IN THE CARPENTER'S SHADOW
by Jeremy Chance Springfield
8/21/2015
The Creator is a masterpiece maker. The sweeping heavens and the bountiful earth and all that fill them reverberate with the reality of His creatively-complex desire to build meaning from nothing. The vast expanse of space and the tides of time are all infused with His finesse. Every atom and element mean more than science can ever discover, for it was spoken into being by the Being who alone is pure meaning. All are pieces of the Master’s masterpiece.
Man himself is surely the greatest example of His care and attention to detail. He is responsible for our very makeup. We were made to mirror Him in His majesty. From the earth we were formed by His purpose and intent, molded to His precise and righteous specifications. Genesis 1:27 tells us how special mankind is because of the unique focus He displayed in our creation:

The Architect of time and space stooped low to fashion a form that would be filled with His own breath, animated by His own Spirit. From the earth would be built the man who would take on the Creator's characteristics. The above verse is usually rendered with the term “image” instead of “shadow,” as I have done. The reason for the unique reading shared here is that the Hebrew text literally says TZELEM “shadow,” and not the less-specific “image” found in just about every English translation. A shadow as a representation of the reality of a thing that can be; a portrayal of the true object. The Holy One made man in His shadow, so that His artisanal undertaking would truly reflect Him in a way that no other creation was granted. The framework of Adam was the infinite detail embedded in the Creator. The shadow of Elohim contains all the truth and reality possessed by the Holy One Himself, and it is in the intricacies of that awesome alignment that mankind had his origins.
Not satisfied to merely make an image-bearer in His own shadow, He went on to create a special place for His representation to reside: the Garden of Eden. It is important to pay attention to the terminology used in the text about the creation of the Garden. The Word uses a term that is translated repeatedly in the Hebrew Scriptures as “plant,” which is NATA, but it actually means something else entirely: “Set upright / to erect.” This concept is applied to the act of planting, which is the setting of a seed that shall grow up, or the setting of an already-established plant. However, the term itself doesn’t actually mean “plant,” but more along the act of construction: “set upright / to erect.” It is even used in the book of Ecclesiastes 12:11 to speak of the setting up of nails in the work of carpentry. The Holy One therefore built the Garden in Genesis 2:8 as an ordered design, for an ordered purpose – to be an organic home for the man made from earth!
The Garden would serve as the divinely-inspired and created special place on the earth where the Creator would come and meet with the man. Eden’s Garden was the erected area of sacred meeting between Elohim and Adam. It was a terrestrial Temple of leaf, flower, and fruit. Man enjoyed an uninterrupted communion with the Most High in the environs of Eden, until disobedience devastated the harmony that existed between the Creator and the ones made in His specific shadow. The destructiveness of the deed of Adam is recorded in Genesis 3:19, showing clearly the severity of his crime: he fell from the shadow of Elohim, to being merely dust:

The profaning of the Garden’s sanctity tore away the Presence of the Creator from His most beloved creation. Man, made in the shadow of the Almighty, experienced the withdrawal of the Presence, and was left to languish apart from His shadow in the harsh sun of a world no longer under his control. The anarchy of Adam cast him from the heights of holiness down to a deadly affinity with the dust from whence his form was wrought. The way to Eden was blocked; the holy Garden house shuttered to the one who shattered all fealty to its Builder.
Thankfully, however, this horrific banishing of Elohim’s image would not be relegated to a failed work for the world’s Designer. For as much as the sin of Adam demolished the intimacy experienced between him and the Holy One, such a resounding judgment would not be final. The plan for restoration and rebuilding of what was torn down began to be known to mankind in careful presentations as time marched on. This strategy for the salvation of Adam’s seed took the shape of a modified version of what man originally knew. The Garden was a static, immovable place in time and space. Once sullied by man’s sin, it could no longer be entered by Adam. A similar creation – but manifestly different – needed to be built for man to return again to his original purpose.

The procedure for man's restoration into the shadow of Elohim took the initial form of a kinetic meeting place – a mobile Holy House in which mankind could once more come into contact with the Erector of Eden’s Garden. The Tabernacle that was made in the wilderness of Sinai was the birthing of the desire of the Holy One to commune in intimacy once more with man. Although constructed in the midst of a sinful people, the Tabernacle would yet be exclusively other, inhabited only by the priests, to be approached by the people through their careful mediation. It stood for the desire of the Holy One to reconnect with those who had severed themselves from His goodness.
The Holy One chose a special man for the task of creating the new meeting place that would reunite the Creator with His fallen people. The man responsible for building the Tabernacle is himself an important detail in all of this, because in him Elohim concealed the key factor in the orchestrated masterpiece to bring peace back to the shattered pieces of those once made in the Master’s shadow. The identity of this person is vital for us to stop and look at, for in him is held many qualities that would point to the future final redemption of mankind. Interestingly, the Creator did not choose Moses or Aharon to complete this high calling, but rather, chose an obscure man who is only mentioned a mere eight times by name in the entirety of Scripture: Bezaleel. Exodus 31:1-5 contains the details of this important figure:
Exodus 35:30-34 gives a very similar presentation of this man's calling:

This man Bezaleel is brimming with prophetic significance, for in him was the concept of how mankind would gain reentry into the Presence of the Creator - to return under the shadow of the Almighty. His very name is incredibly symbolic of what he would serve to be a part of by building the Tabernacle: Bezaleel means "In the Shadow of El," that is, "In the Shadow of the Deity." This points us back to the original pure creation of mankind in the Shadow of Elohim.
The building of a new sanctuary for man was not enough – something had to be done in order to make it properly, and to deal with the issue of man’s sin, so that he could even partake of that new work. Bezaleel was chosen as the carpenter who would instigate the process of how the Holy One would restore mankind. In him would be found the character clues as to how redemption would be won in due time. In this manner, a careful consideration of the man is worth our time here.
Based on the above Scriptural evidences from the two passages out of Exodus 31 and 35, we know that Bezaleel possessed the following aspects which are prophetic in nature in regards to what the Creator was building for man’s restoration:
The building of a new sanctuary for man was not enough – something had to be done in order to make it properly, and to deal with the issue of man’s sin, so that he could even partake of that new work. Bezaleel was chosen as the carpenter who would instigate the process of how the Holy One would restore mankind. In him would be found the character clues as to how redemption would be won in due time. In this manner, a careful consideration of the man is worth our time here.
Based on the above Scriptural evidences from the two passages out of Exodus 31 and 35, we know that Bezaleel possessed the following aspects which are prophetic in nature in regards to what the Creator was building for man’s restoration:
In addition to the above Scriptural details concerning the equipping of Bezaleel to erect the Tabernacle in the wilderness, there are other factors of interest to us that are extra-Biblical in source. Although not appearing in the Word, they are noteworthy to the discussion, as they are derived from the ancient Jewish understanding surrounding this unique man. They are to be taken with a grain of salt, but still worthy to see how these Biblical matters were viewed from antiquity. Firstly, it is significant that for all the merit of Moses, for all that was accomplished through his hand by the order of the Most High, this seemingly most honorable of works was not directed to be carried out by him. The ancient Jewish commentators found that note of particular interest, and commented on how they had traditionally understood why it was so. It is recorded for us in the ancient Jewish work called Sh’moth Rabbah 40:2, which first discusses how Moses assumed he would be the one to construct the Tabernacle, but is told by the Most High that Bezaleel would perform that great deed, and then the text explains further how it happened:
This excerpt displays for us an interesting notion: Bezaleel, along with other people who would play significant roles in history, had his name written in this special scroll which the Holy One had preserved from the beginning of time. The important factor to glean here is that Judaism views Bezaleel has having been marked for this very function of architect for the Tabernacle before the foundation of the world itself.
Another relevant detail that Judaism has preserved in regards to Bezaleel can be found in a lengthy discussion in the Talmud Bavli, in tractate Sanhedrin 69b, where a very complex computation of the age of certain Biblical figures is engaged in with the intent of showing that Bezaleel was thirteen (13) years old when the Spirit endowed him with wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and the ability to teach, and thus enabled him from that early age to be the carpenter for the Tabernacle.
Another relevant detail that Judaism has preserved in regards to Bezaleel can be found in a lengthy discussion in the Talmud Bavli, in tractate Sanhedrin 69b, where a very complex computation of the age of certain Biblical figures is engaged in with the intent of showing that Bezaleel was thirteen (13) years old when the Spirit endowed him with wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and the ability to teach, and thus enabled him from that early age to be the carpenter for the Tabernacle.
It is a strange thing for him to apparently have been filled at such a young age to do a work that would normally require years and years of highly-trained and skilled apprenticeship, but according to the math done in the passage in which this quote is contained, the Jewish commentators settled firmly on the age of thirteen for Bezaleel. The majestic and holy Tabernacle in the wilderness was therefore overseen in its construction and directly manufactured by a Spirit-filled thirteen-year-old boy - if we are to believe their math was correct! The Scriptural text does reveal to us that he had a direct apprentice – Oholiab, as well as many other artisans beneath him, and it was by their combined effort – lead by the young Bezaleel, that the Holy One’s desire for a physical sanctuary for His people was realized. In this can be made a powerful point: we are told to come to Him as a child (Matthew 19:14), and yet that does not mean in naivety, ignorance, or foolishness – as even a child can be endowed with great wisdom and insight. Age is no matter when the Spirit of the Holy One is empowering for His purposes.
A third extra-Biblical element concerning Bezaleel can be found elsewhere in the Talmud, in tractate Berachot 55a, where the discussion centers around the creation of the Tabernacle, and the supernaturally-bestowed ability of Bezaleel to fashion that construction. It notes an amazing view that the ancient commentators held of him:
What is of importance here is that the Jewish teachers read the Hebrew term OTO “him” instead to mean “his letter.” This is a play on the word that the commentators are engaging in with the purpose of making the connection of the nature of Bezaleel’s being filled with the Spirit, for they then go on to quote from the Exodus 31 passage concerning his being filled with the Spirit, and mention being filled with Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge. This factor is then paired with phrases from Proverbs 3:19 and 3:20, which reference the Holy One’s direct usage of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge in the creation of the heavens and the earth. Essentially, what Judaism proposes is that the Creator utilized the letters of the Hebrew language to "build" creation from the atomic level into what we know and experience daily. The idea that is thus presented in the Talmud about Bezaleel is his unique filling with the Spirit of Elohim granted him the unique ability to build the Tabernacle and its various vessels with the same type of special insight used by the Creator in His creation of the heavens and the earth. The concept presented by these Jewish commentators about Bezaleel is incredibly profound!
Adding these extra-Biblical perceptions about Bezaleel to the previously-discussed Scriptural details concerning him, the result is the following list:
Does this list of characteristics look similar to anyone else in the Word? Does it seem familiar, like it could possibly be referring to someone else? Doesn’t this list look like key aspects of Yeshua the Messiah? Consider these details about Yeshua that the Word tells us to be true:
He is from the tribe of Judah, and interestingly, in Hebrews 1:3, He is called the “Shadow” of the Creator’s Essence when read from the Aramaic Peshitta New Testament text:
He is from the tribe of Judah, and interestingly, in Hebrews 1:3, He is called the “Shadow” of the Creator’s Essence when read from the Aramaic Peshitta New Testament text:
This concept is profound: The Aramaic text uses the exact same Semitic term as the Hebrew does for “Shadow,” altered only due to the subtle differences between the languages.
This detail is strikingly significant, for it shows us that Messiah is the manifestation of what Bezaleel symbolized in his name: He is the Jewish man who is the “Shadow” of the Creator, the One who would build the Tabernacle!
We know from Mark 6:3 that Yeshua’s profession before beginning His ministry in Israel was that of a carpenter.
We know from Mark 6:3 that Yeshua’s profession before beginning His ministry in Israel was that of a carpenter.
While this factor is typically brought up in regards to His death by crucifixion using nails and wood, and the dramatically-moving link to carpentry in that particular aspect, there is actually something much deeper in this detail of Him being trained to be a carpenter.
Judaism has a unique interpretation of a verse from the book of Zechariah that mentions the prophet being shown prophetically four carpenters. In Zechariah 1:18-21, the following vision is discussed:
The ancient Jewish commentators looked at the four carpenters mentioned in this passage and came up with a surprising interpretation of the identities of these individuals. Recorded for us in the Talmud, tractate Sukkah 52b, we read who they understood them to be:
The four carpenters are considered to be highly “Messianic” in identity: obviously, Messiah ben David and Messiah ben Yosef are Messianic figures: Judaism had a difficult time understanding how the obviously Scriptural sacrificial role of the Messiah could be reconciled with the also obviously Scriptural royal role of the Messiah, and in attempting to gel the concepts, they instead split the person of Messiah into two individuals – one who would die for the people (ben Yosef), and a second who would triumph for the people as king (ben David). The mention of EliYahu (Elijah the prophet) is also highly Messianic, in that Elijah is integrally-related to the return of the Messiah, and is a figure who himself took on a very Messianic-like persona in the eyes of Judaism. The Righteous Priest is identified elsewhere in the ancient Jewish work of Bereshit Rabbah 43 as none other than Melchizedek! Psalms 110 and the book of Hebrews goes into some length of the Messianic significance of that particular man, who served as priest and king. In all of this is the astonishing seldom-referenced reality that Judaism linked the Messiah to being a carpenter, and that is exactly what the New Testament writings show to have been the case for Yeshua! Just like Bezaleel, Yeshua was the carpenter who would build something in a way never experienced before by mankind.
The ability of Yeshua to do His calling was similar to that of Bezaleel: Yeshua was filled with the Spirit of Elohim in fullness. No man had ever known the fullness of the Spirit filling him before Yeshua came to this earth. It was always a limited filling. He alone of all men has known the fullness, has known what it means to brim with eternity in every pore, to resonate with the Spirit in every cell. Isaiah 11:1-2 speaks of the filling of the Messiah with the completeness of the Spirit:
While Bezaleel experienced the limited filling of the Spirit of Elohim through wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, Yeshua the Messiah lacks no facet of the Spirit – it was instilled within Him without measure by the desire of the Creator. Like Bezaleel, Yeshua was an amazing Teacher who had under His tutelage men and women who desired to learn and mimic His miracles and method of living before the Presence of the Most High. The disciples were very much apprentices of the Spirit as they sat under the teaching of the only Man called to be the true Son of Elohim, just as Bezaleel was the only man who was ever called by name specifically in all of Scripture. These parallels show us that the building of the Tabernacle by the person of Bezaleel was the prototypical desire of the Holy One that would see realization in the body of His Son, Yeshua.
Even the assumed age of Bezaleel at the time of his calling to build the Tabernacle – thirteen – corresponds uncannily to that of Yeshua when He was proving Himself worthy of being a teacher at the young age of twelve (12) while visiting the Temple in Jerusalem. Luke 2:42, 46-47 displays the amazing similarities:
Even the assumed age of Bezaleel at the time of his calling to build the Tabernacle – thirteen – corresponds uncannily to that of Yeshua when He was proving Himself worthy of being a teacher at the young age of twelve (12) while visiting the Temple in Jerusalem. Luke 2:42, 46-47 displays the amazing similarities:
He sat in their midst – teachers older than He, and who had studied the Torah of Elohim all their life, and yet were being schooled by a boy who should only just then be starting serious study of the Word. It made no sense to them, which is why the text says they were stupefied. Yeshua’s youth was no hindrance to His calling to show the wisdom of the Holy One to mankind. It was His nearness to the Spirit of Elohim that qualified Him to be a teacher to any man, regardless of age. The entire purpose of Yeshua was to build, to edify, and to restore what had been torn down in Eden. The Garden paradise erected originally by the Creator was brought crashing to the ground by the sin of Adam, and yet, as time moved forward, the heart’s desire of the Holy One was revealed; He wanted man to be near Him, to have that place of protection and intimacy once more; to be the image originally intended of him. Bezaleel and the Tabernacle he made were prototypes of that desire. When the true means by which it would be obtained came upon the earth, man would see the wisdom of the Most High in making His Son the carpenter who would build a spiritual Temple upon the earth.
This unbridled outpouring of the Spirit allowed Him to act in the full authority and power of the Holy One, by which we read that through Him was made all that we see. The Holy One used Yeshua’s glorious eternal nature to form creation. Colossians 1:16 mentions the role of Yeshua in creation:
In this passage we see that Yeshua is the vehicle through which Yah worked to build all that we see in this world. This would only make sense in light of Judaism’s understanding of Bezaleel’s ability endowed by the Spirit to do the same majestic works for the Tabernacle as the Holy One did in creation, in that the Spirit was the same. Yeshua knew the fullness of the Spirit, as Isaiah 11 explained above. It is no surprise, then, that His role was that of the Carpenter of creation through the power of the Spirit. He is the true Word, the eternal utterance of the Most High, and so, like Bezaleel is perceived by Judaism to have been given the knowledge of how to use the letters to build the various aspects of the Tabernacle, thus also has Messiah utilized the power placed in Him to make and sustain all of creation.
In fact, the concept of Yeshua as having a role in the creation can be verified further by considering the previous detail of Hebrews 1:3 calling Him the “Shadow of [Elohim’s] Essence,” and then returning all the way back to Genesis 1:27. In that verse, where it speaks of man being made BETZELEM “in the Shadow,” the first letter of that phrase – the letter Bet – is a proclitic that can just as legitimately be read in the Hebrew as “by” instead of “in,” so that the result would instead yield the following variant reading:
In fact, the concept of Yeshua as having a role in the creation can be verified further by considering the previous detail of Hebrews 1:3 calling Him the “Shadow of [Elohim’s] Essence,” and then returning all the way back to Genesis 1:27. In that verse, where it speaks of man being made BETZELEM “in the Shadow,” the first letter of that phrase – the letter Bet – is a proclitic that can just as legitimately be read in the Hebrew as “by” instead of “in,” so that the result would instead yield the following variant reading:

With this reading, we see that man is not made “in the shadow,” but rather, “by the Shadow,” and if read in this way, the verse instantly becomes a reference to the integral participation of Yeshua the Messiah in man's creation, whom Hebrews 1:3 calls the “Shadow” of Elohim’s Essence! Thus, we see the chain of thought established all the way from Genesis into the New Testament writings – the Shadow is responsible for the "carpentry" that built man!
The sacrificial death of Yeshua for the cleansing of our sin brings us once more into the ability to be the building, the Temple, of the Holy One. The death of the Messiah is prophesied in many ways throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, but there is one very powerful passage that links His death to our restoration to life, and being included in Him for that to happen. Surprisingly, the book of Lamentations 4:20 contains the amazing information:
Through the death of the Messiah, we have the blessed ability to live in Him – in His shadow – in this world, being built into what the Holy One wants man to become.
Through the Messiah the pure desire of the Creator for man to be made in His image is coming to pass. He has built a place for us to come to Him – in hearts restored from sin and death by His blood. In Him and by Him we are experiencing what it means to be in true intimate relationship with the Most High once more. We are more than just an inhabitant of that sanctuary, but are – by His very nature instilled into us – becoming that very sanctuary! The Holy One removed the ability for man to be separated from His Holy House by using His Shadow - Yeshua - to be the carpenter building us into its very construction! In Yeshua, we can know what it means to be in the shadow of the Creator of all good things.
All study contents Copyright Jeremy Chance Springfield, except for graphics and images, which are Copyright their respective creators.