Unhappy Campers
or The Sick Fix of Quick Bricks
God had repeated His promises of land and people to Isaac, but it was to Jacob that God revealed He was going to build the true Babelic tower in the Promised Land. With his head on a rough stone, Jacob saw angels ascending and descending on a stairway to heaven, a ziggurat, a constructed holy mountain, between God and man. As with Eve, the Lord would build it out of flesh and blood—Jacob’s offspring—a living Tabernacle made of precious stones mined from the Land.
Unworked stones, like Jacob’s headrest, were a requirement of the Law for building an altar. Jacob’s head was on the Altar at the doorway to the Garden at the foot of the mountain. God’s men are unworked stones (Daniel 2:34-35), set apart (circumcised) in the wilderness and sacrificed—killed and cut up by God—and resurrected as beautiful, chiselled stones for a living Temple. [1]
The true sons of God are willing to endure the refinement process. Unlike the sons of Joktan, they are content to dwell in tents (Tabernacles) until the raw materials are pure, until nature is transformed into godly culture by God’s hand. Nimrod and Pharaoh made quick bricks, but the sound of a chisel was not heard near the site of Solomon’s Temple.
“Enoch and Babylon are the first cities, but Jerusalem is the last. Jubal is the first musician, but David the “last”. The wicked get there first and do much of the work, laying up an inheritance for the just. Because they are not concerned with morality, the wicked can employ slave labour to build their cultures early, while a righteous culture takes longer to build.”
James B. Jordan, Was Job an Edomite King?, Biblical Horizons, No. 131, www.biblicalhorizons.com
This desire for quick fixes is our problem today. We are not content to dwell in tents and wait for God’s timing. We take out an overdraft on the future for immediate glory. Our worship has become “Herodian.” A church compromised with the state erects a hastily-built tower that cannot last. Instead of the bride, it is a one night stand. [2]
_______________________________
[1] See Unashamed Artisans.
[2] See Totus Diabolus.
