Are you established in God’s strength?

Have you ever had one of those ‘Aha’ moments, when you’re reading through an obscure section of the Bible, and you suddenly see how it helps make sense of another seemingly disparate part?

This is what happened to me just recently, when my daily Bible readings reached 2 Chronicles 3 – and I noticed something new!  

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2 Chronicles 3 is a chapter that describes, in detail, how Solomon built the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. From the location, to the timeframe, to the dimensions, to the materials used, to the colours of those materials. All of it is recorded in intricate minutiae.  

But then, in verses 15-17, we read about the two brass pillars that were built on either side of the porch at the front of the temple … and this is what I had never previously realised: Solomon gave them both names!

“He erected the pillars in the front of the temple, one to the south and one to the north,” 2 Chronicles 3:17 tells us. “The one to the south he named Jakin and the one to the north Boaz.”

Following this up in my Bible footnotes, I discovered that ’Jakin’ (pronounced yaw-keen) means ‘he will establish’ and ‘Boaz’ means ‘in him is strength’. Taken together, I think it’s telling us that these two pillars were to be a constant reminder of ‘God establishing all things in his strength’.

It’s also worth noting that ‘Jakin’ and ‘Boaz’ were huge structures! Including the decorations at the top of each pillar, they stood approximately 10.5 metres tall, with a circumference of roughly 5.5 metres. (1 Kings 7:15-20)

Think about this for a moment.

Can you imagine what it must have felt like to walk past these two enormous and impressive pillars, as a Jew, entering or leaving the temple, on a daily basis, for worship?

Every Jew would have known what they were called. Every Jew would have known the meanings of their names. And every Jew would have been daily reminded, ‘God is establishing all things in his strength‘.

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With this in mind, I think we can now make much more sense of a reference to the temple pillars, when we are reading a totally different part of the Bible.

In this instance, the reference is found in Revelation 3:7-13, where John records God’s message to the church in Philadelphia who, for various reasons, are struggling. “I know that you have little strength,” he says to them, in verse 8, “yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”

Then, in verse 12, he adds, “The one who is victorious, I will make a pillar in the temple of my God.” And now I understand what this means …

Maybe, like the church in Philadelphia, we are struggling. Maybe we have little strength. But maybe, if we keep his word and don’t deny his name, not only will we be victorious, but God will establish us in his strength.

He will establish us on a firm foundation. He will give us his might and power, as part of his strength. We will be stable and secure in him. We will be like ‘Jakin’ or ‘Boaz’ in the temple.

Sadly, the original ‘Jakin’ and ‘Boaz’ were both destroyed, along with the rest of the temple, by the Chaldeans. (See Jeremiah 52:17.) But I’d like to suggest that the meanings of their names lives on in the promise of Revelation 3:12.

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What do you think? Is this something you have ever considered?

Are there other examples of things that would have made immediate sense to the original Jewish readers of the Bible, which get lost on those of us who are Gentile Christians as we read it now?

As ever, constructive comments are welcome below.

Please note: This is my ‘thought for the month’ reflection for August. (You can find all my ‘thought for the month’ reflections here.)

Photo by Ignat Kushanrev via Unsplash.