BRICK . . .
“’Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.’ They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.” Genesis 11:3
How many homes in your community are made of brick? Brick is still one of the most common materials used for building houses. How interesting it is to drive through some older cities and marvel at the elaborate brickwork on many of the buildings.
Bricks have been an important part of building for thousands of years. We find them first mentioned in Genesis 11:3, where they were preferred over stone for building the tower of Babel. One reason for this was that stone was not as available as clay, and bricks were easier to use.
Bricks were formed in wood boxes about a foot square and four inches high. The box had no top or bottom. As the clay hardened it shrank so it could easily be removed from the box. The bricks then needed to be dried in the sun. To further strengthen them, they were placed in a brick oven that was heated to a high temperature.
Often straw was added to the clay to give the bricks even greater strength. The Children of Israel were forced to make bricks while in Egypt. Here the straw was provided to them until Pharaoh demanded that they find their own straw. Exodus 5:7,8 says, “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota.”
The Bible refers to his people as living stones. “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). Jesus is the foundation, and like bricks or building stones, we form the walls of the Church of Christ. What a beautiful picture!
From: Precious Words of the Bible by Reynold R. Kremer