OUR DAILY BREAD 29TH DECEMBER 2024 DEVOTIONAL, SUNDAY ODB MESSAGE
Our Daily Bread 29th December 2024 Devotional TOPIC: Building What Lasts
BIBLE IN YEAR: Zechariah 9-12; Revelation 20
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Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:4
Today’s Scripture
Genesis 11:1-8
Today’s Insight
The Hebrew word rendered “build/building” in Genesis 11 is banah (vv. 4, 5, 8). This term can refer to a physical building—whether rebuilding or establishing something—and metaphorically to building a family. Both usages occur in 2 Samuel 7 (see vv. 5, 7, 13, 27). Psalm 127:1 includes the word twice: “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.”
Daniel 4:30 includes the Aramaic counterpart to banah from Nebuchadnezzar: “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” In the New Testament “to build” is a metaphor for the work of Christ in establishing His church (see Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 2:19-22). Building plans that fail to consider Jesus as the master builder (see Hebrews 3:4) are subject to fail.
OUR DAILY BREAD 29 DECEMBER 2024 – SUNDAY ODB DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE:
When I was a young boy in Ohio, we lived near several construction sites. Inspired by them, my friends and I gathered leftover scraps to build a fort. Borrowing tools from our parents, we hauled wood and spent days trying to make our material serve our purposes. It was fun, but our attempts were poor reflections of the well-constructed buildings around us. They didn’t last long.
In Genesis 11, we encounter a major building construction project. “Let us build ourselves a city,” said the people, “with a tower that reaches to the heavens” (v. 4). A big problem with this effort was that the people did it to “make a name for ourselves” (v. 4).
This has been a recurring issue for humans; we build monuments to ourselves and our achievements. Later in the biblical narrative, this story is contrasted with Solomon’s motivation for building God’s temple: “I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the Lord my God” (1 Kings 5:5).
Solomon understood that what he built needed to point to God and not himself. This was such an important lesson that he even wrote a psalm about it. Psalm 127 opens with “unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain” (v. 1). Like my childhood fort-building, what we build will not last, but God’s name and what we do for Him has lasting significance.
REFLECT: What are you building with your life? How is your life bringing honor to God?
PRAY: Father, please forgive me for the times I’ve focused on myself and not on what You’re doing in the world.
Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODB) is a Christian organization founded by Dr. Martin De Haan in 1938. It is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with over 600 employees. It produces several devotional publications, including Our Daily Bread. our daily bread devotional for today audio our daily bread booklet
