The promise that Scripture is living and active is such a beautiful truth to us as Christians. I mean logically it has to be, otherwise why would we continue to read and reread it, right? I know those of you who are avid fiction readers have your staple books or series that you return to for rereading purposes but generally that is for enjoyment purposes. The Bible promises not only salvation through the Gospel but also, “…teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” God has blessed me consistently with new insight on the Scriptures I have been reading and one of these passages is what we will be looking at today.
The passage we will be examining this morning comes at the end of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount; it is the building a house on different foundations section. But before we dig into it fully, I was reminded of the children’s story of the 3 Little Pigs. We all know that each built their house of differing materials (straw/sticks/bricks) to differing effectiveness of keeping the wolf out (failure/failure/success). Obviously, it is a children’s story and we can’t get too deep but I’m wondering if the goal of those houses was to physically keep the wolf out or simply to construct something that would make the problem go away. If the pigs didn’t see the wolf, then it means the wolf didn’t exist.
We read, however, that the wolf shows up to all three houses. Acting as though the wolf was gone didn’t mean that he was actually gone. The conclusion of the story is that the house constructed with materials able to withstand the attack of the wolf is the only one that survives. The third pig’s house of bricks wasn’t built to keep the wolf away; it was built to stand firm in the face of his impending attack.
This realization brings us to the parable Jesus gives His audience about building a house on a firm foundation in Matthew 7:24-27:
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
The obvious emphasis of this passage is to put our faith/trust in Jesus and His words as truth for our lives. The Scriptures are to be our firm foundation for life, but for what purpose? It can be easy to read this passage and think that if I build my house properly (on the correct foundation) then I don’t have to think about the storm…maybe Jesus will just make the storm go away. Yet, just like the wolf in the 3 Little Pigs, we read the storm comes and inundates both houses. Putting the words of Jesus into practice means preparing for the storms Satan is planning to throw at us, not pretending that Satan is not going to throw storms at us.
The Apostle Peter warns his readers similarly. Rather than Satan being removed he writes,
8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
Make no mistake brothers and sisters, the lion is looking to devour you; the storm is coming to try and beat your house down. Standing firm with the word of Jesus as the foundation of our lives will keep us standing. He is the one who makes us strong, firm and steadfast. I wish that becoming a Christian made Satan go away. Yet, he remains committed as ever to blowing down my houses of straw and sticks regardless of my wishes… There is a promised day coming when we will no longer be subjected to his prowling and storms, but until then build your house of bricks on the firm foundation of Jesus’ words. Blessings to you all!
