“And the rain fell and the floods came and the
winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell--and great and complete was
the fall of it.”
(Matthew 7:27 Amp)
A little over a year ago, my husband and I
suffered through a particularly severe storm, which announced itself with loud,
howling winds. One of our older
cottonwood trees (it stood by the creek that runs through the bottom part of
our property) was snapped off approximately 6 feet above the ground, just like
it was a tooth-pick. What was equally shocking to see was how rotten the inside
of this tree was. Most of the main part
of the trunk was hollow with rot, while the upper part of the tree limbs were
still green and firm, covered with leaves, and the appearance of life and
health.
My husband and I stood and contemplated this
tree for about a week, where it had fallen: half on one side of the creek, and
the remaining half on the other side of the creek, with many, many branches
trailing IN the creek. We praised ABBA
Father for the steep sides of the banks at that particular spot, for the downed
tree was not causing the creek to dam up, at least not this late in the summer.
But we knew that we would have to DO something … And all I could hear was the
portion of the verse, “great is the fall
of it.”
Not really understanding what YHVH was
trying to show me through the destruction of this tree, I knew that the cleanup
process would be a back-breaking ordeal.
Cottonwood absorbs water,
and when it is green, it is incredibly heavy.
As a tree, it also has many small branches and twigs; all of these would
have to be cut away before my husband could even get to the main branches and
eventually, the trunk of the tree, with his chain saw. It was as we worked at the cleanup process
that the representation began to unfold before me. There were times when I had to stop, and
literally sit down and weep at the parable YAH was showing me – all through
this one, half-rotten, half-alive tree.
There are those within the body of Messiah,
within the church world, who claim to have accepted Y’shua of Nazareth as their
Master and Savior, and are adamant about heaven being their final
destination. Yet this “elite” group of
people have little or no use for the Torah, seldom turn to any of the pages
within the Old Testament, and base their entire relationship with the Father on
the RE-NEWED covenant, completely ignoring any covenant that may have
previously had any bearing on the present one.
Consequently, they are like a tree that is hollow in the middle. There is no depth or foundation to their RELATIONSHIP
with Adonai YHVH – for that is what a ‘covenant’
is: a relationship - no sustenance to continually feed them, even through the
drought and lean years. By appearance,
they seem to be green and flourishing, healthy and strong, but let disaster
strike, let a strong wind come howling through, and this is when the rotten
core is made visible and naked. “Great is the fall of it,” and the
“cleanup process” is a long and back-breaking ordeal for ALL of those
involved.
Before we start mentally thinking of THIS person that might fit this
pictures, or THAT person that could
fit into the frame, Adonai YHVH specifically admonishes us to look to
ourselves:
“But
let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test his own conduct and
his own work. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing
something commendable [in itself alone]
without [resorting to] boastful
comparison with his neighbor.”
(Galatians 6:4 Amp)
What is OUR foundation? Are we building OUR house upon the Rock, who
is the LIVING Torah, the Living
Word? Y’shua is the same Rock in Matthew 7: 24-27
as He was for Moses and the children of Israel
at the waters of Massah (Exodus 17:6).
He is the same Bread of Life in John 6:35
as He was for the children of Israel
for 40 years of wandering in the desert (John 6:32; Exodus
16:15). Even our
Lord built His own life from the foundation of the Torah, and applied its
principles to everything He said and did.
He HAD to, otherwise He would not have been the perfect, acceptable
sacrifice. And we learn also from the
Word that when Messiah Y’shua was tempted by the adversary in Matthew 4:1-10, every reply that our Lord gave to
the enemy was taken from the Torah, the basic FOUNDATION of the Word of God.
Every carpenter and building contractor will
agree that if we do not have a solid foundation to our house, severe problems
will eventually cause the ruin of that house.
It is time, brothers and sisters, to tend to OUR foundation, before
danger sets in, and “great is the fall of
it”. Let us begin today, and learn
of our roots, of where it all began, and why.
Let us ask the ‘Ruach Hakodesh’,
the Holy Spirit, to be our teacher and guide, for that is what He is, and what
He is called to do.
My husband and I will plant more trees, and
we believe that there will be another cottonwood tree sprout and come up in the
vicinity of where this one blew over.
The root system is still alive, and very extensive. We will nurture it, tend to it, and watch
over it carefully, pruning it when it needs it, fertilizing it when it needs
it, and more than anything, praying over it.
“You
have been built on the foundation of the emissaries and the prophets, with the
cornerstone being Yeshua the Messiah himself. In union with him the whole
building is held together, and it is growing into a holy temple in union with
the Lord. Yes, in union with him, you yourselves are being built together into
a spiritual dwelling-place for God!” (Ephesians 2:20:22
CJB)
©2012 Merete Marx
