By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. – Proverbs 24:3-4

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 13, 2019): Proverbs 24

Biographer Mehmet Murat ildan offers this piece of wisdom; “When a crow says an intelligent thing, chickens may laugh at it. This is the laughing of the sand castles at the powerful waves!” Unfortunately, too often, we laugh at the wisdom; especially that of crows. But that “laugh of the chickens” is to our own detriment. Sandcastles are often very beautiful, and they can carry important messages for all who bother to take a look. But the weakness of a sandcastle is the waves. And the truth is that it doesn’t matter how important the message of the sand sculpture might be, it will be brought down by the waves. And, while a powerful wave might bring the sandcastle down quicker, over time even the weakest wave can result in the same outcome. In the end, the sandcastle disappears, and only the waves, both big and small, remain. So when a sandcastle laughs at the waves, the laugh is always one of surrender; the sandcastle understands that it can’t win against any movement of water.

In the same way, we build our physical houses so that they can withstand the weather that might come. No one would want to live in a sandcastle; knowing that wind and rain are an inevitability of life.

So Solomon argues that our houses need to be built on a firm foundation. And for Solomon, that foundation is wisdom and understanding. Only with wisdom and understanding as the basis for lives will we be able to survive the wind and the waves of life. And when our lives are built on wisdom, we can furnish our spiritual house with knowledge, because with wisdom, we will know how that knowledge might be used. Knowledge becomes the jewels that adorn our home built on wisdom.

But the fool chooses to live his life in a sandcastle. And when the waves come, the sandcastle washes away, taking the fool and his riches (knowledge) with it. It is this proverb that is at the heart of the closing statement in Jesus’s “Sermon on the Mount.”

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. 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. 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. 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).

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Proverbs 25