The title comes from the book of the prophet, Zechariah, the fourth chapter, from the time when the remnant of Israel had returned from captivity in Babylon in order to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. I had this plumb-bob that I’d found in the dirt as a boy, and the pair of dividers and an Idea started forming. These were architects’ and builders’ tools and somehow the notion came to me of using them in a spiritually symbolic sense. Passages from the Old and New Testaments merged in my mind, first the idea of the City which God builds, but then narrowed down to focus on His spiritual House. In the background is an attempt to visualize the pattern of the Temple seen by the prophet, Ezekiel.
Some term this the “Millennial Temple“, the idea that the place will be physically built upon the return of Christ, but I am not at all sure that is the right interpretation. Some believe that the whole order of animal sacrifices will be reinstated, but I believe this is an error, unless we jettison the letter to the Hebrews. What I was trying to get at here is that the temple of the Living God is not any physical building but something that He is building within human beings for eternity, as it says, “a dwelling place of God in the spirit.” It seemed to me that there is a plan for this house, but it isn’t so many cubits (or feet and inches) of stone and wood. It is a living house, and here, temporarily, I switch metaphors. This “house” is also described as a body. I’m setting aside the translators’ word, “church” for now because of the baggage associated with it. The real word means an assembly, a certain, special, set apart assembly, and that is both a house and a body, the “body of Christ.” This body/house takes its entire character and form from the Head, Jesus Christ. It is like a reflection of Him, not a thing in itself apart. So in this watercolor drawing I tried to typify this pictorially, but it is also a combination of image and word.
The scroll is the “architect’s blueprint”, and the words are from the Greek text of the first two verses of the book of Hebrews:
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
