Proverbs 24:27. Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house.
Here is a call to get our priorities straight. There is often a God ordained order to doing things, and the wise person understands and applies that order. The principle in today’s proverb applies to building your house. First plant the field. Then build the house. The field provides financial income. The house is a financial burden. Making sure you will have the income to sustain the burden is wise.
There may be a specific application here to those who are single and wanting to get married. Build the house may be a way of saying start a family. In these ancient cultures a betrothed husband would spend the months before the wedding getting everything ready for his new bride. Again, hopefully planting the field before building the house.
Obviously this principle must be balanced with the foolishness of placing career and financial success above family. We live in a culture where money, success, toys, and comforts often take precedence over relational responsibilities. Preparing the field and building the house should be relational goals, whether married, single looking to marry, or single with no desire to marry (which is fine). Souls are eternal, fields and houses are not. Bank accounts, retirement accounts, mutual funds, stock options are not. Everything we do must be done to make us better at loving our family, our neighbors, and even our enemies.
Jesus understands this principle. Christ has prepared his field, and now he is building his house.
Matthew 13:34. The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
John 14:2-3. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
In Christ’s spiritual kingdom we are his field. His good soil of faithfulness. His good seed of righteousness. Jesus knows he can wisely build his house because he knows his field is fertile. The church of Christ will win. It has, it is, and it will produce a harvest of souls in the Kingdom of God. The fruit of the Spirit is alive and growing in us by the indwelling Holy Spirit. There is absolutely no doubt that Jesus can safely build his bride an eternal home. Though Satan may try to snatch seed, corrupt soil, and burn crops, the gates of Hell will not prevail against the church, the family of God.
Christian, you are Christ’s priority. The joy set before him. He has prepared you, and now he is preparing a place for you to be with him forever. In Christ, we are now his instrument to be used in the lives of others. Let Christ use you to plant the seed of the gospel into the hearts of everyone around you. Jesus is planting his field, and we are his workers in that field. Jesus is building his house, and we will all live with him together one day. Seated at his table. Feasting on his abundance. Dwelling in the house of the Lord forever.
You: What would you say is your top priority these days?
You in Christ: How does our union with Christ make us partners in God’s planting work?
Christ in you: How might you prioritize gospel advance today over your own selfish agendas?
Pray: Father, thank you for your salvation and the home it has prepared for me with you. Use me today as you see fit to do your work, in your field. Amen.
To Live is Christ 