No Smith in Israel

Tools wear out, supplies run low, and stored food runs out. What lasts is what lives in trained hands and faithful memory, and what gets handed down.

“Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears.”1 Samuel 13:19 (KJV)

This verse has been in the background of this whole series since Part 1. Now it is time to look at it directly.

In the days of Saul, Israel was a nation of farmers. They had plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles. What they did not have was anyone who knew how to work iron. Every time a blade went dull or a tool needed repair, an Israelite had to go down to the Philistines and pay for the service. When the day of battle came, “there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan” (1 Samuel 13:22). The Philistines did not need to take Israel’s tools. They only needed to keep the knowledge.

Our generation has more tools, more information, and more stuff than any people in history. And yet we may be the least capable generation that ever lived when it comes to providing for ourselves with our own hands. We are a nation with no smith.

The Price of a Pim

The next verse in 1 Samuel 13 puzzled translators for centuries. The King James renders it, “Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads” (1 Samuel 13:21). But the Hebrew word translated “file” is pim, and no one knew for certain what it meant.

Then archaeologists in Israel began finding small stone weights inscribed with that very word. A pim turned out to be a weight of silver, roughly two-thirds of a shekel. The verse was not describing a tool at all. It was describing a price. Israel paid the Philistines a pim of silver every time they needed a plow or an axe sharpened.

That is the cost of dependence. When someone else holds the skill, you pay whatever they charge, on whatever terms they set, for as long as they choose to serve you. And on the day they choose not to, you are helpless.

Knowledge Is Fragile

Part 1 described the dark age that followed the collapse of the Bronze Age. In Greece, writing itself disappeared for roughly four hundred years. The palaces had depended on a small class of trained scribes, and when the palaces fell, the scribes went with them. An entire civilization forgot how to write.

Skills disappear the same way. They rarely vanish all at once. They simply stop being passed down. A grandmother who canned every summer has grandchildren who never learned. A farmer who could fix anything with baling wire has sons who work in offices. In two generations, knowledge that sustained families for centuries can be gone.

And today, much of the knowledge we do keep lives on screens and servers that depend on electricity, networks, and companies that may not exist in a crisis. A library of instructional videos is wonderful, until the power goes out. Then it is a dark rectangle.

God Fills Hands with Wisdom

Scripture honors skilled work in a way our culture often does not. When God commanded Israel to build the tabernacle, He did something remarkable:

“See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri… And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.”Exodus 31:2–5

Bezaleel is the first person in Scripture said to be filled with the Spirit of God, and the Spirit filled him for craftsmanship. Metalwork, stone cutting, and woodworking were spiritual gifts. The same passage tells us God gave Bezaleel a partner, Aholiab, and put it in both their hearts to teach (Exodus 35:34). The skill was given to be passed on.

Skilled work runs throughout the Bible. Tubal-cain was “an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron” (Genesis 4:22). Paul supported his ministry as a tentmaker (Acts 18:3). And our Lord Jesus Christ spent most of His earthly life working with His hands. His neighbors in Nazareth asked, “Is not this the carpenter?” (Mark 6:3). The Creator of the universe learned a trade, worked it faithfully, and was known in His town for it.

“Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men.”Proverbs 22:29

The Skills That Matter Most

No one can learn everything, and no one needs to. But every household should have a basic set of practical skills, and every community should have people who go deep in each area. Here is a starting list, grouped by need.

Fire and heat

Starting a fire in wet conditions. Safely felling, cutting, splitting, and stacking firewood, and knowing that green wood needs time to season. Running a wood stove safely. Every one of these is learned by doing, and every one is dangerous to learn for the first time in an emergency.

Food

Gardening, seed saving, and preservation were covered in Parts 3 and 4. To those, add cooking from scratch with basic staples, baking breadwithout commercial yeast using a sourdough starter, butchering and processing poultry and livestock, hunting, fishing, and foraging for the wild foods in your area, learned carefully from someone who knows them.

Building and repair

Basic carpentry. Building and repairing fences, sheds, and coops. Patching a roof. Basic plumbing. Working with salvaged materials. Measuring twice and cutting once. These skills keep a home standing and turn scrap into something useful.

Metal and tools

Here is the smith. Sharpening knives, axes, and garden tools with files and stones is the first and most important metal skill, and anyone can learn it. Beyond that, basic blacksmithing, forging, and welding are skills worth having in every community. Remember the lesson from Part 1: a modern collapse would not leave us short of steel. It would leave us short of people who know how to shape it.

Mechanics

Maintaining and repairing small engines, hand tools, bicycles, and anything with gears, springs, and bolts. Knowing how things work, so that you can figure out how to fix them.

Clothing and textiles

Sewing by hand, mending, patching, and darning. Knitting. Working leather for boots, belts, and harness. Clothes wear out fast under hard work, and a household that can mend is a household that stays clothed. Scripture honors this work too: “all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands” (Exodus 35:25).

Communication and navigation

Reading a paper map and using a compass. Knowing your area well enough to travel it without a phone. Amateur radio, which requires a license and some study, but keeps working when phones and internet do not, and has a long record of serving communities in disasters.

Care

First aid and the medical skills covered in Part 5. Animal care and basic veterinary knowledge. Caring for children, the elderly, and the sick.

Store Knowledge on Paper and in Memory

Part 3 talked about Jeremiah sealing his deeds in a clay jar so they would last many days. Knowledge needs the same care.

Build a printed library. Gardening, preservation, first aid and medicine, carpentry, mechanics, livestock, sewing, and local plant guides. Used bookstores and library sales are full of older practical books, many written for a time when people did these things themselves.
Print what you rely on online. If a video or website taught you something important, write down the key steps or print them.
Keep a household notebook of what you have learned: what grows well, what failed, how you fixed the pump, the recipe that worked. Your own notes, written for your land and your family, become an heirloom.
Memorize Scripture. In many places where Bibles have been confiscated, believers have kept the Word alive by memory. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11). No one can take away what is written on your heart.

Many Members, One Body

It is tempting to imagine the ideal prepared family as a team of experts in everything: farmer, doctor, blacksmith, mechanic, carpenter, and seamstress all under one roof. That is not how God designed His people to live.

“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ… And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee.”1 Corinthians 12:12, 21

When Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, every family repaired the section in front of its own house, and goldsmiths, merchants, perfumers, and priests all worked side by side (Nehemiah 3). No one built the whole wall. Everyone built a part.

Every household should learn the basics. Beyond that, learn one or two skills deeply, and know the people in your church and community who have the skills you lack. Then trade, share, and help. A church full of people with different skills, committed to one another, is far stronger than any lone family with a full barn.

Teach It Forward

The Philistines kept their power by keeping their knowledge to themselves. The Kingdom of God works the opposite way.

“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.”2 Timothy 2:2

Paul’s pattern for passing on the gospel is four generations long: Paul to Timothy, Timothy to faithful men, faithful men to others. It works for practical skills too. A skill held by one person dies with that person. A skill taught to three people who teach three more survives anything.

Find the older people in your church and community who still know how to do things: the one who cans, the one who welds, the one who can fix a tractor or butcher a hog. Ask to learn. Show up, work beside them, and bring your children. Many of them have been waiting years for someone to ask. And then, as soon as you know enough to be useful, teach someone else.

Word Study

חָכְמָהchokmah · wisdom, skill

The word for the wisdom of Proverbs is also the word for skilled craftsmanship. Bezaleel was filled with chokmah to work metal and wood (Exodus 31:3), and the women who spun fabric for the tabernacle were “wise hearted” (Exodus 35:25). In Scripture, wisdom is not only knowing what is right. It is knowing how to do things well.

פִּיםpim · a weight of silver

The puzzling word in 1 Samuel 13:21, identified by stone weights found in Israel bearing the same name. It was the price Israel paid the Philistines to sharpen their tools. A small detail with a large lesson: whoever holds the skill sets the price.

τέκτωνtektōn · craftsman, builder

“Is not this the carpenter?” (Mark 6:3). The word describes a skilled builder who worked with wood, stone, or other materials. Jesus is the Word through whom all things were made (John 1:3), and He spent years building things with His own hands. Skilled work is not beneath the people of God. It was not beneath the Son of God.

Where to Begin

Take an honest skills inventory. For every person in your household, write down what they can actually do, not what they have watched someone do.
Pick one skill this season and learn it with your hands. Sharpening is a good first choice: it is cheap, useful every day, and the most direct answer to 1 Samuel 13.
Find a teacher. Ask an older neighbor, church member, extension class, or trade school. Offer to help with their work in exchange for learning.
Start a printed library and a household notebook.
Memorize one passage of Scripture as a family, and keep going.
Map your church’s skills. Who can weld, sew, nurse, garden, build, repair, or teach? Knowing is the first step to helping one another.
Teach someone else whatever you already know.

The Philistines are long gone. Israel eventually learned to work iron, and under David, the nation that had no smith became the kingdom God used to prepare the way for His Son, the carpenter of Nazareth. Knowledge lost can be regained. But it is far better never to lose it.

“Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.”Proverbs 24:3–5

Lord, You filled Bezaleel with Your Spirit for the work of his hands, and Your Son worked as a carpenter in Nazareth. Fill our hands with wisdom, too. Give us humble hearts to learn from those who know more than we do, and generous hearts to teach what we know to others. Keep Your Word hidden in our hearts, where no one can take it. Make Your church a body where every member has a part and every gift is shared. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Carpenter and the King, Amen.

To God be all the Glory · Maranatha