What tools can we use?

Recently, the bulletin cover for our church’s worship service showed Joseph with Mary riding on a donkey carrying a young Jesus with an angel hovering overhead. Since there was no caption or credit given, I have to assume it was a picture selected by our church’s secretary; but it was an interesting picture that I had never seen before. The age of Jesus suggests that it is not a reference to Joseph and Mary on the way to Bethlehem; rather, it strongly suggests that it refers to Joseph and Mary with Jesus on their way back from Egypt.

Matthew 2:13ff records that when Herod failed to delude the Magi into providing him with the exact location of Jesus’ birth, he ordered that all of the male children in Judah two years old and younger be killed. It was an effective way to eliminate someone from becoming the king while he was still in office. To prevent Jesus being killed, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Egypt to live until Herod died a couple of years later. When they returned, they did not go to Judah because Archelaus was reigning in place of his father, Herod, and they were afraid of what he might do. Thus, we have the trip to and from Egypt recorded in the scriptures.

On the other hand, the picture has some features I have never seen before.

Now, I have no problem with Mary riding on a donkey carrying Jesus (after all, she had just given birth), but the scriptures do not mention her riding a donkey anywhere except from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The same may be said about the angel hovering overhead. Again, that’s fine with me, but our scriptures do not mention an angel accompanying them.

Regardless, the part of the picture that really caught my attention was neither of the above; instead, it was the very large axe that Joseph was carrying over his shoulder. Now, where did that come from? I confess that I am not an expert on 2,000-year-old axes, but the one in the picture doesn’t look like one used in fighting or even in cutting down small trees.

We know from scripture that Joseph was a carpenter, but what isn’t explained was just how a carpenter performed his work and with what tools. Granted that a large exe is not a very effective tool for shaping lumber, but what was available 2,000 years ago? I’m positive they did not have saw mills or any electric tools of any kind. And yet, a carpenter was able to make many different kinds of intricate furniture. Maybe, just maybe, that axe was used to help shape the lumber needed for carpentry.

Let me tell you a story about my father. I was away at college when my father decided he needed to have a railing built on his pickup truck in order to be able to haul some cows around. My mother and father lived on a small farm which did have electricity, but my father did not own any electrical tools. He did not have an electric saw, a drill, or miter box. He did have a few hand tools, but they looked old to me and not very effective. Regardless, when I returned from college for a visit, I discovered a new set of rails on dad’s pickup truck; and they looked like they had been built by a professional cabinet maker. They were far better than what a person might purchase and fit perfectly. I asked him how he had done such a job, and while I didn’t learn exactly what he had done or not done, he simply replied that while it took a little time, he got it done.

If my father could do it, why not Joseph and the other carpenters of his time? The first time I was in Israel, I was able to go to Nazareth and see Joseph’s workshop — not only see it, but to actually stand in it and look around. Of course, I was instructed to not touch anything, since too many people were trying to steal something from it. On my second trip to Israel, I again went to see Joseph’s workshop, but this time it was closed off and you had to look down through a small glass window to see it. I now believe that I was one of the last foreign persons to have been able to actually visit Joseph’s workshop.

His workshop was pretty dirty and dusty, and the only tools there were hand tools along with a few nails and things used to attach boards together. It was not much, but apparently it was sufficient for his occupation at that time.

That axe in the bulletin cover picture brought back a lot of good memories for me, and I again wondered at how creative people can be when they want to be. Some of the greatest things ever built were by people who did not have a lot of modern tools. As I look around today, I have to wonder what it is in our hands that we can use, and what do we want to make.

Robert Box has been a law enforcement chaplain for 30 years. He is a master-level chaplain with the International Conference of Police Chaplains and is an endorsed chaplain with the American Baptist Churches USA. He also currently serves as a deputy sheriff chaplain for the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. Opinions expressed are those of the author and not the agencies he serves.