Mountain.

I'm running.

I'm running like Elijah ran.

Away from the noise, the expectation, the questions, the chaos.

My desert, my mountain - Costa Rica.

I go there, Lord, because I'm tired.

I go there, Lord, because I need to be fed.

I go there, Lord, because I want to hear your voice.

Over the wind. Above the earthquake. Through the Fire.

Your still small voice.

I run like Elijah, Lord, trusting that You will do the same for me that you did for Him so many years ago on that mountain - trusting that You will meet me, you will speak to me, and that you will send me back again, filled up, fed, and restored for the next phase of my journey.

Speak, Lord, in these next five weeks. Help me to hear your voice above the rest.

The Rock from which you were cut.

Jesus was a tekton.

In English, we have chosen to translate the word tekton as "carpenter," but tekton can mean other things as well.

It can also mean "stonecutter."

Most likely, when the Bible calls Jesus a tekton, it is referring to Him as the latter, a stonecutter.

You see, back in Jesus' day, people didn't usually work with wood, and if you take a walk through the Biblical ruins of Israel, all you see is stone stone stone.

Why is this important?

In the grand scheme of things, I guess it doesn't matter either way. Jesus built things as a trade, and that's all we really need to know...

BUT.

There is richness to be found in the picture of Jesus being a stonecutter, because there are countless references to stone and masonry and building processes that are scattered all throughout the Bible.

For instance, take this verse:

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and seek the LORD:
Look to the rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn.
Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
When I called him, he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many." - Isaiah 51.

***

Look to the rock from which you were cut.

It's a stonecutters job to cut and shape the rock from the quarries.

Which, yes, is a cool reference in light of Jesus being a tekton, but there's so much more than that going on here too. Dig a little deeper with me into the meaning of the verse:

Look to the rock from which you were cut...

Well, in order to look to it, we first need to know what rock Isaiah is referring to. Our answer to that question comes from the very next verse:

"Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth."

Abraham and Sarah are the mother and father of the Israelites. God blessed them "and made them many." He made them into the Israelites - the Jewish people.

The rock from which we were cut is the nation of Israel.

The rock from which we were cut is the chosen people of God.

Do you know what that means?

It means that

Abraham is our father.
Sarah is our mother.
Elijah is our prophet.
Moses is our guide.
Samuel is our priest.
Paul is our teacher.
Peter is our brother.
Ruth is our sister.

and on and on and on.

These stories that God has passed down to us, these people of faith, are a part of our legacy. They are the heritage that we bear.

And even better?

We are cut from the same rock.
We are made of the same material.
We have the same abilities.

We. Are. the. Same.

Why?

Because we serve the same God. The same God we read about in all those stories.

And do you know what that means?

It means that
we serve
the God
who

created the world.
called Abraham and made an everlasting covenant with him.
parted the Sea of Reeds.
sent the 10 plagues.
provided the promised land.
empowered Elijah to run faster than chariots.
sent down fire on the altar.
enabled a young boy to kill a giant.
won battles.
spoke through prophets.
healed the sick.
raised the dead.

That God
is our God.

And because
that God is our God,
we have the ability to live lives like the ones who went before us.

Because their God is our God.

We have that ability because Jesus, our tekton, cuts us from the same rock as the rest of them. He, with His infinite power, crafts all of us from the same stuff.

And if we would get to a place where we
truly believed and understood that...
do you know what we could do?

We could

go, with the faith of Abraham, to new and distant lands.
lead, with the strength of Moses, the people of God from their bondage.
run, with the swiftness of Elijah, past the evil of this world and its fears.
prepare, with the passion of John the Baptizer, a people ready for the Lord.
encourage, with the understanding of Paul, fellow believers.
rejoice, with the perseverance of Peter, in the sufferings of our circumstances.
praise, with the heart of Hannah, the amazing things that God has done.
love, with the purity of Jesus, our great God and the people of His world.

This story, God's story - it's our story.
This Bible, God's Word - it's our history and our guide.
This people, God's nation - it's our ancestry.

And whether we like it or not, we are called to be a part of the story.

God's story..

We pick it up, we partake in it, and we pass it on.

It's ours.

...

So own it.

...

Step one in owning it?

Knowing it.


Let's study. learn. know. the stories that God passed down to us.

Let's
look to the rock
from which
we were cut.

Let's
remember
that
God has blessed us
and
that
we are capable
and
that
we are many.

Let's
Pick it up.
Partake in it.
so we can
Pass on it on.

And

more than anything...

more.
than.
anything.

...

LET'S NOT TAKE IT LIGHTLY.

The Weight of Glory.

(Ancient well near Arad - Abraham most likely stopped at this spot on his journeys - Israel, 2009).

"The sacred writer spares us a close-up of the agony that night on the slopes near Beersheba when the aged man had it out with his God, but respectful imagination may view in awe the bent form wrestling convulsively under the stars. Possibly not again until One greater than Abraham wrestled in the Garden of Gethsemane did such mortal pain visit a human soul."

- A.W. Tozer.

...

The Hebrew word for glory is Kavod. It comes from the root word Keved, which means"heavy."

And to me, that is such a perfect word to describe what glory is.

Because not only do we give weight in our lives to the One that deserves glory, but also, to honor him, sometimes it requires us to make weighty decisions - hard sacrifices.

Think about the people in the Bible who went before us - the ones that are written about that God has given us as examples...

 

Elijah. Noah. Moses. Mary. Miriam. Ruth. Esther. Paul. Peter. Abraham. Jesus.

And who better to give us a picture of the weight of what God sometimes requires of us than the two men spoken of in the quote above, Abraham and Jesus?

They were men who walked with God intimately.

They were men of obedience.

They were men willing to sacrifice.

And from both of them, much was required.

 

In fact, the weight of what God asked of these two men was almost more than each of them could bear.

- Abraham, wrestling with his God under the stars, feeling the weight of his love for Isaac battling against the weight of his respect for God.

- Jesus, wrestling with God in the garden, the weight of His life and His fear battling against the weight of His responsibility to His Father.

Both of these men are now known for their righteousness, because in the end, the heaviness of God's glory outweighed any other priority in their lives.

Their obedience (to the very end) shows us that.

Through their choices, God's glory becomes known in even greater depth to those of us who are blessed to come after them and read their stories.

It was not until each man made the choice to allow his own desires to be ripped out and pulled from his heart, not until then could God's glory manifest fully in their lives.

Because God's glory has to take priority and preference over everything else, and that is not easy. Following.God.is.not.easy...in fact, it is the hardest thing a person can choose to do.

He requires much of us.

And so often, the weight of it, the burden of it, is heavy...

But in return for our choice to put God first, an even greater weight,

the weight of His glory,

covers us and surrounds us and is made known.

The blessing comes after the burden. Always.

And I want to wrestle like those great men and women

who went before me.

I want to conquer like my Rabbi.

I want to do my part -

to carry my share of this burden.

I

want

to

feel

the

weight.

The weight of His glory.

Because where His glory is,

there He is also.

...

And He is enough.