Bible Parables:

Bible Parables: The Wise and the Foolish Builders

You may have heard the Bible parables of the wise and the foolish builders. 

Jesus said:

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.” (Mat. 7:24 -27)

You may be familiar with these Bible parables, and may have heard them numerous times (you might even be a little tired of them at this point). 

But have you realized that this same message can be found in a silly children's fairytale?

The Three Little Pigs

Find Disney's delightful version of Jesus' message here. 

In summary: 

One pig builds his house out of straw (foolish), but it turns out to be too weak. The second pig builds its house out of sticks (foolish) - also too weak . Finally, the third pig builds his house out of bricks (wise)  -- and this house turns out to be very sturdy. Later, when the big bad wolf comes huffing and puffing, the two lazy and foolish pigs, who did it the easy way, and cut corners building their houses, have them blown down, while the third pig's house remains standing.

To compare this with Jesus' words, the point is to build our houses solid in order to make them strong. This way the house will stand when storms and wolves (or any other hardships) come. And these always come, sooner or later.

But why a house? What does a house stand for?

The house is you. Your soul. Your thoughts and emotions, what you think and feel.

Have you ever had a dream about a house that left a deep impression on you? You couldn't shake it when you woke up in the morning. You didn't know what it meant, but felt that there was some hidden message in it.

It could've been God speaking to you about the condition of your soul, trying to bring your attention to how you were taking care of your soul.

So how do we build our houses/souls strong?

By applying the spiritual principles of the scriptures, or God's words, His laws, into our lives. Because spiritual laws are just like the bricks in the little pig's house. 

We must examine ourselves. And ask, what do our houses look like? What are we made out of? What's going on inside of our minds, our thoughts and emotions? Did we build ourselves on truth, or on straw -- some flimsy illusion?

This is an important question to ask, especially for believers, because it's easy to fool oneself and think: 'I'm on God's path, I'm strong, because I go to church, read the scriptures every day and talk about God a lot.'  We can do all these things, but still not actually apply the spiritual principles that the scriptures teach into our lives, our behavior, our souls. We might talk the talk, but not walk the walk. We might hear the word, but not do the word. We might have become foolish, lazy builders...

From the Book of James:

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does...(Jas 1:22-25)