The Price of Gold

Bazalel was given the gifts of craftsmenship - by God - to create the furniture of the tabernacle. He was not the only one, but he was the master of the bunch.

Exo 36:1-2
(1) And Bezaleel and Aholiab shall work with everyone wise of heart to whom Jehovah has given wisdom and intelligence, to know how to do every work of the service of the sanctuary, concerning all which Jehovah had commanded.
(2) And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise-hearted man in whose heart Jehovah had put wisdom, even everyone whose heart stirred him up to come, to do the work.

One thing we can plainly see from the passage above is that these people were willing. As a result, God equipped them. That's a sermon, I'm sure, but that's not what I want to address.

Exo 37:24
(24) He made it of a talent of pure gold, and all the vessels of it.

While making just the lampstand, Bazalel (Bazaleel in the MKJV) used a 75lb block of pure gold. Today, gold is sitting at $925/ounce. Utilizing my meager math skills... Bazalel was working with a chunk of gold worth approximately 1.1 million dollars. But you see... he was doing God's work. When we do God's work, we are always dealing with the most precious materials in the universe. It doesn't always seem that way, does it?

Naturally, we know of the people who clean toilets for missionaries... and the Sister Teresa's of the world who give all they have to reach those who are destitute. What about them?

They lay up their treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust corrupt and where thieves do not steal. And since the very pavement is made of gold, we can bet their payment will not be in pavement, but rather something a million times more wonderful.