Sermon Tone Analysis

Tent peg

This is the inspiration for today’s message!

Does anyone know what it is?

A tent-peg.

[P] What with it being holiday season and people off camping; I thought that today I would talk about the deeply spiritual and theologically significant subject of tent-pegs. .

I was reading in Zechariah [P] a few weeks back in: [Zechariah 10:1–5 Ask rain from יהוה at the time of the spring rain (a picture of the Holy Spirit, isn’t it?)—

יהוה who makes the storm clouds; and He will give them showers of rain, vegetation in the field to each man.

For the teraphim (that is house-hold idols) speak iniquity, and the diviners see lying visions and tell false dreams; they comfort in vain.

Therefore the people wander like sheep, they are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.

My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the male goats; for יהוה of armies has visited His flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like His majestic horse in battle.

From them will come the cornerstone, from them the tent peg, from them the bow of battle, from them every ruler, all of them together.

They will be as mighty men, treading down the enemy in the mire of the streets in battle; and they will fight, for יהוה will be with them; and the riders on horses will be put to shame.]

It was particularly verse 4 that drew my attention: [P] [Zechariah 10:4 From them will come the cornerstone, from them the tent peg, from them the bow of battle, from them every ruler, all of them together.]

But I read the surrounding verse for context.

The prophecy is about asking God for rain, spiritual refreshing, the work of the Holy Spirit.

Evidently things were not good, the fields were not producing because of the rampant idolatry.

The problem was LEADERSHIP!

The people had been led astray.

Notice the emphasis on “leaders”: the “people wander like sheep” because there is “no shepherd” (v.2) – no one to lead them.

יהוה is angry with the “shepherds” in (v.3).

He talks about “mighty men” in (v.5).

In verse 4 there is the “cornerstone” – that is the stone on which a building is founded – Jesus is the chief corner-stone of God’s temple made up of us living stones.

There is also the “bow of battle” every “ruler”.

It is all about leadership, mighty men who lead and prevail in battle.

In their desperate situation, they call upon יהוה, who does something in their midst!

Hallelujah!

That is the context: [Zechariah 10:4 “From them will come the cornerstone …., from them the bow of battle, from them every ruler, all of them together.]

There are these leaders, the foundational ones, the mighty in battle coming from them; but right in the middle it says: [P] “from them will come the tent-peg”!

I have never considered a tent-peg as a symbol of a leader.

I don’t think it is!

There are some pretty fancy tents available for camping today, not like leaky heavy canvas monstrosities we had when I was a kid.

People may show off their fancy new tent with its multiple rooms, and features; but, never are they boasting about the tent-pegs!

Tent-pegs are utterly insignificant!

I mean, you don’t even see them!

They are hammered into the ground.

Nobody notices them!

They are insignificant!

Or are they?!

There you are camping; it’s mid-summer, but it’s no guarantee of good weather.

The wind whips up, the southerly strikes.

Suddenly the importance of those tent-pegs is revealed!

[P] They are holding everything in place!

They may be hidden, just bits of bent wire, but the whole security of the tent is dependent upon them!

In fact, older-style tents with straight poles wouldn’t even stand up without tent-pegs.

[P] In a storm – security depends upon the tent pegs.

This tent has fancy fibre-glass poles, modern materials, ventilation, doors, floor, weather-proof; but it is limp and without structure because there are not tent-pegs holding it in place.

I couldn’t hammer them into the church floor.

Here is something, common, unseen, unspectacular, ordinary, there are loads of them.

This is not a tent-pole, prominent, a leader.

This is just the ordinary people – but the whole integrity and stability of the structure of the dwelling depends upon them – on us!

The temple, before it was a building, was a tabernacle, a tent.

It was held in place by tent-pegs – that is where you first find this word in Scripture; they are listed in the equipment of the tabernacle – designed by יהוה Himself; specified and listed in His Holy Word.

Ordinary believers, tent-pegs; we revere the apostles Paul and Peter, and we are indebted to their legacy, they were key in establishing the early church; but the vast and rapid spread of the early church was predominately due to ordinary believers simply gossiping the Gospel.

Michael Green in his book “Evangelism in the Early Church”, said: “It was an unselfconscious effort.

They were scattered from their base in Jerusalem and they went everywhere spreading the good news which had brought joy, release and a new life to themselves.

This must often have been, not formal preaching, but the informal chattering to friends and chance acquaintances, in homes and wine shops, on walks, and around market stalls.

They went everywhere gossiping the Gospel; they did it naturally, enthusiastically, and with the conviction of those who are not paid to say that sort of thing.

Consequently, they were taken seriously, and the movement spread.”

Not the big-names, but ordinary believers, tent-pegs are vital to the integrity of the structure where God dwelt.

We are the temple where God dwells!

We are just ordinary people.

Abraham Lincoln said: “The Lord prefers common-looking people.

That is why he made so many of them.”

I have a concern, well many actually, about education today.

They are forever training people to be leaders: leadership courses, looking for leadership qualities.

They never seem to be training people to be followers!

Let’s face it, most of us are not going to be leaders.

The leader has to have someone to lead!

There are just a few leaders, most people are followers.

You know the saying about there being “too many chiefs and not enough Indians”.

I work in a lab, we produce blood test results.

That is what the doctors want from us, our raison d’etre.

But the managers, no matter how important they may be, do not produce a single one of them!

Everything depends upon the tent-pegs!

Jesus did not command us to make leaders but in [Matthew 28:19–20 “Go therefore and make disciples (that is followers) of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”]

The main verb in the verse, the command, is to make disciples, to make followers.

It is the ordinary, that are the essential.

It seems that God loves ordinary people – that is why He made so many of them!

Tent-pegs are the stability and security of the whole structure.

What keeps the tent immovable in the storm?

The tent-pegs!

And there is a storm out there!

The church is being assaulted by it on every side!

Tent-pegs speak of firmness, stability: [Ezra 9:8 “But now for a brief moment grace has been shown from יהוה our God, to leave us an escaped remnant and to give us a tent-peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and grant us a little reviving in our bondage.]

Having been in exile, they now had a secure place now in Jerusalem.

[Isaiah 22:23 I will drive him like a tent-peg in a firm place, and he will become a throne of glory to his father’s house.]

Fixed, established firmly in position.

[Isaiah 33:20 Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed habitation, a tent which will not be folded; its tent-pegs will never be pulled up, nor any of its cords be torn apart.]

The picture is of firmness, being established, not being moved, secure.

And it is the tent-pegs that do it!

There is a very well-known verse, a memory verse from way back: [P] [1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.]

There is a “therefore” a “reason”: why are we to be steadfast and immovable?

The reason is in the previous verse: [1 Corinthians 15:57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.]

We are immovable steadfast because God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That is why we are not blown away.

As ordinary people, tent-pegs; may I encourage us to: “, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

That word “steadfast” is found in: [Colossians 1:22–23 He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach (how wonderful is that, but there is a condition)— if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel that you have heard.]

Immovable tent-pegs, firm in the faith and hope of the Gospel.

We live in times when our faith is being assaulted in every direction – a storm of ridicule, Christianity dismissed as irrelevant, old-fashioned and ignorant.

We need to hold firm – to be faithful to the end.