Setting Up Pillars

​While I was a cadet at West Point, my two friends Dave and Brian and I had a saying we frequently recited to remind us that we needed to focus on what was eternal.  “It’s all going to burn.”  Little did we realize how significant that phrase would become.  Dave and his wife Melody lost their home in the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs.  It was a traumatic event for the Meads—they lost almost everything they owned.  Now as they look back, they would say that they are better for their loss. 

In the process of rebuilding their home on the same foundation, Dave and Melody thoughtfully selected key Bible passages and inscribed them on many of the wood beams.  I had the opportunity to see those verses while visiting them. Essentially, they rededicated their new home to the Lord and today it is a place where people come for fellowship, food, encouragement and blessing.
 
Meditation
1 Kings 7:21—He set up the pillars at the portico of the sanctuary: he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin; then he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz.
 
Hiram was an incredibly talented craftsman.  His father was from the city of Tyre and was a bronze craftsman.  His mother was from the tribe of Naphtali.  So good was Hiram’s work with bronze that King Solomon heard about him and hired him exclusively to work in the temple he was constructing for God. Hiram cast two hollow bronze pillars.  Each of them was 27 feet high and 18 feet in circumference. He constructed capitals for each pillar with gratings of latticework, wreaths made of chainwork and then put encircling rows of pomegranates on the grating that covered the capitals.  Each capital was shaped like a lily and stood six feet in height.  

I have read the account of Hiram’s work at least 30 times but only recently did I discover that the names Hiram gave his pillars had special meaning.   Jachin means “He (God) Will Establish” and Boaz means “In Him Is Strength.” Hiram did not just create beautiful work; he dedicated it to the Lord and passed on an important message.  When the temple was a place for revering God and the nation obeyed Him, it prospered. But when Israel forsook God the Babylonians dismantled those bronze pillars and the city of Jerusalem was burned! 

Have you ever set up pillars for God?  There is something special about dedicating what we have to be used for the glory of our Father.  Instead of living for our possessions our possessions should be a conduit to worshiping the Lord.  He will establish us.  In Him is our strength.  
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Lord, let me be known not for what I own, but for You owning me.  Don’t let me be consumed by possessions, let me be consumed by You.  All I have is really from You and is truly Yours.  I dedicate to You what you have given to me for Your glory.
 
Inspiration
Earthly possessions dazzle our eyes and delude us into thinking that they can provide security and freedom from anxiety.  Yet all the time they are the very source of all anxiety. If our hearts are set on them, our reward is an anxiety whose burden is intolerable.—Dietrich Bonhoeffer inThe Cost of Discipleship
 
©2015 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)