Built Upon Sand

Jesus’ story of two builders is well known. One built on the solid rock and the other built on sand. When the storm came, the house on the rock stood, but the house on the sand collapsed. There are several interesting ways we can apply the lesson of this story.

The cliché, the sands of time, is meant to picture time like sand flowing through an hourglass. Those who deny God’s singular role in creation have attempted to convince us that over time, a very, very long time, all the complexities of our universe came into being by chance occurrence. All true scientists who have no philosophical axe to grind now realize that explanation of the origin of all things is impossible. They have discovered that the things we see are so incredibly complex and interwoven that no amount of time and chance can explain them. The evolution house built on the sands of time has collapsed.

The Jewish religious leaders in Jesus’ day had built their hopes for Messiah on the sand of their traditions. Jesus told them they searched the Scriptures but missed Him. He said they valued their traditions above the Word. The same kind of thing happens today. Some people tend to hang on every word some popular preacher speaks while never checking to see if the message agrees with what the Bible teaches. The Bereans were commended because even though they heard from an Apostle, they went home and searched the Scriptures, the rock of truth, to see if he was telling them the truth or throwing sand.

We might be prone to build sandcastles when it comes to our understanding of the Bible. A deep study of the Word can pay rich rewards. For example, there is a curious incident recorded in three of the Gospels about a woman with a chronic ailment who thought if she touched Jesus’ robe, she would be healed. Matthew records the incident: “Just then, a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years approached from behind and touched the end of his robe, for she said to herself, ‘If I can just touch his robe, I’ll be made well.’ Jesus turned and saw her. ‘Have courage, daughter,’ he said. ‘Your faith has saved you.’ And the woman was made well from that moment.”

 We moderns wonder where such a ridiculous idea came from. Because historical context is an essential part of the bedrock of proper biblical interpretation, it must always be considered. In this case, a deeper knowledge of Jewish thought in the first century reveals that devout Jews believed that the holy things of God could literally transmit God’s holiness to others by touching them. This was one of the reasons for the strict regulations regarding temple fixtures and utensils. Noone but the priests were allowed to touch them, and the priests were not allowed to take them from the temple.

Consider what happened to Uzzah when David was taking the ark of the covenant back to Israel. Uzzah touched the holy ark and was instantly stuck dead by God. God had told Moses to make provisions for carrying the ark, and Uzzah violated them. It is obvious that much of the record we have concerning God’s dealing with Israel is meant to stress His holiness – His separateness from His creation. If we build our theology on a foundation made weak by lack of biblical knowledge, our house is bound to collapse at some point. As Uzzah learned, you don’t want to mess with a holy God.

Another example of houses built on sand is friendships built on other than heart-to-heart ties. Paul warns believers not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Here is A.W. Tozer on the subject: “Even though radically different from each other, two persons may enjoy the closest friendship for a lifetime; for it is not a requisite of friendship that the participants be alike in all things; it is enough that they be alike at the points where their personalities touch. Harmony is likeness at points of contact, and friendship is likeness where hearts merge. [Italics mine]

“For this reason, the whole idea of the divine-human friendship is logical enough and entirely credible. The infinite God and the finite man can merge their personalities in the tenderest, most satisfying friendship. In such relationship there is no idea of equality; only of likeness where the heart of man meets the heart of God! This likeness is possible because God at the first made man in His own image and is now remaking men in the image that was lost by sin.”

As Tozer points out, it is not just our human friendships that cry out for heart connections; our relationship with God must be essentially heart-to-heart. Throughout the Old Testament and often in the New, the heart is referred to as the deepest part of our human self.  The Apostle Paul expands our understanding of who we are by explaining that the Spirit of God speaks to our human spirit after it has been reborn or made alive. Heart-to-heart becomes spirit-to-Spirit for Paul. He constantly admonishes believers to walk in, be led by, pray in, sing in the spirit [or Spirit]. Jesus supports this reality telling the Samaritan woman that God desires those who will worship Him “in spirit and in truth.”

When Jesus told the parable of the two builders, His context was centered on hearing His word. He said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them [italics mine] will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” As James said later, it is the doing, not the hearing only that builds on the right foundation. Paul cautions us that everything pertaining to this world is temporary and will one day be destroyed, whereas things of the spirit – built on the Rock – remain forever. Check your life to see what it is built on.

Related posts: Read This Or Die; Light Shining in Darkness; Through the Bible in Seven Minutes; The Presence of God

Has Your Messiah Come?

The record of the Old Testament flows consistently from the Garden to the Cross. The words of God to the fallen Adam and Eve promised One who would crush the serpent’s head, the serpent who had tempted them to sin, the serpent who would continually tempt God’s people. Knowing what was coming, the serpent, later identified as the devil himself, went to work distorting God’s word as he had in the Garden. From Cain to Caiaphas, God’s sworn enemy set out to darken people’s understanding of who Messiah would be so that they would not recognize Him when He came.

The Gospel of John proves that this undermining tactic worked. John says in the opening of his gospel: “He came to His own [things], but His own [people] did not receive Him.” How could the very people to whom Messiah came after years of expectant waiting and hundreds of prophecies miss the One when He came? The explanation is found in Paul’s words to the Ephesians. He said people were: “Darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.” God’s enemy, the enemy of our souls, had done his job masterfully; the ones who should have known Him best missed His coming because they had been deceived just like their first parents had.

The Herodians and the Sadducees cherry-picked the Scriptures to find a military leader who would put Israel back on the political map. The Pharisees read the prophets differently; they longed for the ultimate law giver – the prophet like Moses who would congratulate them for their artificial obedience. The Zealots elevated anyone who would raise a sword against Rome as their Messiah. Of course, there were a few Jews who studied the Scriptures and waited patiently for God to reveal His Messiah to them. Among these were John’s parents, Mary (of course), Simeon, and Anna who are named in Luke’s Gospel.

Doubtless there were others as evidenced by the willingness of some to drop everything and follow Jesus when He began preaching the Kingdom of Heaven come. However, even these misunderstood what the Messiah had come to do. Judas Iscariot, who may have had Zealot sympathies, perhaps hoped to goad Jesus into action by bringing an armed group to arrest Him. James and John, the Sons of Thunder, wanted Jesus to exact immediate justice on an unbelieving town. Even after His sacrificial death and miraculous resurrection, His closest followers asked Him if He was now going to institute the Kingdom He had been preaching about. Jesus might have replied that He had already, that they misunderstood Him, but He simply told them to wait.

It is not hard to understand why people steeped in Old Testament prophecy would expect a conquering Messiah riding a war horse and wielding the sword of the Lord. There are pictures like that scattered throughout the scrolls of ancient Scripture. There are also images of a lawgiver who would reign in righteousness. Likewise, there are pictures of a Suffering Servant who appears to endure disgraceful treatment. This last picture was ignored in favor of the more exciting, more encouraging one of the conquering hero. What those ancients missed was the fact that both pictures were accurate; they didn’t see that they were separated by a period of time yet to be measured. It is as if they raised their prophetic telescope above the nearer image to focus on the farther one.

There are Christians today who may be suffering from a similar mistaken focus. They see the Suffering Messiah who bore their sin, but they raise the prophetic telescope above what happened within a generation after His resurrection. They may be placing too much emphasis on their own personal escape from judgment and ignoring the judgment God brought on His people Israel. The consistent warning to Israel throughout the prophets was that God would execute judgment against them if they persisted in their disobedience. This judgment was to be followed by the institution of God’s kingdom ruled by His righteous Servant. Few people will argue that what the Romans did in 70 A.D. was not God’s judgment. As He had in the past, God used a secular government to accomplish His will for His people.

The visions of Daniel clearly portray the tromping of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome through the future of the “beautiful land.” The prophets never pulled any punches when describing what the invading nations would do to Israel. Although the apocalyptic language is poetic with mountains tumbling and stars falling, it names the players and starts the game clock which runs right up until Rome makes God’s final statement against apostasy: the final destruction of His physical temple on earth. Those with improperly aimed prophetic telescopes scan right past this obvious culmination of biblical history and look for a messianic coming that is already past.

Does any of this matter? It certainly mattered to the Jews who crucified their Messiah. It mattered to scores of people in the past who declared that Jesus had returned when, apparently, He hadn’t. It matters to believers today who treat Christ’s saving grace as if it was their personal ticket to a future millennial kingdom without considering their responsibilities in the already-not-yet Kingdom of Heaven Jesus announced. It has been said some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. I would say some people are so millennial kingdom minded they are no good in the present kingdom.

It is no surprise that the vast majority of people who are waiting for a millennial kingdom are Americans. The spirit of rugged individualism and a sense entitlement are so ingrained in our thinking that we imagine God’s cosmic plan is focused on us. In our pampered state, it is easy to forget that the majority of people outside our borders live in extreme poverty. Remember Jesus’ words about the difficulty the rich face entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Remember that it is the poor who inherit the earth. We may miss the real meaning of Messiah’s message that resonates so clearly with the rest of the world. If your Messiah has come, and His kingdom is now-not-later, you should be begging to know what service your King requires. Here! Now!

Related posts: It’s Not All About You; Bringing the Kingdom; Why Heaven Matters; Binding Satan