Morning Devotional

January 12, 2004

"The Great Pyramids" 

by Don Emmitte

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Because of God's special favor to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any other foundation than the one we already have--Jesus Christ. Now anyone who builds on that foundation may use gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But there is going to come a time of testing at the judgment day to see what kind of work each builder has done. Everyone's work will be put through the fire to see whether or not it keeps its value. If the work survives the fire, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builders themselves will be saved, but like someone escaping through a wall of flames. (1 Corinthians 3:10-15 NLT).

Twenty years ago, on this day, an international panel overseeing the restoration of the Great Pyramids in Egypt overcame years of frustration when it abandoned modern construction techniques in favor of the method employed by the ancient Egyptians. Located at Giza outside Cairo, some of the oldest manmade structures on earth were showing severe signs of decay by the early 1980s. Successful repair work began on the 4,600-year-old Sphinx in 1981, but restoration of the pyramids proved destructive when water in modern cement caused adjacent limestone stones to split. On January 12, 1984, restorers stopped using mortar and adopted the system of interlocking blocks practiced by the original pyramid builders. From thereon, the project proceeded smoothly.

King Khufu, his son, and his grandson in the Fourth Dynasty, built the three enormous pyramids situated at Giza outside of Cairo. The largest, known as the Great Pyramid, was built by Khufu and is the only one of the "Seven Wonders of the World" from antiquity that still survives. The largest single building ever erected on the planet, the Great Pyramid was built of approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone and stood nearly 50 stories high upon completion. Its base forms a nearly perfect and level square, with sides aligned to the four cardinal points of the compass. The Great Pyramid is composed primarily of yellowish limestone blocks and was originally covered in an outer casing of smooth light-colored limestone. This finer limestone eroded and was carried away in later centuries, but the material can still be found in the inner passages. The interior burial chamber was built of huge blocks of granite. It is believed that construction of the pyramid took 20 years and involved over 20,000 workers, bakers, carpenters, and water carriers. The exact method in which this architectural masterpiece was built is not definitively known, but the leading theory is that the Egyptians employed an encircling embankment of sand, brick, and earth that was increased in height as the pyramid rose.

Our reading this morning compares our lives to construction. When we use good materials and sound techniques in construction, the building lasts. The same is true in our lives. If we are incorporating good things in our lives through our experiences and activities, we can expect results that will stand the test of time. What kind of things do you “build” with in your life?