Build Upon A Sure Foundation - Matthew 5-7

Matthew 7:24-27 (ESV)

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

These four little verses are so simple to read and yet so powerful in meaning.  They come at the end of this 15-20 minute sermon of Jesus.  His only recorded sermon.   He teaches so many truths in the sermon it might be spoken in that amount of time but only applied over ages.  The message of the sermon fills books written by men.   

In this word picture of a house built on a solid foundation vs soft sand, Jesus tells us the key to our success in life.  He is, of course, the rock in the metaphor.   We are to build our lives upon Him.  When we don’t, certain peril will result.  We don’t have to be a theologian to understand what Jesus is saying.   The truth is simple.  Yet, so many build their lives on the sifting sands of man’s philosophy, pride, and possessions.   We think we know better.   We don’t.   We think we can stand on our own.  We can’t.    We think we can find a source of strength in the world around us.  We won’t.   He is our sure foundation and when we stand on Him we are able to withstand the storms of life.  And, it is in the storms of life that the test comes for what we have built our lives upon.   Just ask Job.  

Who Can Annual God’s Plan? Isaiah 12-17

Isaiah 14:24-27 (ESV)

An Oracle Concerning Assyria

The LORD of hosts has sworn:

“As I have planned,

so shall it be,

and as I have purposed,

so shall it stand,

that I will break the Assyrian in my land,

and on my mountains trample him underfoot;

and his yoke shall depart from them,

and his burden from their shoulder.”

This is the purpose that is purposed

concerning the whole earth,

and this is the hand that is stretched out

over all the nations.

For the LORD of hosts has purposed,

and who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out,

and who will turn it back?

The above passage is written by Isaiah as a prophecy over the Assyrians, who God is going to use as a tool to discipline Israel for their disobedience to Him.  It should be a surprise to us that God can and will use a wicked nation to punish His people.  But that is God’s plan.   

The other amazing truth, however, in the above text is that God has a purpose for the nations and His people and nothing will stop God in His exacting out that purpose.   When God proposes something, who will annul it?  We should rejoice in His purpose and remember that it is all done from His steadfast love for us.   

Empathy Trumps Judgment - Job 6-7

Job 7:4-6 (ESV)

When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’

But the night is long,

and I am full of tossing till the dawn.

My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;

my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle

and come to their end without hope.

You can’t read Job without reading one of the first verses and reading one of the last:  

Job 1:8 (ESV)   And the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”    

Job 42:1-2 (ESV) Then Job answered the LORD and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Job is in the midst of a very deep depression.    He sees the darkness of death without the lens of hope.   In the above passage he is not just using metaphorical words to describe his experience, he is actually sitting on the side of the road, scrapping the boils on his skin:

Job 2:7-8 (ESV)

So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while he sat in the ashes.

When he states, “My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt; my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh,” he is not just making it up and using hyperbole.  As we read scripture it is important that we capture the real moment we are reading about.   When Job’s three friends showed up they see Job on the side of the road.   They came to encourage him.  They left apologizing and asking his forgivness for the way they judged him (see Job 42:7-9).    They failed to really capture Job’s mental, physical and spiritual condition.  We can do this when we work with others.   The first friend,  Eliphaz, has already given Job and ear full.   What Job needs right now is to see God’s love and compassion.   That is what happens at the end of the book by a fourth friend, Elihu.  When we work with others we need to really see their pain and point them to the one who shared their pain and can heal their pain vs beating them up with our words.  

We Are Not Alone - Psalms 6-8

Psalms 6:10 (ESV)

All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;

they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

David seems to be caught in between a rock and a hard place.   In the very next psalm he will write something similar to the above:

Psalms 7:6 (ESV)

Arise, O LORD, in your anger;

lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;

awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.

His desire is to have God come to a battle he is having with an enemy or enemies. What he is failing to see, in the midst of this conflict, is that God has already been there. He was there all the time.  In the midst of our struggles we are often blinded to the fact that God is right there with us.  One of the most popular of all time psalms, also written by David, says it this way:

Psalms 23:4-5 (ESV)

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies;

you anoint my head with oil;

my cup overflows.

Apparently between Psalm 6 and 7 and 23, David has grown in his maturity and understanding of God.  This is a lesson in life for us to take note.  We might have struggles.  We might have enemies.  But we are not alone.  

Old and Stil Going Strong - Caleb - Joshua 11-15

Joshua 14:13-15 (ESV)

Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel. Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba. (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim.) And the land had rest from war.

As the nation of Israel conquers this promised land, there is now coming a time for Joshua, the leader after Moses, to give each tribe their inheritance.  Besides Joshua, Caleb is the oldest living person in Israel, at this time. He may have been older than Joshua.   Caleb is now 85 years old.  To better understand the above text (Joshua blessing Caleb with this land called Hebron), we have to read the prior few verses:

Joshua 14:10-12 (ESV)

And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.”

Caleb is not waiting for Joshua to decide what lands he wants to give Caleb.  No, instead Caleb goes to Joshua to explain to him what he wants.  At 85 he does not want a retirement village along a riverbed, where he can rest and recreate all day.   No, Caleb goes to Joshua demanding the hill country, where the giant Anakim are located, in their fortified cities.  This persistence paid off and Caleb gets his wish.   Note hat happens later for Caleb and his family:

Joshua 15:13-19 (ESV)

According to the commandment of the LORD to Joshua, he gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh a portion among the people of Judah, Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron (Arba was the father of Anak). And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak, Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the descendants of Anak. And he went up from there against the inhabitants of Debir. Now the name of Debir formerly was Kiriath-sepher. And Caleb said, “Whoever strikes Kiriath-sepher and captures it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter as wife.” And Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter as wife. When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she got off her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have given me the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.

Caleb should be the story of every believer today.  We are not to get saved and sit in the most comfortable pews of the church.  We are to conquer.  We are to go out and kill giants.  The older we are in the faith the more work we should demand and in Spirit led faithfulness, we should demonstrate strength from the Lord.   You might retire from an occupation and gather your pension, but there are spiritual giants that are still needing to be conquered and it is aged and spiritually strong that makes that happen.  

The Power of Common Language - Genesis 8-11

Genesis 11:8-9 (ESV)

So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

The story referred to in the above verses is centered around the Tower of Babel.   After Noah came off the Ark, man and animals started to mulitple and inhabit the earth.  God told Noah to go and fill the entire earth.   Apparently the people of Babel, decided to disobey that command and, instead, in egotistical ambition, decided to build a tower.  The building of the tower had these motivations to it:

1. Bring the people together - God told them to disperse throughout the earth. The text actually reads they did this least we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. 
2. Build something that would make a name for themselves - not for God.  
3. Build something very large that reached to the heavens - exalting their name and not God’s name.  In the ancient world, building pyramids and/or large edifices was a type of worship to man’s accomplishments.

It is interesting in the parallels between this text and the temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Both point out the temptation for man to want to self-exalt and to leave God out of their equation.   Man does not want to be like God, man wants to be God.   

Just think of what God could have done here.  He just wiped out the entire earth with a flood for this very reason.   He did make a covenant, sealed with a rainbow, to never use a flood again, but that didn’t exclude Him from other methods (He will one day pour out His wrath in a variety of forms ... read Revelation).   It isn’t recorded that God sabotaged the bricks or the mortar.   It isn’t even recorded that God actually destroyed this so called tower.   God did a very simple act that completely messed up this power hungry group.  He simply changed their language.   He made it so they lost communication with each other.   Imagine where you work if everyone suddenly started to speak different languages.   What would happen with your productivity.    This is not so far fetched.   Corporate communication is a multi-million dollar business.   Getting everyone in an organization on the same page and speaking the same language is more important than trust.  If fact, to have trust you must be able to communicate.  A great sign that couples quit trusting each other is their lack of communication with each other.   

Another interesting parallel of this story is what God did a Pentecost.  Note:

Acts 2:1-6 (ESV)

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

In the opposite move from the Tower of Babel story is the spread of the Gospel story where God had everyone of different languages hear the Gospel in their own language.   God can separate or bring others together based upon the power of language.  

He Has Granted Us Righteousness - Romans 3-4

Romans 3:21-26 (ESV)

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 

22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 

24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 

25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 

26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The title of this section in the ESV Bible is, “The righteousness of God by faith.”   As seen, the world righteousness is used four times in these few verses.   Paul is writing to tell his readers that righteousness does not come by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus.   That is the theme of Romans.  That is the center of all Christian faith.   In Paul’s day and in our day there are those who want us to earn our way to forgiveness of sin by doing works, rather than believing in faith that Jesus saved us and gave us His righteousness by His works on the cross:

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God wants us to have His righteousness.  His plan was to send His Son to keep all the Law, thereby representing us and dying for us.  Someone had to pay for the sins.  Jesus did that and through faith in Him we are clothed in God’s righteousness.  

The entire plan of God is to restore the damage that was done in the Garden of Eden.  At that time man sinned against God.   That broke the relationship between man and God.   Jesus, God’s Son, came to repair that relationship and grant us God’s righteousness.   This was necessary becuase without righteousness (holiness) no man will see God:

Hebrews 12:14 (ESV)

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

He has granted to us righteousness through faith, not by works of the Law.