Week 49—Friday Proverbs 8:22-31
Week 49—FRIDAY
Proverbs 8:22-31
“SUSTAINS THE UNIVERSE BY HIS WORD OF POWER”
We consider today the next breathtaking statement about Jesus: Fifth, “Sustains the universe by his word of power.” Did the writer of Hebrews have his tongue in his cheek when he said this? A lone man out of a Galilean village sustaining the universe by his word of power? Seems preposterous. And yet his followers had seen Jesus sustaining everything around by his word of power.
He sustained the world of health around him—cured the sick with a word. He cleansed and sustained the inner life of people by casting out devils and did it with a word. He lifted the inner guilt from a diseased soul and body and did it with a word: “Your sins are forgiven” (Luke 5:20). He stilled the tempest of a raging sea, and he did it with a word. He raised the dead: “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43); “Little girl, I say to you, arise” (Mark 5:41)—and he did it with a word. He cleansed the temple and drove vested interests from their places of power, and he did it with a word: “Take these things away” (John 2:16). He opened the gates of Paradise to a dying thief and did it with a word: “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). And more than all, he said to his disciples: “You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you” (John 15:3)—and they were. He had cleansed their ideas of God, of man, of woman, of prayer, of eating clean and unclean foods, of paradise, of love, of worship, of human relationships, of forgiveness, of the meaning of life and death—he cleansed everything, and did it with a word.
No wonder the writer exclaims he “sustains the universe by his word of power.” Jesus did it in the little; now through the little they saw him doing it in the big—in the microcosm and in the macrocosm. They had to see it in the little before they could see it in the big. The Word had to become flesh before it could become cosmos.
Dear Lord and Teacher, you showed us in the little world around you the power of your word. We had to see it in the minute before we could see it in the magnificent. We see it now in both places. We thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I can never show my greatness unless I show it in the little.