The noun ‘hammer’ is found only a few times in Scripture. The first time is when Ya’el, the wife of Heber, uses a hammer to pound a tent stake into the head of Sisra piercing his skull and crushing his temple (Judges 4:21). With this act, she sets Israel free from God’s judgment for worshiping idols. The second time it is used when Solomon built the Temple. That stones were prepared at the quarry so that no ‘hammer’ could be heard while it was being built (1 Kings 6:7).
Pebble in My Shoe
He limped when he met Esau the next day. He limped when he met with Shechem to discuss the rape of his daughter, Dinah. He limped to Beth-el with his family where he received the blessing of faith from Elohim. He limped when he grieved the loss of his beloved Rachel. He limped when his sons brought him the bloodied garment of his son, Joseph. He limped all his days in Canaan. He limped to Egypt. With that limp, he met his grandsons from Joseph. With that limp he met with the Pharaoh of Egypt as the father of a nation called Isra’el. With that limp he never could forget that the God of Abraham and Isaac was ‘by his side.’
Kristalized Kenai
As cliche as it is, a picture is worth 1000 words. Try to feel the chill in the air, the waxing and waning of the daylight hours and the peacefulness of this hamlet on the Kenai Peninsula. I thank God every moment of every day to have the blessing of this experience.
Helper – Hebrew: Shammes
By the time of the Feast of Dedication, the Jewish people had been exiled to Babylon and Assyria and could very easily have incorporated ‘foreign’ words into their vocabulary just as we have with the days of the week: Thursday for Thor, Wednesday for Odin, even Saturday for Saturn. Perhaps even to worship the God of Israel in their exile, they used the term shamash in order to remain alive.