Matthew 7: The House on the Rock (Luke 6:46–49)
24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its collapse!”
“TURN AROUND! DON’T DROWN!” If you’ve traveled through Texas or other states where flash floods are common, you might have seen these signs. In hill country, dry river beds can go from being full of sand to raging torrents within minutes. In West Virginia, where much of the landscape consists of short steep mountains with narrow mountain valleys, many of these valleys are just wide enough to accommodate a small stream, a road, and enough land for a strip of houses. Canny residents know that if it rains more than 30 minutes, they need to check their stream, and if the stream is rising, it’s time to get out quickly!
The landscape in Israel consists mostly of rock interspersed with sand in the lower areas. Here Jesus is likely referring to a recent disaster that everyone in his audience knows about. Someone in a nearby village probably chose a nice flat area for building a house, ignoring the fact that they were building on sand. Perhaps the building site was so far from a stream bed that the builder assumed he would never face a flood. But floods have a way of showing up wherever they want, and valleys can suddenly turn into stream beds with little notice. Meanwhile, a neighbor built a much more modest house on a rocky prominence. When torrential rains hit, the predictable happened, and the mansion on the sand floated off down the stream.
Here, Jesus is advising his listeners that they need to take everything he has been teaching to heart and apply his teachings, so they will be wise builders. The question Jesus is posing is simple: What is the basis for your life? Are you following God and trusting Him, or are you trying to be your own god?
Today, there are all kinds of phone apps that promise to help you manage everything from your personal habits to your home matters. It sounds simple, really; just download the app and follow all the prompts and everything will be fine…or will it? Sadly, experts are now warning that such apps can result in identity theft. Evidently, there’s a high price for checking your brains at the door! At the same time, we must ask ourselves if the advice we receive is godly or not? After all, the old computer adage still applies: GIGO-Garbage In, Garbage Out! Who’s programming the Artificial Intelligence? What kinds of morals do those people have? How trustworthy are they? Those of us who are grammar gurus find ourselves fighting regularly with automated corrections that want to sanitize even direct Bible quotes.
We should aim to live lives that will please God, not some computer model. Yes, seeking God’s face demands time and effort, but honest prayer is one of the few activities that is impossible to mess up. Of course, you must mean what you are praying, and you need to listen to God, not just lecture Him. Recently, a Christian comedian posting on Facebook made the point that many of us don’t want to follow Jesus; rather, we want Jesus to follow us and bless whatever we have already planned. Never mind that those plans might lead to disaster.
That crowd on the hillside knows Jesus is telling the truth and they are taking everything to heart. But why listen to Jesus? After all, there are scribes teaching in synagogues throughout Israel.
The Authority of Jesus
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, 29 because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.
The difference between Jesus and the scribes is simple: Jesus obviously knows about the Kingdom of God because he has been anointed of God to bring that Kingdom to earth. When Jesus speaks, those people on the hillside know they are hearing directly from God. When the scribes speak, they go in for such long and complicated explanations that at the end, it’s obvious they doubt their own authority and are trying to mask their uncertainty with lots of words.
These verses end the teachings we know as “The Sermon on the Mount.” Never again will any of the Gospel writers record such extended teachings of Jesus, even though he will continue to teach the disciples throughout the rest of his three-year long ministry. There might be other times where Jesus will also teach for hours; however, God has allowed both Matthew and Luke to preserve these teachings because these form the foundations for our knowledge of the Kingdom of God.
What should you do with these verses? Simple. Pray and ask God to highlight those things He wants you to gain from them. God is a good Father and He does not play guessing games with His children. God will never steer you wrong, unlike AI, which is always artificial and sometimes not intelligent, and questionably moral.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to study Your Word, to meditate on Your Word, and to gain those things You want us to learn. Help us to trust You and not some computerized application, for You are the only Source of true knowledge. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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