Sunday, June 6, 2010

I'm Board....

Puerto Rico is an island of micro-climates. Driving from San Juan (PR's largest city, on the northern shore) to Ponce (PR's second largest city, a bit west on the southern shore) you pass though mountains lush and green. Rise up through a cloud layer and then back down. More often than not, you would drive through a torrential down pour somewhere between the northern and southern shores. When you get to the southern portion of the island, the lush green mountains fade into flat drab dessert. The vegetation appears to be stressed and you see lots of bare ground, cacti and acacia trees. This southern part of the island is a dessert that gets less than 3 inches of rain per year. If you turn north at Ponce and drive 20 minutes to Ajuntas coffee growing mountains it rains every day, especially during the wet season. All this without mentioning the rain forest or the dry forest, which are only 20 minutes apart.

The acacia trees in dessert area of Puerto Rico are short, stubby and spiny. Acacia was the type of wood used throughout the tabernacle. The altar of burnt offering was made of acacia wood and plated with copper. The ark, the table, the altar of incense, and the boards of the tabernacle were made of acacia wood and plated with gold. In a previous post I suggested that the boards in the tabernacle were a type of believer...made of wood, but when people see us, they should see Christ (gold). I also mentioned that each board stood upright on two sockets of silver that represent the ransom paid by Jesus.

No one knows exactly what these boards actually were. Some believe that the boards were solid. Others think they were hollowed out boards. While others believe that they were not boards at all, but wooden frames or lattices. We do know that two of the three dimensions of the boards are given: each board was a cubit and a half wide and ten cubits long (Ex. 26:13). No thickness specified.

So, how do you get a 17 foot long board (about 10 cubits) 30 inches (about 1 1/2 cubits) wide from end to end, from a short, stubby, spiny tree? In order to cut a board of that size, one would have start with a bigger piece and cut it to the correct size. Maybe acacia trees are bigger in that area of the globe. Maybe they grew much larger 3,000 years ago. I don't know. I asked a carpenter friend of mine how do you get a large wide board from a short narrow tree, he said that they would notch smaller boards and peg them together until they got the desire length and width. When finished, the sides would be smooth and you can get many boards the same size. To sum it up, to get about 45 solid boards/ hollow boards/ lattice or frames, it takes work, a lot of work.

Before the tree is cut down, it is rooted and grounded in the ground. When cut, it is separated from its roots. It either needs to be cut down to size, or built up to size. Then each were plated with gold. Fitted and framed together by poles, made from acacia wood overlaid with gold. How is a board like a believer?

Before believers believe, they are rooted and grounded in the the world. When we believe, were a cut off and separated from the world (in the world not of the world) . Then God has to work with us to perfect us (or make us complete), either cutting and grinding away the excess or piecing together, building up. We call this process sanctification. We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Standing upright with both feet resting on the redemptive work of Christ, no longer grounded and rooted in the world, but grounded and rooted in love (Eph. 3:17).

How's the process going? Still rooted in the world? Are you letting the Master Carpenter hack and shape you? Are you resting solely on the redemptive work of Christ? Are you fitted together with fellow believers? Are you board? Are you standing? Or teetering, about to fall?

Pride [goeth] before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. -- Prov. 16:18


http://theforgottenfifty.blogspot.com/

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