Gathering Stones with a Foolish Man
24 Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7:24-27)
Remember as a child in Sunday school when everyone would sing the song about the foolish man building his house upon the sand?
“The rains came down and the floods came up
The rains came down and the floods came up
The rains came down and the floods came up
And the house on the sand went ploof”
(anonymous)
And you would wiggle your fingers to the ground as the rain beat down, you would turn your palms upward and raise them as the flood waters would raise, and when the house on the sand fell you would beat your fist in your palm?
Jesus was telling a parable to the people and he was telling them in terms that would understand.
When Jesus told this parable to the listening crown during the Sermon on the Mount, the crowds must have smiled at the example of the foolish man’s house and the rising flood waters, for they knew and understood well the contour of their land. Rushing flood waters were not limited to foolish men building houses but were a constant concern to shepherds and herdsmen taking their flocks through the valleys in search of grazing lands.
25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7:24-27)
Remember as a child in Sunday school when everyone would sing the song about the foolish man building his house upon the sand?
“The rains came down and the floods came up
The rains came down and the floods came up
The rains came down and the floods came up
And the house on the sand went ploof”
(anonymous)
And you would wiggle your fingers to the ground as the rain beat down, you would turn your palms upward and raise them as the flood waters would raise, and when the house on the sand fell you would beat your fist in your palm?
Jesus was telling a parable to the people and he was telling them in terms that would understand.
In Israel where it is arid for most of the year, when the rains do come, the soil in the mountains cannot hold the water and the excess water descends through the well-defined walls of the wadi in a torrent. The rains may have stopped, the sun may be shining, but a wall of water will come rushing through the wadi with water that has fallen as far as twenty miles away.
The rushing waters leave a base of gravel and sand on the floor of the wadi which contrasts the well-defined walls of rock or packed dirt. If a man were to build his house on the sand floor of the wadi in the dry season, when the rains came “down” and the flood came “up,” the house would certainly fall with the torrent of rushing waters. But, the wise man would build his house on higher ground with a rock foundation that would rise above the rushing waters of seasonal rain.
The rushing waters leave a base of gravel and sand on the floor of the wadi which contrasts the well-defined walls of rock or packed dirt. If a man were to build his house on the sand floor of the wadi in the dry season, when the rains came “down” and the flood came “up,” the house would certainly fall with the torrent of rushing waters. But, the wise man would build his house on higher ground with a rock foundation that would rise above the rushing waters of seasonal rain.
When Jesus told this parable to the listening crown during the Sermon on the Mount, the crowds must have smiled at the example of the foolish man’s house and the rising flood waters, for they knew and understood well the contour of their land. Rushing flood waters were not limited to foolish men building houses but were a constant concern to shepherds and herdsmen taking their flocks through the valleys in search of grazing lands.
posted by ~serapha~ at 6:37 PM
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