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Those who become like Boaz are pillars in the church life (one of the pillars in the temple was named “Boaz”—1 Kings 7:21); in the Scriptures the pillar is a sign, a testimony, of God’s building through transformation in practicing the Body life—Gen. 28:22a; 1 Kings 7:15-22; Gal. 2:9; 1 Tim. 3:15; Rev. 3:12; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:11-12:
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Those who are pillars in the church life are constantly under God’s judgment (bronze), realizing that they are men in the flesh, worthy of nothing but death and burial—Psa. 51:5; Exo. 4:1-9; Rom. 7:18; Matt. 3:16-17:
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We must judge ourselves as nothing and as being qualified only to be crucified; whatever we are, we are by the grace of God, and it is not we who labor but the grace of God—1 Cor. 15:10; Gal. 2:20; 1 Pet. 5:5-7.
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The reason for both division and fruitlessness among believers is that there is no bronze, nothing of God’s judgment; instead, there is pride, self-boasting, self-vindication, self-justification, self-approval, self-excuse, self-righteousness, condemning others, and regulating others instead of shepherding and seeking them—Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:54-55.
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When we love the Lord and experience Him as the man of bronze (Ezek. 40:3), He will become our extraordinary love, boundless forbearance, unparalleled faithfulness, absolute humility, utmost purity, supreme holiness and righteousness, and our brightness and uprightness—Phil. 4:5-8.
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On the capitals of the pillars in the temple, there were “nets of checker work [like a trellis] with wreaths of chain work”; these signify the complicated and intermixed situations in which those who are pillars in God’s building live and bear responsibility—1 Kings 7:17; 2 Cor. 1:12; 4:7-8.
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On the top of the capitals were lilies and pomegranates—1 Kings 7:18-20:
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Lilies signify a life of faith in God, a life of living by what God is to us, not by what we are; the bronze means “not I,” and the lily means “but Christ”—S. S. 2:1-2; Matt. 6:28, 30; 2 Cor. 5:4; Gal. 2:20.
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The pomegranates on the wreaths of the capitals signify the fullness, the abundance and beauty, and the expression of the riches of Christ as life—Phil. 1:19-21a; Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19.
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Through the crossing out of the network and the restriction of the chain work, we can live a pure, simple life of trusting in God to express the riches of the divine life of Christ for God’s building in life.
Morning Nourishment
Matt. 6:28-30 And why are you anxious concerning clothing? Consider well the lilies of the field, how they grow. They do not toil, neither do they spin thread….Not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these. And if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is cast into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you, you of little faith?First Kings 7:17 speaks of “nets of checker work with wreaths of chain work for the capitals that were at the top of the pillars, seven for the one capital, and seven for the second capital.”…The checker work resembles a trellis, a frame with small square holes that bears a vine. Furthermore, the word work in this verse implies a design. Hence, checker work is a checker design and chain work a chain design….This checker design is for the growth of the lilies. This trellis is the setting for the lilies. In a sense, it is a net to hold the lilies…. [The] nets of checker work and wreaths of chain work [signify an]…intermixed and complicated situation. (Life-study of Genesis, p. 1073)
Today’s Reading
The burden and responsibility borne by the pillars in the family, in the church, and in the ministry is always in a complicated and intermixed situation. We may often like to straighten out these situations, but we cannot do it. If you straighten out one complication, there will be three others to take its place. If you attempt to make one matter clear, the situation will become even more unclear. The more you try to make it understandable, the more it will be misunderstood.In order to bear the responsibility in this complicated situation, we must live by faith in God. First Kings 7:19 says, “And the capitals that were at the top of the pillars in the portico were of lily work.”…The lily signifies a life of faith in God. Firstly, we must condemn ourselves, realizing that we are fallen, incapable, unqualified, and that we are nothing. Then we must live by faith in God, not by what we are or by what we can do. We must be a lily existing by what God is to us, not by what we are (Matt. 6:28,30). Our living on earth today depends upon Him. How can we possibly bear the responsibility in the intermixed and complicated church life? In ourselves, we are incapable of doing this, but we can do so if we live by faith in God. It is not I but Christ who lives in me—this is the lily. It is not I who bear the responsibility—it is He who bears it.
We all have been judged and we need to judge ourselves under God’s judgment. It is easy to be a bronze pillar, saying, “I’m fallen, corrupted, sinful, and good for nothing but death.” But to pass through the three days of the process of resurrection in the midst of the crossing out of the checker work and the limitation of the chain work is very difficult. But the more we are in the checker work and the chain work,…the more the lily grows, and the more of the pomegranates we express. Then we become a living testimony, not of anything natural, but of the process of resurrection under the crossing out of the checker work and the restraint of the chain work. There is no escape. We must stay in the checker work and chain work. It is exactly like being buried for three days and coming out through the process of resurrection. As we pass through this experience, the lily grows and the pomegranates are expressed. Every pillar must bear the testimony of living by faith to express the riches of Christ through the process of resurrection under the crossing out of the checker work and the restriction of the chain work. The bronze in the two pillars in front of the temple indicates that we are under the death-judgment, which brings us into the process of resurrection, signified by the three-cubit height of the base of the capitals. This process of resurrection brings us through the network and the chain work to grow the lily and to bear the pomegranates for a testimony. This is the way for the pillar to bear the responsibility, signified by the five cubits, the total height of the capitals. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 1073-1075, 1083)
Further Reading: Life-study of Genesis, msg. 84