Proverbs 30:24-28 (NKJ) There are four things which are little on the earth, But they are exceedingly wise: The ants are a people not strong, Yet they prepare their food in the summer; The rock badgers (conies) are a feeble folk, Yet they make their homes in the cliffs; The locusts have no king, Yet they all advance in ranks; The spider (lizards) skillfully grasps with its hands, And it is in kings’ palaces.
Last week we discussed the ant. Prov. 30:25 (prepare for your eternal future)
Proverbs 30:26 AMP. The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;
This little fellow is a little rock badger. He looks kind of like our Prairie Dog. He lives in the rocks. He is feeble (which means defenseless), very delicate in bone structure and very defenseless and venerable to any predator in the forest. He uses the rocks as protection from his enemies. This was his wisdom. God built into the conie an instinct for survival and self preservation. The conie is a great climber. He will find the highest rock and climb to the top in search for a cliff. Once he finds one he’ll line it with straw or fur or something warm and he makes his home in the cliff of the rock. The rock badger’s main defensive move is to hide in the rocks. They know that even the most determined predators can’t claw their way through stones. The rocks not only protected the badgers from predators but also provided a refuge against the environment. If we could only have as much since as that little rock badger.
The message of the Conie is to run to the rock of ages and hide in it. (JESUS)
Humanity doesn’t like to admit it but we are basically creatures of little power, just like the rock badger. Most of what we have accomplished has been learning to live within our environment, not controlling it.
1. Sure we can fly, but we haven’t done away with air disasters.
2. We can explore the depths of the ocean but people still drown.
3. We can develop irrigation systems but if there’s no rain we’re out of luck.
Even our major medical breakthroughs aren’t cures.
1. Insulin controls diabetes, it doesn’t cure it.
2. Salk’s polio vaccine may help prevent you from getting polio but if you do get it doctors are powerless.
Every time we have a major snowstorm, people die. Why? Because we are still powerless. We’re like the rock badger. As a matter of fact the only defensive part of our bodies is our brain. Probably in the physical sense we are probably even more powerless then the badger.
Yet the Badger knew how to get his protection. He found his protection with the rocks and hiding within the cliffs.
Our protection is on the Rock of Ages (Jesus) and hiding under HIS sheltering arms.
1. Building your house upon the Rock of Salvation.
Matthew 7:24-27 AMP
Notice that Christ doesn’t say they were good or bad, right or wrong, righteous or unrighteous. No Jesus simply defines them as wise and foolish. They made their own choices. Christ makes it very clear that they had both heard the gospel. He was probably referring to those who sit week in and week out in a church where God’s word is proclaimed. The key concept is that one obeyed those teachings and the other ignored those teaching. So it’s not in the hearing it’s in the doing.
The rock badger was wise only because he uses the rocks provided for him by God. The wise man and the foolish man both had the same option, sand or rock. Obey or ignore. And maybe the man who built on the sand did so because the lot was cheaper then the solid lot. It’s certainly true that the cost of obeying God’s word is often higher then ignoring those words. But the returns are higher as well.
Notice that having built on the rock doesn’t exempt the wise man from the troubles of life. Each of the trials that befall the foolish man was also visited upon the wise man.
The greatest fairy tale ever told is that Christians have fewer problems then non-Christians.
2. Your hiding place is the Sheltering arms of Jesus.
Look at the times we are living in. (Katrina, Rita, Wilma, and now Tropical storm Alpha near P.R. and earthquakes not to mentions wars)
Ps. 91 tells us that we have a fall-out shelter that’s feather lined.
Ever thinks about things people hide in!!!
1. Education: You could have all the degrees of a thermometer yet God would not be impressed.
2. Religion: (you ever witness to someone and the first thing out of their mouth is I go to church) that’s not going to save you.
Ex. (There was this cat that gave birth to kittens in an abandoned oven but that didn’t make them biscuits. Just simply a new location to have kittens.).
Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian. You can’t hide in a church. You must be born again.
3. Money: You spend your health to get all your wealth and you turn around and spend all your wealth to get back your health.
Ex. Little boy asked a man digging a ditch, “why are you digging that ditch”? He answers it my job. To make money. To buy food. To make me strong. So I can come back tomorrow mourning and dig some more on this miserable ditch.”
If you don’t have Jesus at the head of your life, you’re like a ship without a compass or a captain. You can double your speed, but your just heading faster to ruin, unless you have a navigator. Without Jesus you’re in a ditch digging no where.
Solomon tried to hide in his money. House (took 13yrs to build). Bricks made of silver/ beans of cedar/ walls inlayed with a shield of pure gold/ He sat on a throne of Ivory/ Had 12 chiefs to serve finest food you could get in Israel. List goes on and on. At the end of his life, at age of 60, Solomon, who had everything, proclaims he has nothing and dies a backslider.
THERE IS ONLY ONE PLACE A PERSON CAN HIDE THAT IS ETERNAL, NOT TEMPORAL. JESUS
Fact is when all is said and done, weather you live to be 50-100, how does that compare to eternity. A Christian’s life is just Gods grade school to produce “A” students and graduates for eternity with Jesus.
4. Friends: David discovered you can’t hide in your friends.
Friends can turn out to be bitter disappointments and an enemy.
From the darkness of his emptiness, David looks up and says, “I’ve had friends, I’ve had wealth, I’ve had pleasure, now lead me to the rock that’s higher than I, Thou has been a shelter.”
THERE IS ONLY ONE HIDING PLACE AND THAT IS SAVE IN THE ARMS OF JESUS.
Conclusion: We must learn to as wise as the conie by:
1 Built our spiritual house upon the solid rock of Jesus
2 The Only hiding place that will last for eternity is Jesus.
