Why was Jesus born the son of a carpenter to work as a carpenter? The question remains answered only in the mind of God. Yet it can be said that the Father’s plan to atone for sin through Christ was perfect, and carpentry provided the perfect home life and work for the Son of God who would take away the sins of his people.

Why was Jesus born the son of a carpenter, to work as a carpenter (Mt 13:55; Mk 6:3)? Some would respond that before the Son of God entered his public ministry he needed to work, and carpentry provided a living as good as any other. However, there are other occupations which look as if they would have been better suited to prepare him for ministry. Fishing would have been fitting work; Jesus called the disciples to become fishers of men, fed multitudes with fish and bread, and compared the kingdom of heaven to a fishing net. He could have been a vintner, growing and processing grapes for wine. Young Jesus turned water into wine, then later said he himself was the vine feeding his disciples, and he cautioned his listeners against putting new vintage into old skins. Shepherding could be called a family tradition, since the Messiah came from the line of Judah, and King David worked among the sheep. Jesus told a parable about seeking the lost lamb, he said he knows his sheep, and—most importantly—he is the sacrificial Lamb of God. Shepherding would seem a better occupation than carpentry.
Christ did not say much about wood or carpentry. He spoke of judging others with the analogy of the eyes having a splinter or a log, and he alluded to carpentry when he told of the man tearing down barns to build bigger ones. Why the Christ was born of the virgin Mary into a carpenter’s household is information the Lord has not condescended to reveal to his image bearers. However, this brief article proposes that the attributes of carpentry uniquely contributed to prepare Christ for his earthly ministry.
When I was a child visiting my grandparents, a man I did not recognize came to the house. My grandmother introduced him to me as her brother. He was a quiet and reserved man, but he none the less extended his hand in gentlemanly fashion and I grasped it. I could feel his calloused leather-like palm and fingers. I was surprised by the texture and lack of suppleness of the skin. Grandmother informed me that her brother had been a carpenter for a number of years. The manual procedures required in his trade had resulted in gloves of skin created by reoccurring contact with the rough surface of wood.
Like my great uncle, the Lord of Glory’s hands had been thickened to some degree over time by tooling wood. Some of the personal encounters Jesus experienced during his ministry might raise a question regarding God’s wisdom in selecting carpentry for a trade. Consider some of the things Jesus did in ministry. His thick-skinned fingers took mud he made from spittle and dirt and gently applied it to the eyes of a blind man to give him sight (Jn 9:6). It was his toughened hands that gently touched the children that came to see him (Mt 19:13-15). Then, following rash Peter’s slash of Malchus’s ear with a sword, the Christ, the anointed one, carefully used his calloused hand to miraculously restore the ear (Jn 18:10; Mt 26:51). The softer hands of a physician, lawyer, or scholar may be thought more appropriate for Jesus’s work, but the toughened hands of the Carpenter exemplified his full humanity as he accomplished the divine work of redemption.
Jesus often argued from the lesser to the greater in his teaching, but his carpenter’s hands show a physical argument from the intuitive, what man expects, to the counterintuitive, what God does. The ways of the Triune God are not man’s ways. Christ’s hands exhibited his mannishness—and their skill came in handy to make a whip for running the moneychangers out of the temple—
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Remember that repentance is not merely a legal necessity but a gift accompanying the true Gospel to all who believe. Rejoicing and gladness will come naturally to such a penitent at worship. Every Sabbath will become a delight instead of a burden and a cumbersome yoke of law. Then, you will know that the Lord alone restores the captivity and fortunes of his people (Ps. 68:18,19). A restored fortune gives one great cause to glory in God through the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, for then salvation has indeed come forth from Zion!

“Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restoresthe fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.” Psalm 14:7 ESV
As we delve into the rich history of God’s people, Israel, in the Old Testament, we uncover the profound significance of this psalm in the worship of the congregation. In verse seven, Jehovah’s faithful express a deep-seated hope for the restoration of their homeland and fortunes, a hope that resonates powerfully in this musical promise.
Israel’s years of faithfulness to their covenant God were few in number, sparse, and checkered with the Lord’s heavy discipline for idolatry. Israel’s recurring punishments began only fifty days after their exodus from Egypt. At the base of Mt. Sinai, after initiating the national covenant with Jehovah God under Moses, the newly formed theocracy first worshipped an idol, a golden calf. At this grievous sin and breach of covenant, Jehovah, acting through Moses, directed the Levites to execute 3,000 of their brethren in retribution for this crime. This punishment, severe as it may seem, serves as a cautionary tale of the destruction sin can initiate if left unchecked.
Jehovah is a patient and forgiving God, eager to pardon the iniquity and sin of his covenant people. His holiness, however, means that he will not overlook sin. This threat particularly applies to those who disregard the Second Commandment by making and worshipping graven images (Ex. 20:4,5).
In meeting out punishment, Jehovah would disperse his people out of their inheritance and scatter them among the heathen, most commonly for worshipping idols and for profaning his Sabbaths. The cold-hearted neglect of their own poor, widows, orphans, and foreigners was likewise a cause for discipline and wrath in Israel. Those who grew sensitive to their shame and owned their guilt pined for relief and a sign of Jehovah’s renewed favor to them. The best sign of God’s favor had always been his near presence and dwelling in the temple in Jerusalem, with a blessed restoration of the inheritance of the various tribes of Israel to their land, according to their ancient lots.
As mentioned above, the hope of restoring their fortunes was kept alive among a dispersed Israel in the worship ordinance of psalm-singing. But note that, though the reason for the dispersion of the people was sin, the instrumental cause was Jehovah himself – he hardens the hearts of the rebellious in just punishment for their sin, sin begetting more grievous sin (Rom 1:24-30). It is he who scatters the defiant to the wilderness places (Ps. 68:6). Accordingly, it is Jehovah God alone that can restore the fortunes of his people when their iniquity is pardoned, and he is pleased to renew his close communion with them in the great congregation (Ps. 35:18). Having every emblem of God’s covenant love restored, Israel could justly and freely rejoice and be glad! The time of returning to their lost fortunes was a year of jubilee and a cause of tremendous and year-long celebration! (see Lev. 27).
Covenant Presbyterian Church is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The precise date is next month, in October. It is humbling to consider that, although we celebrate this anniversary, Israel as a people of God never celebrated a designated 50-year jubilee year in their entire recorded history! The devotion of this impious nation quickly rose and just as quickly fell. There was little steadfastness and loyalty to their King, Jehovah. But the faithful remnant of Israel always longed for this sign of Jehovah’s approbation and love. God had promised and will undoubtedly restore their fortunes.
In our fifty years as a church, this congregation has seen many souls come, remain, and go. Many continue their pilgrimage with Jehovah and serve him faithfully in Christ in other gospel churches. Others have drifted to who knows where (Heb. 2:1). The critical question is whether one is dispersed from one’s fortunes due to sin. Are we a gathered and settled people as the inheritance of Christ our Shepherd?
Sin is both blinding and benumbing. It dulls our spiritual senses and leads us into bondage. Consider the Prodigal Son, who, after a time of discipline, returned home to his fortunes – to his father’s house – and the resulting jubilee celebrated at his return from the “dead” (Lk. 15:16ff). Yet it is a cause for lamentation today to note how many people who had been faithful churchgoers suddenly stopped attending public gatherings of worship during and after COVID-19. This is undoubtedly a modern-day diaspora!
Indeed, the Lord humbles his people for their idolatrous, Sabbath-breaking impiety and scandalous indifference to their needy and afflicted brothers in the faith (Matt 25:29,30)! With so many church closings since 2021, and so many churches being significantly reduced in number, we need to ask ourselves, “Is it me, Lord? Am I complicit in this act of rebellion through my long-established pattern and habit of sin and impiety in the church? Am I an idolator? Who or what do I chiefly serve, God or mammon (Matt. 6:24)? Am I a Sabbath-profaning hypocrite, one that is insensitive and indifferent to the presence of the Lord among his people at worship, and yet own the name “Christian” (Rev. 1:10)? Has the Lord’s Day become my day to do as I please?”
The good news is that if you discern his chastening hand upon you in your estrangement from church, take it as a sign that you are under his care. The Lord disciplines his sons that he loves (Heb. 12:6-9) and sends them such trials as they are dispersed, that they might seek him out of the abundance of misery and be delivered. Yet do not delay your repentance, for you only have this day to do so and no certainty of tomorrow.
Is God your great fortune? Indeed, have you any good in this life and the next beside him (Ps. 73:25)? You consider yourself a believer but are you reconciled to God through Jesus (2 Cor. 5:20)? Are you reconciled to your fellow believers in Christ? Do you enjoy your fortune, which is God, in holy communion with your fellow heirs of salvation in Christ (Heb. 10:25)? If not, you may return to your Father’s house by God’s grace and renew a close and humble walk with your Lord, who dwells with his people (Mic. 6:8).
Those dispersed even as far and low as a heathen pig sty may awaken from their sleep of death to long for their Father’s house and return. Remember that repentance is not merely a legal necessity but a gift accompanying the true Gospel to all who believe. Rejoicing and gladness will come naturally to such a penitent at worship. Every Sabbath will become a delight instead of a burden and a cumbersome yoke of law. Then, you will know that the Lord alone restores the captivity and fortunes of his people (Ps. 68:18,19). A restored fortune gives one great cause to glory in God through the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, for then salvation has indeed come forth from Zion!
Lou Veiga is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is Pastor of Covenant PCA in Houston, Texas.

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As the third person of the Trinity, the Spirit is co-equal with the Father and Son, and yet as a distinct person, the Holy Spirit is the one who regenerates us and guides us into all truth. He doesn’t speak on his own authority but relays the truth. The Holy Spirit is ever illuminating the work of the Son, bringing glory to Christ and declaring the Logos to the church. 

Albert Mohler says, “In some evangelical circles the Holy Spirit has faded into the background of our theological interests, leaving us with an anemic view of the Spirit, and subsequently, a deficient relationship with the third member of the Trinity.”

The Bible is not silent regarding the person and work of the Holy Spirit! He appears on the opening page of Scripture (Genesis 1:2) and is seen throughout, most primarily in perfecting & sanctifying the believer.
The Person of the Holy Spirit
John 14:16-17 says, “16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
Notice with me that Jesus does not say the Spirit of truth is an “it” – but uses the personal pronouns “he” and “Him”. “You know Him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.” We would not describe our spouses as “it” – unless we wanted to sleep on the couch. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal wind, ghost, or force that you can channel or use like Luke Skywalker with enough concentration.
The Holy Spirit of God has knowledge (1 Cor 2:10-11), a will (1 Cor 12:11), a mind (Rom 8:27), He loves (Rom 15:30), reveals (Acts 13:2), intercedes (Romans 8:26), teaches (John 14:26), guides (Acts 16:6-7), can be grieved (Eph 4:30), insulted (Heb 10:29), lied to (Acts 5:3), and blasphemed (Matt 12:31-32). These can all only be referring to a Person.
You can’t grieve or lie to an “it”. You can’t sin against an impersonal thing. No one has ever sinned against their toaster by grabbing a bagel at Panera instead of at home – but countless men have sinned against their wives by committing adultery.
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