Secrets from the Ancient Paths: Your Bible has Treasures Waiting ... and they're Hidden in Plain Sight! by Andy Cook

Author:Andy Cook [Cook, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Experience Israel Now, Inc.
Published: 2015-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

There are times when we hear the words of Jesus and become frightened by them. In the case of the parable of the wise and foolish builders, it’s easy to wonder if, by chance, you’ll be swept away by some coming destruction. The people who originally heard this teaching, though, would have known a different truth.

It would actually be much more difficult to complete the construction of a house on a sand foundation. Imagine the warnings that would come! Anyone seeing such construction would warn the builder of the coming danger. There would be undeniable evidence of past floods. There would be eyewitnesses of past destruction. In order to build a house on the sand—or in the mouth of a wadi—a builder would have to ignore warning after warning of the foolishness of his efforts.

Plus, there’s hardly any sand in Israel, anyway! Most of the land is dominated by rock. To make a house-in-the-wadi mistake, you’d have to ignore almost all of your other options. Almost certainly, no one has ever built a house on Israel’s sand! Homebuilders take warnings of coming destruction seriously.

Life-builders should do the same.

The point of the parable is to obey what Jesus teaches.

Before it can be obeyed, it must be heard.

Here are two challenges. First, take some time to read the Sermon on the Mount. It’s Matthew 5, 6, and 7. It’s the world’s most famous sermon, given by the rabbi you probably claim to follow. If you want to make sure you’ve not built your life in the wrong place, the first step is to reacquaint yourself with the words.

The second challenge? Memorize the words.

You could choose a portion to memorize, like the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1–11). You could memorize this parable of the wise and foolish builders. It’s not very long. You could tackle a section of Jesus’ teaching that has special meaning to you.

But the best thing to do is to memorize the entire thing. Something happens when we go beyond reading the words and put them in our hearts. We concentrate on phrases. We take a long time with the words. We reflect upon them. We have a much better chance of following the instructions, of doing what Jesus said to do, if we’ve got the words so close to our hearts. And in the tradition of Jesus and his followers, memorizing the words of Scripture is, in fact, part of the “doing.”

Yes, it’s hard work. It might even remind you of an ancient work of constructing a well-built home with a solid foundation.

But when the rains come and the streams rise, you’ll be glad you went to the trouble.

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