Jesse Tree

Day 23 – December 23

ENTRUSTED

Ornament – Carpenter’s Tools

In the tales of our heroes of old, there is one least told–that of Joseph, a carpenter who dreamed the birth of the babe, who would save mankind.

Joseph could be viewed as the “fill-in father” for Jesus.  He was not chosen, however, for how well he could fill a hole, but for how vastly he could make things whole.  A carpenter, a builder, entrusted to complete.

The word carpenter is much broader than a man with a hammer and nail.  The Hebrew is ‘charash’ and crafts the meaning, “joiner, engraver, framer or builder of houses.”  Another Hebrew word is ‘sered’ meaning “stylus or scribing awl.”

This was the call of carpenter Joseph carried.  This man, undarkened by the world around him, lightened by Who dwelt inside him.  A man who used the tools of his heart with even greater magnitude than he did the tools of his trade.

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.  Psalm 19:8

It is a Hebrew adjective, ‘yashar’ used for “right”.  In physical application, this is the word for a right angle or square used in carpentry.  Its root means, “to go straight, to make right, to lead, to level to be upright.”  Joseph was a man of mitzvah, leveled by the commands of God.  He was not called to cast a vision for Christ.  No, he was harkened to hallow and hold His commands.

No pre-measured life was this strict standard.  For another meaning of “right or straight,”  is “rejoicing.”  Joseph rejoiced in putting His hands to God’s heart.  When a world was rebelling over Pappa’s commands, Joseph was found rejoicing in them.

In those days, a carpenter was most often called to build a plow or doorway.  There must have been a King coming.  One who would walk on furrowed fields, as the framed Word of God.  For Him, Joseph would build.

A carpenter’s elements were stone, iron, copper and wood.  Not once when Joseph’s calloused hands touched smooth stone, did he think of being the first to cast one upon Mary.

Joseph did not look at what Mary carried within her womb as threat to what he carried in the heart of him.  He was not diminished, as she increased.  He was in fact, enlarged.

A carpenter can build gallow or gate.  Joseph’s hammer was held holy, that he could add rooms, for there is always more of God.

Even as he built a roof over their heads, he became the covering for their covenant.  He allowed himself to love Jesus, as his own, even as he himself was redeemed by this Savior with skinned knees and toothless grins.

Joseph was not a bankrupt placeholder in the life of Christ.  Jesus did not call him Joseph. He called him “father.”  An incredible definition of “father” in Hebrew is ‘household’.  Jesus called Joseph His household, His covering, the covenant He would dwell within, until it was time for the fulness of His, to be revealed.

His Name

Cornerstone

A cornerstone of something is the primary part on which the existence and truth of the whole depends.  I love that upon most cornerstones were inscribed with the starting and completion dates of the construction.  We can’t see either, on Him, the Beginning and the End.  But He is marked by them, signed with them, that we would be sealed.

Jesus is the first block laid down, for we, the House of God. His Presence ensures that our stability is not built or based on a system but rests on His salvation.

Do you know who determined its dimensions or who stretched the measuring line across it?  On what were is sockets sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?  Job 38: 5-7

Let all the sons and daughters shout for joy!! Our Cornerstone has been set and we are His sound!!