Isaiah 49:16-18 NASB
Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. Your builders hurry; Your destroyers and devastators will depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around; All of them gather together, they come to you. As I live," declares the Lord, "You will surely put on all of them as jewels and bind them on as a bride.
I was reading the above verses one morning, and I noticed that the word "builders" is translated "sons" in many other versions. So I looked up the word and it means: a son as a builder of the family. The Hebrew word from which son and builder both come is ben. This is in contrast to the destroyers and devastators..those will depart as the builders come. A son is a builder. A son is a builder. I said that twice..it is important!
Awhile back the Lord told me that I am a SON to Him, not a DAUGHTER, even though I am a woman. He told me that a SON receives the inheritance and a DAUGHTER, though the apple of her Father's eye, she inherits through her husband. So a DAUGHTER is less in importance as far as a family builder and the family is ALWAYS built through the SONS.
I felt the Spirit of the Lord helping me to make the connection that the sons are the builders.
This verse immediately came to mind: Romans 8:19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
I had always wondered why "creation" would long for "sons". I felt the Lord telling me that creation is what He built. So what He built (creation) is longing for the revealing of the builders (sons) of God. Creation is under the curse too! Creation longs for the day the BUILDERS are revealed...the ones that will build with the Master Builder. The builders not only BUILD, but they also REBUILD. The same word is for both. No wonder creation groans with longing for the sons of God to be revealed..for when they are revealed, the building and rebuilding are about to begin!
For this building is not of wood stone and brick, but living stones! It is the Kingdom, the very House of the Lord.. We are being built together on Jesus the Cornerstone. God is a Master Builder..to prove it, just look at the amazing creation all around that He built!
Hebrews 3:4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.
And Hebrews 11:10 says of Abraham: for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
I Peter 2:4-5: And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:9-17 For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. (It's okay, no reason to be jealous!) But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.
Ephesians 2:19-22 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
Isaiah 54:11-13 O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, Behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and your foundations I will lay in sapphire. Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies, and your gates of crystal, and your entire wall of precious stones. All your sons (builders) will be taught of the Lord; and the well-being of your sons (builders) will be great.
That word above antimony means setting, or like cosmetics that set off the beauty of a woman's eyes. Foundations of sapphire (or lapis lazuli) is the gorgeous place the feet of the Lord stood upon when He appeared to Moses in Exodus 24 and is what His throne looked like to Ezekiel in chapters 1 and 10.
I can see a vision of the settings of the wall He, the Master Builder is working on. I see places to set each living stone; places where they are going to fit to perfection, set off in the most attractive way. The settings that I see are empty for the most part, but a few stones are set in their places here and there. But of those stones that are set, I see flames of passion darting out of one, then another. Each stone sparkles and shines in the most beautiful manner. When flames dart out of one of them, the others remain in their place, allowing that one with the passion flames to eclipse all the others. There is no jealousy, but a yielding each to another to shine and burn more, to be more prominent as it is led by the Spirit. Each stone rests, knowing that his own setting is the perfect one for him. That the Lord Himself has set him in his beautiful setting and that moving to another place is not an option because he would not fit there.
The Lord is preparing your setting, the one that will set you in your most perfectly beautiful place. He is also working on you, the living stone. There may be cutting involved. There may be some sanding off of imperfections, which may cause you some pain. Your soul will be afflicted as you walk through this place. But know this: Jesus, the Cornerstone, which we are all being built upon, went through more than we will ever be subjected to and with Him, always at our side, we will participate in the suffering, the affliction of soul, always keeping the vision of our perfect setting before us, ever pressing on. His goal is to set us as living stones yielded to Him and one another in perfect rest, in our resting place.
It is here we walk with God. It is where we dwell with God, delighting in His fellowship with us and his extravagant love for us, forever burning from our perfect setting that He has designed.
Lord, send builders (sons) to fill their place in Your wall. And let us build as one man as You show us how. Master Builder, may You help us to identify the stones You have chosen to refine and set. May we be willing to listen to Your voice, not making judgments on the aptness of the stones you have chosen. Because you see the end from the beginning, how could we ever see what You see in each rough stone unless you show us. Please allow us to partner with You in the building even as we are ourselves set there in the wall.
Revelation 21: 9-12, 14, 19 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, "Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. It had a great and high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel....And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb....The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the second, sapphire,; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.
This is the wall we are being built together upon. This lovely wall that the Lord has laid already with the true foundation. How lovely the picture of this wall is in Revelation 21! How utterly amazing that there is a beautiful setting in this wall just waiting for the Master Builder to set me into. Oh His inheritance in His bride! Oh our inheritance in Him! I am breathless with anticipation!
