Bronze Pillars

Have you ever wondered why the Bible goes into such detail when describing seemingly unimportant things?  The book of Numbers in the Bible is filled with names upon names upon names.  Leviticus gives detailed instructions on how to perform the many different sacrifices.  There are many chapters in Exodus and Kings and Chronicles dedicated to the description of the tabernacle and temple and the furnishings found within.

But these aren’t unimportant details.  It shows that we serve a precise, detail-oriented God, who not only knows our names but who also cares about the minute details of our lives.  It also shows that we worship a God who is a great Storyteller – One who weaves deeper truths into seemingly unimportant details.  The sacrifices and tabernacle and temple are filled with types or pictures of Jesus.  It’s almost overwhelming when you really start to study.  But, this evening, I was struck by a picture in the temple of someone else.

I am now reading through the book of I Kings, and just read chapter 7.  Verses 13 – 51 describe the furnishings in Solomon’s temple and go into great detail on the two bronze pillars made by Huram of Tyre.  Here’s what I gathered about the pillars:

1.       Bronze, cast in clay molds (7:15, 46)

2.       Tall – approximately 27 feet tall and 18 feet in circumference, topped by a 5 foot capital (7:15-16)

3.       Decorated – especially the capital, with chains of pomegranates…the whole capital being in the shape of a lily (7:17-22)

4.       Located in the portico of the temple (7:21)

5.       North pillar named Boaz; South pillar named Jachin (7:21)

 Interesting, eh?  They were BIG.  Solid.  Beautifully decorated.  I mean, that makes sense – God deserves to have beautiful things in His presence.  But I wanted to learn a little more.

 BRONZE SCULPTURE:  I knew very little about the casting of bronze articles in clay molds.  So, I looked it up.  After looking at a few websites, I think I can recount the process to you...an ancient process, in fact.

In simple terms, it’s beeswax à clay à bronze.  But there are some really interesting details. 

 

1.       It seems that artists used to create an original sculpture in beeswax. 

2.       They would then cover the sculpture in liquid clay (a process now called “investment”), and cook it in a fire.  The wax would melt out of the clay, leaving a hard shell ready to fill with molten bronze. 

3.       In order to make sure this mold was good, it was tested with water.  Any cracks, leaks, or imperfections found were patched until the mold was ready. 

4.       Once ready – both the bronze and the clay mold were heated.  (Bronze for melting purposes, clay to keep the melted bronze from “seizing” when it comes in contact with a much cooler temperature.) 

5.       Then, the bronze was poured.  (Nowadays, it takes three artisans to complete a mold.  According to ModernSculpture, the “lead pour” manages the controls for the crucible of molten bronze, the “deadman” manages the crucible balance, and a third nameless artisan scrapes away the dross and slag on the surface of the molten bronze.) 

6.       Once cooled, the “devesting” process takes place – and the clay is removed.  This can now be done with hammers and power chisels and sandblasting.  I’m not sure what they would have used in King Solomon’s time…but something similar.

7.       Lastly, the sculpture would go through “chasing and finishing” – a process or removing all signs of the casting process so the sculpture would look like the original.

Isn’t that cool?  I love learning new things!  But what makes this even cooler…is Revelation 3:11-12, in which Jesus says to the church in Philadelphia:  “I am coming soon.  Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.  Him who overcomes I will make like a pillar in the temple of my God.  Never again will he leave it.  I will write on him the name of my God and name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God, and I will also write on him my new name.”

WHOA.  We could be pillars?  In the temple?  So….like, HUGE BRONZE PILLARS?

Let me back up for a second.  The passage in I Kings 7 gives us lots of details about physical characteristics of these pillars:  how tall, how they’re decorated, etc.  It doesn’t specifically say that they have any spiritual significance.  But this verse in Revelation sure gets the wheels turning in my brain.  So, let’s just roll with this hypothetical idea that King Solomon’s pillars are a small picture of Christians.

And if we do…it’s pretty beautiful.

I’m only going to go into #1, #4, and #5 on my list of interesting facts about the bronze pillars as a comparison.

 

#1.  Bronze, cast in clay molds.

Clay reminds me of our humanity…and the process of “investment” seems like the building of a human shell around our souls.  (I could even jump out on a limb and say Jesus made an “investment” by becoming human…but let’s keep with our original thought here of the pillars being a picture of believers.)

This clay coated wax is put in the fire…losing its original substance (the wax melting out)…but it waits for something better to fill it.  (old nature melting out, perhaps?)

The clay is tested with water, looking for cracks and leaks…and is patched up where needed. (like a Christian’s growing process?  hard times in life?)

Then it is put into the fire again so that it can be filled with a precious metal.  (our new nature?)

Clay is chipped and sandblasted off.  (death?)

But the bronze remains…chasing and finishing remove the signs of casting so it looks like the original (aren’t we meant to look like “little Christs”?) 

#4.  Located in the portico of the temple.

“One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek:  that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple.”  Psalm 27:4 

Revelation 3:12 says that never again will Christians, like those pillars, leave the temple.  Awesome. 

 

#5  North pillar named Boaz; South pillar named Jachin.

Jachin means “He shall establish”.  Boaz means “in Him is strength”.  Ummm….whoa.  Jesus says that he who overcomes will be like a pillar in the temple.  And we are told that these are the names of the pillars:  HE SHALL ESTABLISH, IN HIM IS STRENGTH.  Our “bronze strength” is all dependent on Jesus.  He helps us overcome.

 

I don’t know if all of this will strike you with the same sense of wonder as it has hit me with tonight.  Maybe I’m over-spiritualizing these pillars, but even just the names of them (Boaz & Jachin) are an encouragement.  Throughout our lives – the good and the bad times – God is molding us to be strong and established. 

To recognize that God is telling us so much about His love and His purposes for us – even in seemingly mundane details of temple furnishings is exciting to me. 

May we never stop being amazed by Him…and His creative ways of sharing His heart with those He loves.  And, may we submit to His molding process, knowing the result will be beautiful.

Gallery of His Goodness

Just the other night I spent over an hour scrolling through pictures I’ve taken over the past years.  I’ve made a new folder on my computer and have been transferring pictures into it.  I’ve copied pictures of sunsets and sunrises, of family members and friends, and of tangible answered prayer requests…

I’m really excited about the idea of someday decorating a room in my house with all these pictures, and calling the room:  “The Gallery of His Goodness”.

Over the past few weeks I’ve re-read and read for the first time quite a few books by Robin Jones Gunn.  Her books were a blessing to me when I was a teenager, and they continue to be a blessing to me in my late 20s.  They are easy reads, full of good story lines – but also full of pearls of wisdom.  (Sometimes fictional stories are the perfect way to deliver nuggets of truth….)  I would honestly love to sit down and have tea with Robin.  I’d love to have her as a mentor and a “forever friend”. J 

The idea for my gallery is from Robin’s book called Finally and Forever.  It’s the last book in the Katie Weldon Series, and in it, a woman named Callie is sharing with our fictional friend Katie what she learned while her husband was kidnapped and missing.  Callie went through struggles but came out with treasures of truth on the other side.  Quoted straight from Robin’s book – I hope these paragraphs are as much as an encouragement to you as they were to me:

“I discovered that when God wants to draw us into a place of deeper intimacy in our relationship with him, he undoes everything we previously knew about his ways to show us a different side of himself.  When that happens, you end up confused and afraid because you thought you knew God and knew how he worked in your life…but then you tell the fear to go away…

“And you lean in closer to the Lord.  You listen very closely, and when you don’t hear a single word from him, not a sound, you wait.  But here’s what I learned all this while we were waiting…You don’t wait in silence.  During that stretch of time…I couldn’t sleep, eat, or think.  But I could remember.  And as I recalled all of the things God had done for us in the past, it was like I wasn’t alone in the waiting room of my heart any longer.  I hung every one of those memories like pictures on the wall, and then I would look at each one of them in my mind’s eye and say, ‘Thank you, God.  Thank you.’  I started to praise God instead of question him…

“…what happened was that when I started to praise God and to thank him, I broke through the darkness.  My heart ended up on the other side of the fear.”

“You’re in a waiting room right now…

“Go ahead and cover the walls with memories of all the things God has done, and then walk through the gallery every day and tell him thank you, thank you.”

How blessed we are when we remember God's goodness to us - and what a blessing it would be to have tangible reminders of that goodness!  

Regardless of whether we actually create tangible photo albums or hallway/room galleries or not, I know that we can decorate the waiting room of our hearts with pictures of His goodness.

Walking through such galleries will give us the confidence to rest contentedly in Him – no matter what we go through.

He. Is. Good.

Fullness

“…Him who fills everything in every way.”  Ephesians 1:23

 

Sometimes, I am struck by how ridiculous God’s love for us is.  Maybe ridiculous isn’t the right word.  It’s amazing…incredible…unbelievable…unfathomable. J  He can love us – and fill us – and fulfill us in every way!

 

I am on a new Bible reading plan this year.  I call it my “Book-Bag”.  It’s not very scholarly…but basically I wrote all the names of the books of the Bible on little pieces of paper, stuck them in a sandwich bag, and will read them in the order I pick them out!  I’m actually quite excited about it.  I’ve read the Bible straight through, and chronologically, etc – and this is my new method of reading through God’s word.  And I have the feeling that He’ll guide me right to the books I am supposed to read at that time.

 

The first book I picked today was Ephesians.  I only got through one chapter and was overwhelmed by how good God is.  Check this out:

·         “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”  Ephesians 1:3

·         “In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance to His pleasure and will…”  Ephesians 1:4-5

·         “In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace which He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”  Ephesians 1:7-8

·         “And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ…”  Ephesians 1:9

 

Whoa.  Not only has God given us EVERY spiritual blessing, but He redeems, forgives, adopts, and reveals the mystery of His will to us.  And if that’s not enough – He didn’t do it grudgingly or with reservations.  It was according to His pleasure and will, with all wisdom and understanding.  I never really noticed the “according to” phrases before. 

 

God knows and understands us – yet He is pleased to offer us fullness of life – at great cost to Himself.

What a great way to start a new year – God reminding me of His great love!  There’s so much sorrow and sadness and emptiness when I look only at present conditions here on this earth.  I’ll be traveling to my grandmother’s funeral tomorrow.  I’m sad that she’s gone – she was absolutely wonderful.  And realize that without the hope of Christ, life down here would seem to be so pointless…so empty. 

 

And yet we can know it’s not.

 

Ephesians 1:17-23 is a prayer – and one that I want to echo for myself this year:

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised Him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in this present age but also in the one to come.  And God placed all things under His feet and appointed him to be the head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.”

 

In the midst of ups and downs this year, may we better know the hope, riches and power of God – and may all be to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:14). 

God truly can fill everything in every way.  Even us.

Happy 2013!