“The sun arises and goes down and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south and turns about to the north; it whirls about continually and returns again to its circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. They return again to the place from which they have come.” (Ecclesiastes 1:5-7)
King Solomon knew that Earth was a globe, and he was something of a meteorologist. He understood the principles of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. Jesus referred to himself as “one greater than Solomon”, and wiser than the best when it came to knowing how things worked.
Jesus grew up in Nazareth, a village in the hills of Galilee. He learned carpentry and stonework from Joseph. An inauspicious background for one who would prove to be the long-promised Messiah. The teachers in the temple at Jerusalem marvelled at the wisdom of the 12-year-old Jesus from an obscure village in the hills of Galilee. Himself obscure, yet one “greater than Solomon” in wisdom and understanding already.
God has given the raised and glorified Lord Jesus “all authority in heaven and in earth”! The Son of God knows all there is to know about everyone and everything we need to know. Solomon had greater knowledge than anyone about cyclic evaporation and other matters that would be lost in history until rediscovered by scientists thousands of years later.
No man has the unlimited knowledge or the fathomless wisdom of Jesus Christ, the exalted Son of God. Yet the personal presence of the heavenly Lord Jesus can be known, along with the authority and power in his followers on earth at anytime, anywhere, through the Spirit of God.
So, think of Jesus not just as he was: the village carpenter who built houses and furniture; but as he is: the glorified Son who is building a worldwide church that will last forever. One firmly founded, fitly framed, and fully furnished. One greater than the temple built by King Solomon and the only suitable residence for the King of kings.
“In my father’s house there are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am there you may be also (John 14:2, 3). You and I are there already “in Christ”, and will soon dwell with our Lord forever.
Excellence is seen not just in the things we do but in the way we do them. The village carpenter from the hills of Galilee did “all things well” on earth and from heaven continues his excellent work here through us day by day. The glorified carpenter of Nazareth is still making well!