In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus said,
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.
Psalm
11:3 asks the question:
If the foundations are
destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Israel was built on the solid foundation of a Covenant
Relationship with God that guaranteed their blessing and protection as long as
they lived according to the Law. Unfortunately that same Covenant guaranteed
God’s judgment if they broke his Law. Because of their sin the nation of Israel
divided and eventually was carried off into captivity. Their capital city and
their temple were left in ruins. In Ezra, by God’s grace, they were reunited
and allowed to go home and rebuild. The big question is: Will they live
according to the Law or will they default to the same old sins that caused
their downfall in the first place? The sad answer appears to be that they very quickly went back to the filth of sin like a sow returns to her favorite
mud hole on a hot day.
Like Israel, our natural tendency, apart from the Word and the Spirit, is to default to our old ways. If we are not intentional, and if we are not in the Word and walking in the Spirit, we default to the very attitudes, words, and actions that created the mess we in which we live. Sin is infectious. Ingesting or inhaling just one milligram of the poison ricin is fatal. Sin is even more deadly.
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