Conceived

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"

God to Job, Job 38:4, NKJV

 

Before anyone objects and cries, "The earth doesn't HAVE a foundation!  It doesn't sit on anything!" let me just say--It doesn't mean what you think it means.  I know the imagery that the vocabulary brings to mind, sometimes inspiring incredulity at the very idea.  After all, we know, we KNOW that this ball of rock and dirt and water and magma is spinning swiftly on its axis as it hurtles through space in an orbit around the sun.  It doesn't sit still, much less on a foundation.  I understand.

 

But compared to the ancient languages, English can be so limited at times.

 

To say that God laid the foundations of the earth is to say that God began it; it originated with Him.  God founded the earth and fixed it in place, set it in motion, and determined both its rotation and its revolution.  God established the earth in its solidity, appointed it in its form and function, and ordained it with a purpose.  God laid it out from idea to fulfillment.

 

That's in the Hebrew of the Old Testament.  The Greek is even richer in meaning.  It speaks of throwing or laying down.  Literally, it means to conceive, in the sense of insemination, or to plant a seed.

 

Our Great God is the Founder of the universe, and the Father of all that is.  He is the initiation of life, and the source that sustains it.  Everything in existence is the fruit of His will and action, the work of He entire being.  God didn't just make it in a distant and absentee sort of way.  He personally imbued it with His very essence.  That is why the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork.  Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.  All creation speaks His majesty, revealing His invisible attributes, culminating in us who were created in His image and after His likeness--to look like Him and to be like Him.

 

Therefore, let us worship Him who made us, and give Him all the glory and all the praise and all the honor for Who He is and all that He has done!