SundayReflection

  16^th July 2023

Victory Olaleye introduces

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God's Own Carpenter

It all began in the garden, in Genesis, after God had commanded the first tree to grow; unlike evolution's self-imposed question of "who came first: the chicken or the egg?" the Bible is clear with answers, telling us that it was in fact the Chicken.

Just the way God called the first people, animals & plants into existence, with the power to replicate themselves in them, the first tree came by a command also.

A few hundreds of years later, we're introduced to patrons of pastoral farming, music instruments and brass/iron work, but not to the first woodworker...until Noah.

Noah, builds a wooden ark of three layers by which life is preserved from the consequence of sin and judgment on earth, and so we see the work of the first major carpenter.

I recognised early that while the saying:
"In life there's no rehearsal" was true in a sense, it isn't entirely true.

On a basic level, the primary school child doesn't realise they're being prepared for an excellent work life on their 9 - 5 job, by having to attend school with classes that begin at 9am and terminates at 4pm.
They're taught subjects that help them both calculate and communicate effectively; they're given projects that have a deadline, which they call "Homework".

I'd use other examples of recurring pattern which I might call "life-rehearsals" in the stories of people of scripture.
Joseph for instance is the chief steward over the house of Potiphar, which he does so faithfully that his boss has nothing to bother about its management.
Unknown to him the Pharaoh of that time would entrust him with the same responsibility, only this time, over the entire Egypt.

Moses also is a shepherd, painstakingly administrating flocks for forty years in a wilderness where God meets him, there he'd eventually get the Laws of God and for forty years, would administrate Israel with similar faithfulness.

David also, being a palace intern, we find him serving the very crown he was destined to wear in the future; and he defeats Goliath but unknowingly sets off a train of events leading to his eventual rule, by which he'd becomes Israel's defender in many battles to come.

For this reason therefore, I sought diligently for answers to the carpentry of Jesus: what was the whole point behind this?

If God had chosen for Him to be a Shepherd I could easily understand it modelled His Good Shepherd qualities, or if He was the crowned prince of Israel, an image of His true identity and eventual glory, it would be clearer; and if He had been from the priestly tribe...Aha!

Far easier to understand as He would become our great High priest... but an Artisan?

I see this as consolation, a hope for some of us who see no link in our secular duty with what we feel the pull on our lives is for, I'm talking about young people asking: What stage of life am I?

What am I expected to do (or be)?

I hope I'm not far off from my God-given purpose because I'm trying to make honest living?

The purpose of God is what selected Joseph the carpenter to be Jesus' dad, even when he was willing to quietly put Mary away.

And so I sought diligently, checking the scriptures to be sure that Jesus wasn't merely called a "son of a carpenter" but to know if He really was, and Yes! He Himself was a carpenter
(Mark 6:3). Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James.

Joseph had to introduce it to Him, raising him in what seemed so far from his assignment.

Jesus being a carpenter meant that when His clients needed tables and chairs, the very same God that made the first tree, got wood from a tree, cutting it according to measurements of lengths, breadths, depths & heights infusing His love and passion into the very work to meet the specific needs of those who came to Him.

With every work He put out, there were mixed feelings: though happy with its excellence, He was yet unsatisfied, as immediately the masterpiece was finished, He could feel that there was more to Him than that:

At age 30, He faced His call to ministry officially...this is interesting, because He is the same one who calls today, thence began His assignment towards His final carpentry project: The Cross.

The Carpenter who had nailed wood together many times before was Himself now nailed to the wood, hanging on the Cross like the fruit of the tree of life, which Adam should rather have chosen in the beginning.
Over the years, the LORD probably had many different clients that patronized His wood-pieces, expecting that their work was ready as at when they demanded, with questions like "have you finished it?"

He Himself (as Noah's story alluded) was God's true Ark of salvation for mankind, through the agency of a wooden cross.

And now I see God's own faithful and diligent Carpenter hanging from a wooden cross; His last woodwork.
As He looks up to His first and last Client: who at the beginning had sent Him into the world as the powerful word creating all things (including the first Tree) and would receive Him shortly.

Concerning the workmanship assigned to Him, He responds: "IT IS FINISHED".

Bible references avaiable, on request

Written by Victory Olaleye.

I'm Victory Olaleye, a free boy in a not so free world, I just want to enlighten, educate, inform and inspire you.
In case you're wondering, I'm a student (Undergraduate), a blogger, a web developer and a social media manager.

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