The use of language to build software pictures God creating the world with His word. It also displays man’s desire to likewise be able to control the elements of the world with his words. One can use language to orchestrate a machine in various ways via software programs. This can be as simple as writing code to turn on and off your lights.
These same things are also pictured in every servant to master relationship. The master’s words change the earth. His servant is the dust of the earth with a spirit inside it. When the servant obeys the words of his master the master is manipulating the earth with his words alone. He has dominion over the earth. That these things are true shows even more the great faith of the centurion who speaks to Jesus in Matthew 8:8-9:
But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
The centurion rightly understands that his authority over men pictures a greater authority of God. He knows Jesus has authority over the elements of the world. And he knows that this means the earth is obedient to Jesus’s words. Unlike man’s words, Jesus’s words have complete authority over all things. Yet man does have some authority over the earth so the centurion describes what kind of authority he has. This authority that the centurion has with his words pictures the authority of God’s word over all things.
