“The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.” Isaiah 44:13 (all scripture quoted is from the King James Version)
The above verse from Isaiah makes reference to man’s making of an idol. He prepares a beautiful form of a man that is suitable to be displayed “in the house.” Of course, it can do nothing else of its own power. Idols are as powerless as a stone on the creek bed. If they move at all, it must be done by an outside force. But this verse bears a fine contrast of the workmanship of man as compared to that of God. Man constructs and idol to look like a man being the express image of God. But man is NOT God, and neither is the idol a god in any sense. Even a breathing, living man is not even close to being God – he remains a mere image of the Deity. But how would we compare the idol made by man, and designed to look like a man, compare with the Son of God who was indeed God and Man at once?
We often consider the manliness of our Lord Jesus Christ as illustrated in His early apprenticeship as a Carpenter under Joseph, the one presumed to be His father – though He had only One Father, and that is God. “And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? IS THIS NOT THE CARPENTER’S SON? Is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?” (Matthew 13:54-56) Herein lies a stumbling block to the Papal Romanizers – Jesus had brothers and sisters. This undermines the heresy of the Immaculate Conception.
Jesus had a father-figure in Joseph who was a carpenter. Jesus, too, became a Carpenter in the years prior to His ministry; but our Lord also had a Heavenly Father who was a Master Carpenter in building all that is in Creation. As a matter of fact, the Triune Godhead were all in the BUILDING trade. The Great Architect of the Universe (no intentional reference to Freemasonry) was God the Father. The Executive Agent who built all according to those natural and supernatural laws (plans) laid down by the Father was the Lord Jesus Christ. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1-3) And the Moving Force at Creation, and down to this day, is the Holy Ghost: “ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2)
God has designed the Universe to comply with the natural laws of perfect order. Every heavenly body of permanent station adheres to His foreordained orbit. Only the meteors showering from deep space have no directed path. They are not influenced greatly by the gravitational fields that would determine a steadfast orbit. So these end up by being burned up in the atmospheres of other heavenly bodies and are permanently darkened. Those who have no anchor of faith in God are just like these meteors – or wandering stars. “These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” (Jude 1:12-13) (I.E., falling stars)
Jesus is also the Master Carpenter. His role is Creation is singular in Heaven; but His role in designing, planning, and building the Temple of God is absolutely without precedent in Heaven or Earth. “Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.” (John 2:18-22)
Our Lord and Savior did rebuild the Temple of His Body in THREE DAYS. And though it was perfect and complete of itself, the Lord is still renovating that Temple by every soul added to the Body of Christ day by day. Each soul, large, small, or medium, is precisely the size stone needed to fill a foreordained void someplace in the Temple. He knew the stone He needed to fill that void long before the stone existed. The Holy Spirit sought out the stone (soul) and drew it as with a ‘hook in the jaw’ to the place of building. While the stone had yet no consciousness of its calling, it was drawn forth.
Our Lord never ceased to be a carpenter – He just expanded His trade during the years of His ministry.
Please read the words of a great President of the United States in expressing the amazing proof of Christ:
“Meaning no disrespect to the religious convictions of others, I still can’t help wondering how we can explain away what to me is the greatest miracle of all and which is recorded in history. No one denies there was such a man, that he lived and that he was put to death by crucifixion. Where…is the miracle I spoke of? Well consider this and let your imagination translate the story into our own time — possibly to your own home town. A young man whose father is a carpenter grows up working in his father’s shop. One day he puts down his tools and walks out of his father’s shop. He starts preaching on street corners and in the nearby countryside, walking from place to place, preaching all the while, even though he is not an ordained minister. He does this for three years. Then he is arrested, tried and convicted. There is no court of appeal, so he is executed at age 33 along with two common thieves. Those in charge of his execution roll dice to see who gets his clothing — the only possessions he has. His family cannot afford a burial place for him so he is interred in a borrowed tomb. End of story? No, this uneducated, propertyless young man who…left no written word has, for 2000 years, had a greater effect on the world than all the rulers, kings, emperors; all the conquerors, generals and admirals, all the scholars, scientists and philosophers who have ever lived — all of them put together. How do we explain that?…unless he really was who he said he was.” President Ronald Reagan
An anonymous author made this striking comparison: “Socrates taught for 40 years, Plato for 50, Aristotle for 40, and Jesus for only 3. Yet the influence of Christ’s 3-year ministry infinitely transcends the impact left by the combined 130 years of teaching from these men who were among the greatest philosophers of all antiquity. Jesus painted no pictures; yet some of the finest paintings of Raphael, Michalengelo, and Leonardo da Vinci received their inspiration from Him.
“Jesus wrote no poetry; but Dante, Milton, and scores of the world’s greatest poets were inspired by Him.
Jesus composed no music; still Haydn, Handel, Beethoven, Bach, and Mendelssohn reached their highest perfection of melody in the hymns, symphonies, and oratorios they composed in His praise. Every sphere of human greatness has been enriched by this humble Carpenter of Nazareth.”
THE CONSTANT CHRIST –
“’The legs of the lame are not equal’ There is a way that seems right to a man but the legs of his thinking are unequal and in the circling eddy of his life he is swept to delusion and on death. In refreshing contrast it is written of the Christ.
“‘His legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold.’ He stands in the perfect balance of grace and truth; erect in all the fairness of unsullied manhood; rooted in all the essential nature of His deity. As man in all His walk, He pointed heavenward, pillared in light, marbled in beauty, adorning all doctrine of the Father. His flawless righteousness upheld entire superstructure of God’s purpose of grace.
“With Him there was no variableness or shadow caused by turning. His heart was large with the largeness of God, running in the way of His commandments…. He is the constant Christ.” Geoffrey T. Bull, “God Holds The Key “ Hodder and Stoughton Limited London 1959
