The Builder
DAY 27 WRITTEN BY: MADELINE BECKHAM-
Hebrews 3:3-6
Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
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In this passage, the author of Hebrews notes that where Moses was a faithful servant in God’s house, Christ is the builder of the house – and God is the builder of everything. This house, as revealed in v. 6, is us – the church. Who could have dreamed that the temple of Solomon, in all its splendor, was merely a placeholder for the house that God would ultimately build through Christ! Instead of living in a temple of gold or stone, God has chosen to make his dwelling place one of flesh. Despite our scarcity and propensity toward failure, he has made his home with us. Jesus modeled this during his life on Earth – as he told the teacher who desired to follow him in Matthew 8: “foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Jesus - God incarnate - lived among his disciples, staying only where he was welcomed and invited. Now, through the Holy Spirit, our very bodies are the temple where he dwells, as 1 Corinthians 6:19 assures us.
Such a beautiful gift of condescension on the part of God may elicit a response like this: “If God has chosen me as his temple, I need to get to work, building myself up in righteousness that I might be a worthy place for him to dwell.” Our nature as humans in the image of God is to build, to create, to imagine. As early as the tower of Babel, we have been working fruitlessly to build our way up to the heavens. Psalm 127 tells us that unless the Lord purposes to build a house, the workers labor in vain. But hallelujah – what a comforting revelation Hebrews 3 brings us: that God is the builder, and we are his house. Let’s lay down our tools and our striving and submit humbly to God without fear! We can have confidence, along with Paul in Philippians 1:6, that he who began a good work in us will carry it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus.
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God, I am so thankful that we don’t have to build our way to you. Thank you for the profound sacrifice of Jesus, who is at once the builder of the house and the cornerstone on which it is founded. Thank you for your word – it is truly sweeter than honey. The wonder of who you have revealed yourself to be in Christ is more precious than rubies – you are the treasure worth selling everything else for. Forgive my prideful and faithless striving and give me a clean heart that humbly walks in the good works that you have prepared in advance for me. As the Psalmist writes in Psalm 84, “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.”
