Session 19

Build Your House on the Rock²⁴ “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ 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. ²⁶ 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. ²⁷ 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.”The Authority of Jesus²⁸ And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, ²⁹ for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.Matthew 7:24-29 English Standard Version (ESV)

This is the end of the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus, I suppose, intentionally end it with the building of two houses. The Sermon on the Mount was about how we are supposed to live out the Commandment in obedience to God. Jesus was comparing building up of someone's "spiritual" life with that of building a house. It makes total sense.As for the ground, the key to interpretation would be in verses 28 and 29. The people were comparing these teachings of Jesus to the teachings of the scribes. These scribes were probably teaching from the Talmud which was designed to help people to understand the Law, which is supposed to make obedience simple and doable; however, they have made it so complicated, and sometimes contradictory, it took a specialist to make sense of them.The difference of the two teachings was in the source of information. Jesus was teaching from God's mouth as God; the scribes were teaching from the writing of men trying to manipulate the Law to their adventage. While the Word of God is solid like a rock that can stand the test of time, the teaching of the scribes are like sand that share the basic characteristics of a rock, but, when hit with water, would simply disolve.It is like this. Two people like to get from where they are to the other side of a deep river. In front of them are stacks of logs and a variety of tools and materials they can use to tie them together.One man decided to use the tools to carve grooves , and drill holes into the logs, and used nails and screws to make a solid raft out of the logs, he is sweating away drilling and chipping and slowly getting it into useable pieces.The other man laughed at the first man, and started using glue and strings to tie the logs together. He was very fast and before you know it, he has a raft that is glued and tied together a raft. This man then proceed to harrash the first one, mocking himand accusing him of not knowing what he is doing and wasting time.Finally, the first man finished, too. The second man can't wait and proceed to get his glorious creation into the water. It float! After testing it a little more, the first man got his boat into the water, too. Just as they were crossing, the river got rough, and soon enough the second man's raft began to wabble. Before you know it the water began to loosen the strings, and the glue completely dissolved. His raft barely got to the halfway point and he found himself holding onto a log to try to stay afloat.As the second man looked over his shoulder, The first man is leisurely flowing by in that solid raft, landing on the other shore completely dry.