THE BUILDING OF A HOUSE
J. C. Evershed
In thinking about this occasion, beloved brethren, it came to me that the scripture warrants us in considering a brother and sister being married in the Lord as building a house. We read in the word of those who built the house of Israel (see Ruth 4: 11). By extension I think
the word would regard us all as building a house. When the Lord Jesus spoke of the house being built on the rock He spoke of it as applying to “Every one that comes to me, and hears my words and does them”, Luke 6: 47. I suppose we would all take that ground, and take it for our young people and the children too, that they have come to the Lord and desire to do His word. If anyone here has not yet come to the Lord, the Lord is available to you today. We have sung of a day that is coming, but we want to make the best of the day that we have today, and if any have not come to the Lord, now is the time to do so. Then the Lord said that every one who was doing that was in effect building a house. I suppose it is a personal sphere where the work of God would come into expression in the believer or, to put it another way, the features of the new man would be seen.
Well, this scripture says that “Through wisdom is a house built”. It is not for me to undertake to give our brother and sister any wisdom or advice; they know that they can find all the wisdom that they will need in their path—and they will certainly need it—from the One who is ready to give it without reproof. Nevertheless, I think there are features in the word which would relate to the wisdom required in building a house. Manifestly the first one would be the importance of the foundation. I would stress this in a moral way for every one of us here, and for our brother and sister. Though retaining their personal links with the Lord, they are now united in the Lord. This is more than a relationship, for they are one in the Lord, they have a life to live together and the foundation is to be the one that the scripture contemplates.
I receive a good many postcards and letters suggesting that I might want a new roof to my house or new windows and doors, but I never get one suggesting a new foundation! This scripture gives an indication of the vital importance of being grounded on the right foundation. The Lord Jesus quite simply said, “Every one that comes to me, and hears my words and does them”. I am sure our brother and sister will come to the Lord for many things during their pathway, however long or short it may be. They will find His word at hand and it will be for them to keep it, and it is for them, too, and for all of us, to dig deep and to come down to the rock. That is, of course, God Himself. He is spoken of as the Rock (see Psalm 18: 31), and the house that is built on the Rock will not suffer damage, whatever storms may come.
I was once taken down into the lower basements of one of the buildings in the city and there, to my surprise, running through the foundations was the little river Walbrook on its way into the Thames. It gets quite full sometimes, but there it is running through, the foundations of the building. But that is founded on the rock, therefore however much the river might rise, it can never have any effect on the building. It would be quite different, of course, if the building was upon sand; the result would become obvious.
As to the building of the house itself one had not much to say except that in the building often spoken of in the Scriptures there is the great thought of the corner-stone. In considering that I found that it was spoken of in two aspects, one in connection with the foundation (Isaiah 28: 16), the other related to the headstone (Zechariah 4: 7). Therefore it seems to me that every feature of our personal moral upbuilding, and what our brother and sister together will have as their own part in the place where they will live, should take character from the Lord Jesus.
Mr. Lovie has been very touchingly reminding us of the great preciousness and worth of the Person of Christ, and if the Son was the delight of the Father, how much should He be of ourselves! Should we not consider for Him so that right from the foundation to the top-stone there should be that which is patterned after Him? What a wonderful building there will be! The Jews were not able to fit the Stone in; they rejected it when they were building. Sad and solemn thing, that persons who were engaged, as they thought, in building up an edifice that would be for God’s glory were not only prepared to do without the Corner-stone, but they actively refused it. But the Lord Jesus must have every place with us, as the hymn says—
“Tis the truest joy and blessing
Jesus as our Lord to know’. (Hymn 111)
Now Scripture does not speak much about the roof, but it speaks about a parapet on the roof (Deuteronomy 22: 8)—doubtless a flat roof, nevertheless I think the principle is of the utmost importance, that there should be nothing about the house of a believing brother and sister as man and wife that could in any way cause defect or damage to those who might have the privilege of being in their home. One can see it through Scripture that the household has been in the main, one might say almost always, a place of safety. That shows that the thought of protecting what is for the Lord is prominent in the house. So there must needs be this watchfulness from the top, as it were, to see that there is nothing in the house that would cause any question, difficulty, or danger amongst those who may have the privilege of being there.
May our brother and sister, and all of us, get some help from this scripture. The house is to be ‘established by understanding’. Not that I can differentiate much between wisdom and understanding, but I think understanding would come by the unfolding of the word, and their home has to be established, just as every building needs maintaining, and to be filled with “all precious and pleasant substance”. I believe Mr. Lyon said of that, Who could be more precious and pleasant substance than the saints themselves? Well, may the Lord help us in these great and important moral things, for the Lord’s name’s sake. Amen.