JackHammer

Dave Mallinak pastors the Berean Baptist Church of Ogden, Utah, and teaches and administrates their Christian and Classical school.

He occasionally posts at Sharper Irony.

Here is a link to his church’s website.

Disclaimer:  I need you all to know that I almost agree with Kent less than I agree with Jeff, although I don’t agree with either as much as I agree with Dave, although I hardly ever agree with Dave, although Dave sometimes drives me insane with his inane sense of idiocy, so I prefer Kent to Dave, but I prefer Jeff to JackHammer, who really isn’t anybody anyway, which is why I prefer him least of all, but I’d rather say that Kent is to Jeff what jacks are to rubber bouncy balls.

See Jack Hammer(ed)

See Jack. See hammer.

See Jack hammer.

Hammer, Jack, hammer.

Jack can hammer.

Jack likes to hammer.

We will hammer Jack.

Hammer Jack hammer.

Jackhammer jack.

Jack likes to hammer.

Jack does not like to be hammered.

Jack is not hammered.

It is bad to be hammered.

Bill is hammered.

Hammer Bill hammer.

Boys like to hammer. My boys like to hammer. I am fixing my deck, getting it ready for paint, pounding nails, scraping, hammering. I can’t find my hammer. Whenever I lay it down, my hammer disappears. My sons are hammering. They are hammering the deck. They like the noise of it. They like to pound. I ask for my hammer back. I hit the nail. The hammer drives the nail into the board. One hit, and the nail is buried. My two-year old daughter hears me pounding. “Bang!” she says. “Bang, daddy!” I am not paying attention. “Bang, daddy, Bang!” I am too busy banging. I don’t hear her. She walks over to me. “Bang, daddy! Bang, bang!” My mind snaps out of the fog. “Yes, Laura, bang!” I say. She is satisfied. She wanted to hear my acknowledgement. She likes hammers too.

Jael liked hammers. She loved God. So she used the hammer. She pounded the nail. She drove it straight and true. One hit, and the nail was buried. She drove it through Sisera’s temple. She buried the nail in the ground. She fastened his head to the floor of her tent. “So he died.” That’s what the Bible says. “So he died.”

The Israelites sang. They sang about Jael. They don’t sing sappy songs. They sing the songs of Zion. They sing about nails. They sing about hammers. They sing about a woman with the workman’s hammer. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. The Israelites like these songs. They like violence. They like to sing about it. They like women with hammers.

Hammers have many uses. Hammers drive nails. My sons like to drive nails. They hear me driving nails on the deck. They want to help. My son finds a nail. He finds an old nail hole in the deck. He drives the nail into the hole. Hammers are useful for driving nails. Hammers are useful for building things. The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. The hammer drives those nails. Maybe this blog will be a jackhammer. Maybe it will be like nails and tent pegs. Maybe it will be effective. Maybe it will build. Maybe it will help. We hope it will. But it can only be effective as the Word of God drives it. God rolls up his sleeve. God makes bare his holy arm. His Word accomplishes His purpose. It will not return void.

Hammers are useful for repairing things. I am repairing my deck. Nails have come loose. My hammer drives them back into their holes. The claw of my hammer pulls some nails. Those nails did their job. Now they are being replaced. My hammer will replace them. Maybe this blog will be a hammer for repairing, for restoring. Maybe it will be useful for that. The Word of God repairs. The Word of God restores. The Word of God reforms. And sometimes it pulls nails. Some nails need to be pulled. They had their use. They did their job. Now they need replaced.

Hammers are useful for tearing down. Hammers break things. Hammers crush things. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? I wonder if Gideon used a hammer. He cast down the altar of Baal. He built an altar to Jehovah. Maybe he used a hammer.

We also must cast down altars. We must cast down imaginations. The high things that exalt themselves against the Lord. We must cast them down. Our weapons are not carnal. They are mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. The hammer is mighty that way. God’s Word is that hammer.

Maybe the Jackhammer will tear down. Many things need to be torn down. The Jackhammer should tear down what needs torn down. It must break the rocks. The rocks that must be broken. But it must never be laid to that Rock. May every hammer be broken that is ever laid against that Rock. A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction. How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

The Jackhammer is laid to the rocks. The little rocks that harden themselves against God. It crushes those rocks. It grinds them to powder. Smashing rocks is hard work. Crushing rocks takes grit, sweat, muscle. Smashing rocks makes a mess. People don’t like messes. Sometimes, people will complain. “Look at all the dust it makes. And the noise. I can’t stand the noise.” We will break rocks anyway. Rocks need to be broken. Some won’t like the attitude. We will grit our teeth. It won’t be pretty. Some will complain that we don’t seem nice when we break rocks. We will break rocks anyway. We will use the Jackhammer. It might hammer us as well. That is good. We too have fallow ground. Jackhammers can break fallow ground. May it all be broken, to the glory of God.

The day will come when the Hammer will be silenced. The chiseling and fashioning will be finished, the sound heard no more. 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. We also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house. The stones are a preparing. They will be made ready first, then brought to the house. He will not bring us one minute early. When He has perfected, then he will fit us to the wall. We long for that day, when the work is complete, the hammering done. But until then, we will hear the sound of the hammer.

We at Jackhammer want to break rocks. We want to build, to repair, to break, to crush. We intend to drive nails. Sometimes for ox-goads. Sometimes through the temple. Maybe even yours. And when we need it, we want the Hammer to crush us. We hope you enjoy, sometimes as spectator, sometimes as participant. Sometimes the Hammerer, sometimes the Hammered.