Bibledoorajar: Strength and Honor

     Pillars. We are all aware of the use of pillars and the strength and power they have in holding important things up. I was recently chided by a friend that I did not save an old pillar taken down from my house in order to place it in my current home as a decorative piece. I pondered that for a while. Where would I have put it to "showcase it"?  What message would it have sent to me and to others, if any? Would it speak importantly if it leaned rather than standing straight up and actually supporting something? In the end, I did not think a leaning pillar would speak any significance to me. But not so with the upright pillars supporting the various coverings and door of the tabernacle. They speak much to me about the strength of my Lord. They were made of shittim wood or acacia wood and that wood would last the Israelites for the entire use of the tabernacle (400 years or so).  Shittim wood is virtually impervious to rot or decay. A hard wood,  it is very strong and can hold up much weight. If the Almighty expected the true Israelites to come before Him (and He did), these pillars would ensure repeated safety that other woods would not. It was not hard for them to find this material as it grows freely in the wilderness.
     Jesus is most definitely the pillar holding up the church. He is impervious to rot or decay and is easily found in the wilderness. He is the everlasting Truth. The Message impervious to decay. When Timothy thought there was a possibility he might be delayed in coming to a church, he wrote that they were to remember and know how to conduct themselves standing uprightly.

"If I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth." 1Tim: 3:15

Just as every pillar in the tabernacle spoke in different ways about the strength and honor of Jesus, so each congregation of the Lord's church exists to stand as pillars of truth speaking it in love to the wilderness around us. May each of us always find Jesus accessible as the Jews found the shittim wood in the wilderness. May we build on His strength so that we, too, might be a pillar to those seeking to grow in Him. Not leaning are you?