Matthew 7:24-27 24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.
Over the past week, the rain has been coming down throughout Israel, and in such abundance that the Sea of Galilee is at its highest point since 1994.
There are two rainy seasons that occur in Israel, “Yoreh” the early rain and “Malkosh”, the latter rain.
In this passage, Yeshua (Jesus) is talking to Jews, of course. They were familiar with the rain and how vigorously it comes down these seasons. Since Israel receives no rain for most of the year, the ground becomes hard and unable to absorb the rains when they begin. As the rains falls, the water quickly forms “rivers in the desert” and can destroy anything in their path. Jews understood this concept and they understood the dangers of building their houses on the sand — otherwise they faced calamity when the rainy season came!
The Lord is warning us about building our houses on weak ground. He knew that stormy seasons would come and He wants us to be prepared! We don’t want to be one of the many of whose lives will collapse because they were built on fame, fortune and other things of this world. We must be careful to build our lives only upon Him. Even building our lives upon seemingly innocent things like family, tradition and good works is dangerous. We want to be of those who’ve established our foundation upon the ROCK of the truth of His Word and who will be able to weather the coming storms because of it!
Are there storms raging about you today? Let’s hurry and examine whether our lives are completely built upon the Rock.
Thank you! You’ve reminded me of a story a friend of mine who lived on a river in South America told me. She shared that when the river flooded one year a very huge and beautiful papaya tree that once grew by the river fell down after the flood. But the little bushes nearby whose roots had sunk deep, weathered the flood. We cannot tell who will stand or who will fall until the storms and floods come into our lives.