Hasty in the Prep Work

1 Kings 6:7- “And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.”

Imagine the feat of engineering that required! Not only did they have to prepare the blocks ahead of time, making sure they fit snugly together and would be level, but they also had to transport them carefully so none of them broke or chipped. That would change how they all fit together. The craftsmen also had to remember which ones went next to each other so they could fit them together once on site. (And I really don’t think they had any Sharpie markers back then to help out with labeling.)

Not to mention there were door frames to fit, and windows with frames. That is hard enough to do well when you are working with the building as it goes up, but to make them fit when blocks have been transported from another location, and not being able to use tools on the site- wow!!!

That required a lot of people working together in preparation for something that they knew was going to be great. They had to have a vision, they needed to be organized, and they had to work together. All the work needed to be right before the blocks ever got to their positions.

There’s an interesting thing I noticed in verse 18. The Lord tells us here: “And the cedar of the house within was carved with knots and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen.”

So all that prep work, all that making sure everything was right before building, was never seen. It was all covered with decorative cedar.

That is so true of ministry, isn’t it? We ought to prepare beforehand, first getting a vision of what God wants, then praying, organizing, working together for something we know the Lord alone can make great. And none of that part is ever seen. People come to an event or a service, or receive ministry or a blessing, and they never see all the time that went into preparing for it.

But if the prep work isn’t done, or if it isn’t done well, the decorative part will not look right. It can buckle, or warp, and then people can see it’s not square. The foundation is off. And though the decorative part is fun to do, and looks really nice, the building is perfectly functional without it.

That time of preparation is so important, as it lays the foundation for everything else that gets built on top of it. The rest is really just decorative. 

Lord, help me not to be hasty in the prep work!