The Sound of the Hammer

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​©Jennifer Lynn Easton Joy​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ / שמחה איסטון לין ינייפר
Each day we hear and identify thousands of sounds. The Scriptures, particularly the Psalms are filled with expressions, words, lyrics, poetry and songs ascending to heaven in forms of worship including trees singing, rocks crying, brooks bubbling, earth groaning, men lamenting, women dancing and children laughing. All of creation makes sounds that ascend to heaven in a form of worship including the sound of the eagle’s cry, the pattering of rain, the wind rustling in the leaves and water falling over a cliff or tumbling across rocks. 
 
This writing is motivated by the questions arising over worshiping ABBA ADONAI with a Prophetic Worship Hammer. Therefore, I am offering my own pondering followed by research. The Prophetic Worship Hammer is not my idea but was presented to me in 2001 by John Hadden and Bruce Jacobson from the Sacramento area at the time.
 
As a young girl, I remember my Dad building a fence around our one-acre garden. These were among the sounds I heard:
1. the cutting of the saplings - the sound of the chain saw
2. saplings sliding down the hill - the sound of saplings tearing through brush
3. bark being peeled - sound of bark being ripped from the tree
4. saplings measured - the sound of a metal measuring tape
5. pencil marks - the sound of pencil leaving a mark across the tree
6. the sound of the saplings being cut to exact lengths - the sound of the hand saw
7. the sound of the shovel digging the post holes - the shovel cutting into the earth
8. the sound of a dirt being emptied out of the shovel - dirt sliding off the shovel
9. the sound of posts being set in the holes - poles being dropped into the hole
10. the sound of dirt being shoveled into the post hole - dirt hitting the side of the pole
11. the sound of dirt being pressed into the post hole - a shoe pressing dirt against the pole
12. the sound of a hammer nailing the rails to the post
13. the sound of my Dad’s voice when it was finished
 
Most of us have held or used a hammer in our lives probably for hanging a picture or some simple household task.  Most of us would not look at a hammer and immediately think “Sacred Prophetic Worship Instrument.” 
 
Yet, the hammer is a Biblical tool and was used to hammer gold in the making of the Ark of the Covenant and to hammer copper/bronze/brass in the making of the brass lavers. The sound of the hammer pounding gold on the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat of God, the place of forgiveness and redemption.
 
As Nehemiah was leading the rebuilding of the temple, the reconstruction of the place of Holy Sacred Worship, the sound of the hammer could be heard.  As the LORD GOD is reconstructing our lives, may our first place of worship, be the sound of the hammer as HIS atonement bring us eternal hope.
 
The hammer was a carpenter’s tool used by YESHUA and many other first century tradesmen. It is one of the oldest tools according to archeologists. A tool known to every generation just as the love of GOD is given to every generation.
 
Also, it was a tool used by the Roman Soldiers to hammer nails into a cross, and a tool to remove nails from a cross. It is the sound of YESHUA’s atonement and the sound of HIS resurrection power. The sound of the hammer is the sound of unconditional love for all generations. It is the eternal sound of a hammer finishing the work of YESHUA on the earth.
 
Hammers may make many different sounds….a framing hammer striking a nail, a hammer used like a baton in dance, a mason’s hammer striking cement or concrete, a hammer hitting the nail on a coffin, a hammer hanging a young child’s swing in the tree, a hammer used as a drum stick, a hammer tapping small wooden pegs into a baby’s cradle, a hammer mending a fence, a hammer repairing a breach, a hammer building a temple, a war hammer pounding armor, a hammer positioning a horseshoe, a hammer breaking apart a stronghold, a hammer dedicated to the Glory of the LORD, a hammer releasing a worship sound to heaven. 
 
The following are brief introductory research notes ~

Definition
A hammer is a tool meant to deliver an impact to an object. The most common uses are for driving nails, fitting parts, forging metal and breaking up objects. Hammers are often designed for a specific purpose, and vary widely in their shape and structure. The usual features are a handle and a head, with most of the weight in the head. The basic design is hand-operated, but there are also many mechanically operated models for heavier uses. The hammer may be the oldest tool for which definite evidence exists.

Types of Hammers
1. Carpenter’s hammer (used for nailing) such as the framing hammer and the claw hammer
2. Upholstery hammer
3. Construction hammers, including the sledgehammer (war hammer)
4, Drilling hammer-a lightweight, short handled sledgehammer
5. Ball-peen hammer, or mechanic’s hammer-blacksmith’s, engineer’s or machinist’s hammer
6. Soft-faced hammer
7. Cross-Peen Hammer or Warrington Hammer
8. Mallets, including the rubber hammer and the dead blow hammer
9. Splitting Maul
10. Stonemason’s Hammer
11. Geologist’s Hammer or rock pick
12. Knife-edged hammer
13. Lump Hammer or Club Hammer
14. Gavel-used by Judges
15. Tanner’s Hammer.

Definition of Sound
Sound is a travelling wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations. The mechanical vibrations that can be interpreted as sound are able to travel through all forms of matter: gases, liquids, solids, and plasmas. The matter that supports the sound is called medium. Sound cannot travel through vacuum.
 
Definition of Worship
Verb
1. to treat somebody or something as divine and show respect by engaging in acts of prayer and devotion
2. to take part in a religious service
3. to love, admire, or respect somebody or something greatly and perhaps excessively or unquestioningly.
Noun
1. the adoration, devotion , and respect given to a deity
2. the rites or services through which people show their adoration, devotion, and respect for a deity
3. great or excessive love, admiration, and respect felt for somebody or something.

Scripture References
1. "You shall make two cherubim of gold, make them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat." ~ Exodus 25:18, NASB

2. “Then you shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand and its base and its shaft are to be made of hammered work; its cups, its bulbs and its flowers shall be of one piece with it." ~ Exodus 25:31, NASB

3. "Their bulbs and their branches shall be of one piece with it; all of it shall be one piece of hammered work of pure gold." ~ Exodus 25:36, NASB

4. But Jael, Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and seized a hammer in her hand, and went secretly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground, for he was sound asleep and exhausted. So he died. ~ Judges 4:21, NASB

5. And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. ~ Isaiah 2:4, NASB

6. So the craftsman encourages the smelter, and he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good", and he fastens it with nails, so that it will not totter. ~ Isaiah 41:7, NASB

7. "They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, so that it will not totter." ~ Jeremiah 10:4, NASB

8. "Is not My Word like Fire?" declares the LORD, "and like a hammer which shatters a rock?" ~ Jeremiah 23:29, NASB

9. And He will judge between many peoples and render decisions for mighty, distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hook; Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they train for war. ~ Micah 4:3, NASB

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Interesting Web Site
Hammer Museum, Haines, Alaska http://www.hammermuseum.org