more than making a big show, too. It’s a demonstration of faithfulness. The massive numbers are not just doing what they like individually but committing to follow leadership and each other in agreed patterns. God is not into boring sermons about this sort of thing – he gifts people with talent and inspires unforgettable experiences.

I also love how God’s inspiration can be passed on through faithful prophets like Nathan. Look at how his first instinct is recorded, encouraging David to do whatever he has in mind. Prophets generally encourage! But when God directs him differently, he passes important instructions faithfully to David, and I love how David receives them. He realises that it is not his job to build a house for God, but God will build an everlasting house for him!

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God loves to receive our worship, but everything is based on what God gives us first. We have seen how God gives life, family and physical things like the earth, a place on it and a share of its fruitfulness. God also gives us the ability to appreciate the arts which can bring joy to us and glory to him, helping us to see and practise faithfulness like our creator when we get creative together.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

I’m inspired to have some conversations with creative people about ways we might be able to make good things to share over the next few months.

Who am I going to share this with?

Those people and others I follow Jesus with.