1620AFC051316 – The House of the Lord
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Acts 2:1-2 – 1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
E pili mau na pomaika‘i ia ‘oe a me ke akua ho’omaika’i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Beloved!) The Easter Season comes to a close this Sunday, May 15, 2015; it is Pentecost Sunday. It is the day Jesus meant when he told the Apostles to wait in Jerusalem (See Acts 1:3-5 – 4 While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father.) When we see this event in the movies, we see the house filled with wind and fire. We imagine the building shaking, and wonder if perhaps the walls will hold up and whether or not objects will blow off the shelves and tables. It was a powerful force – The Spirit of The Living God! It must have made the building shudder and groan as the same spirit which moved over the void in Genesis filled a tiny room in Jerusalem. But, Belovéd, there is more to it than that! Here is what The Spirit has to say about that house:
Psalm 23:6 – Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.
“Yeah. I remember that. So David wanted to spend all of his time in the Temple. And … ?”
It’s not the Temple. Here we go again with the Original Language stuff. House – בְּבֵית־ (bə·ḇêṯ-) {bǝ·’ḇêṯ}. A common root transliterated into English is “beth.” Think of Bethel – Beth-El – House of God. Bethlehem – Bet(h)-Lehem – House of Bread. Bethany – Beth-Anya (possible meaning) – House of Poverty. So we have some good reason to believe that when we see “Beth” or בְּבֵית־ we are thinking of a physical place – a building or a town. But wait! There’s more! Keep reading now an we’ll send you to Luke 1:69 – 69 He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David … . “Wait. Jesus was born in David’s house? I thought he was born in a stable.” Yes, Jesus was born in a stable, but he was born into David’s house. And Luke also adds Luke 2:4 – 4 Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. Remember this one? Micah 5:2 – 2 But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. (Ephrathah: Perhaps “ash-heap.” It is a location close to Bethlehem and the locations of Rachel’s burial site.) But wait! There’s still more!
Use this link to go to a prophecy that God will build David a “house.” 2 Samuel 7:4-11 – 11c: Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. Hopefully you are beginning to think (or remember, or are already tired of) that בְּבֵית־ also means “A household, family, family of descendants, descendants as organized body, ‘The family of (you or me).'” Yes, in these passages, you can, and usually should, read “house” as “family or descendants.”
“OK, cool, so what does that have to do with Acts 2:2? ”
Q: Whose “family” got blown around by the Holy Spirit?
A: The human family starting with the House of Israel.
Now, let’s hop over to the story of the Wise and Foolish Builders:
Matthew 7:24-27 – 24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. 25 The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall!”
When you read that this time, did your mind read “family” instead of “structure?” What happens if you build your family on a firm foundation like The Rock? Yes! Build your house on The Rock – not Dwayne Johnson, ladies – but the rock of Ages, The Eternal Rock and Fortress of Our God. Then your “house” will always stand firm. Build your house on the Sands of Time – on all the temporal and material things in life – and your house will not withstand the storm. There is a children’s Bible song about that. Maybe you’ve heard it. If not, check this out:
The wise man built his house upon the rock (↔ Music Link)
The wise man built his house upon the rock
The wise man built his house upon the rock
And the rain came tumbling down
Oh, the rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
And the wise man’s house stood firm.
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
And the rain came tumbling down
Oh, the rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
The rain came down
And the floods came up
And the foolish man’s house went “splat!” [clap hands once]
So, build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
Build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
Build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ
And the blessings will come down
Oh, the blessings come down
As your prayers go up
The blessings come down
As your prayers go up
The blessings come down
As your prayer go up
So build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Isaiah says God is The Rock. One poetic expression of that Hebrew term is “The Rock of Ages.” Other poetic references to The Rock come from Psalms, I think there are at least 20, and in all of them God is a sheltering and safe refuge, our protection from enemies, and an abode for the weary. We have other images about The Rock as in the Rock of Gibraltar, Rock-Solid Truth, Founded on The Rock, and even Plymouth Rock. The connotation is something that endures for an unimaginably long period of time in comparison to human life – like El Shaddai Olam – Almighty Ever-Living God. So if we combine the two ideas – the intensification of God’s name as Lord God or Lord Jehovah – plus the idea of endurance beyond human comprehension, then there is the sense that God is the only completely and eternally trustworthy Being in all of eternity. We can, or at least we ought to, always put our trust in Him without fear of His failing us. There is absolutely no adverse human condition in which confidence in God will be unfruitful – not terror or tragedy, not trials or tribulations, not even in death should we fail to trust in His sheltering love and protection. He is The Rock that gets us to higher ground. He is the Stone Mountain that shelters us from every storm. We cannot compare him to earthly rock for there is no comparison. It is His eternal permanence and power that stand in stark contrast to the impermanence of everything The World presents to us – even the Earth He created is ephemeral and super-finite compared to the LORD GOD. Those who place their trust in Him have placed their trust in His eternal permanence and power. There is no comparative, no superlative, and no equal to Him. He is ALMIGHTY GOD ETERNAL- El Shaddai Olam. Yes, He is an Awesome God!! Look at these other references to The Rock, the Stone the builders rejected, the Living Rock of Eternity:
Psalm 62:2 – He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken.
1 Peter 2:4-5 – 4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
“OK, so for David, ‘house’ meant family, but you said that in Acts 2:2 it meant the same thing. Why?” I’m glad you thought of that. Here is why. The Greek word for house is οἴκῳ (oikos) {oy’-kos} which means (you guessed it!) descendants, families, family, home, house , household, palace, place. Feel like tackling a project? If οἴκῳ is the root word, then in usage it might also be House (Acts 2:2) – οἶκον (oikon) {oy’-kon} from οἴκῳ. Try this from Acts 2:2 in Greek: Καὶ ἐγένετο ἄφνω ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἦχος ὥσπερ φερομένης πνοῆς βιαίας, καὶ ἐπλήρωσεν ὅλον τὸν οἶκον οὗ ἦσαν καθήμενοι·. Because of this, First-Century Christians, whether Jewish or Gentile, would have understood it wasn’t just the physical property that was filled with the Wind of The Spirit; it was the house of Israel first, and the House of the Gentiles later, and it is the House of us today.
Belovéd! Build your House on The Rock of Ages, not The Sands of Time. The Stone which the builders rejected will become a stumbling stone for many, but for us it will become the Stepping Stone to mount the Stairs to Glory. We will be all together in one Place, and it will fill our Whole House in the place where we are staying.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Belovéd!
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
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