Sunday 8th January
Read Job 38:4-7
“‘Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone –
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?” (NIVUK)
It is always useful to track through Scripture how other authors conceived of creation. Job picks up the language of Genesis 1 and expands on the nature of God’s creative act. When God spoke, He was building a cosmos, a habitable place within which humanity could fill and flourish. The verbs, or ‘action’ words, used of creation, are words associated with building. They involve ‘foundations’ and ‘pillars’ and ‘divisions’ and ‘spaces’.
The writer of Proverbs uses much the same language but considers this building skill an expression of God’s wisdom, an unsurprising conclusion where the ‘Spirit of God’ hovered over the waters of creation (Genesis 1:2).
“By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations,
by understanding he set the heavens in place;
20 by his knowledge the watery depths were divided,
and the clouds let drop the dew.” (Proverbs 3:19-20) (NIVUK)
That the cosmos is considered a divine ‘building’ is made even clearer when compared with a later Proverb…
“By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
4 through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures.” (Proverbs 24:3-4) (NIVUK)
Had you ever considered creation in these terms, as an artful and wise building? The question that these phrases raise is who is the building for and what kind of building might it be? But I confess that all this talk of ‘building’ and ‘houses’ draws my mind to Jesus…
“Jesus has been found worthy of greater honour than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honour than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 ‘Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,’ bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.” (Hebrews 3:3-6) (NIVUK)
How wise and artful is the house that He built?
