The Bible gives us this unusual detail about the construction of the
Lord's temple. "In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the
quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the
temple site while it was being built." (I Kings 6:7). An
unbelievable amount of scraping, hammering, chiseling had to be done on those
mighty rocks that were used in the construction. But it was all done out of
view and out of earshot of the temple site.
It's a little like the way God "dresses" us, fitting us for
heaven. The apostle Peter reminds us that you and I are living stones, and we
are being mined in the quarry of earth, a place of noise, chiseling, and clouds
of dust. God is using our sufferings and afflictions to hone and shape us so we
might fit perfectly into heaven's landscape, where there is "no hammer, chisel
or any other iron tool." Where there is no suffering. No tears, pain,
sorrow, or death.
