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The wicked are said to live in houses while the upright live in tents. A house is a permanent dwelling place. A tent is normally used as a temporary shelter for someone who is away from his permanent home. This illustrates an important difference between Christians and unbelievers. The unsaved person is at home in this world but when someone is saved by faith in Christ his home is no longer earth but heaven.
We remain in the world but now our status is that of a temporary resident rather than permanent citizen.
Living in a house makes it convenient for a person to acquire possessions because he has a place to keep them. Houses usually have closets, basements, and attics that can be used to store things when they aren’t being used. But having too many possessions can create problems for someone who is staying in a tent. He has no convenient place to put them and when he moves his tent he will have to leave some of his property behind if he has more that he can carry with him. That is why Jesus told his followers that they should store up treasure in heaven rather than on earth. It makes perfect sense that our wealth should be kept where our permanent home is.
If you look at just the present circumstances in which we live it often seems as if the wicked are better off than Christians are. They fit into our society and often find it easy to acquire the things that make life more comfortable. But things won’t always go on as they are now because we will eventually have to face God’s judgment of our lives.
When God acts the results are often the opposite of what we would expect. Normally we think of a house as being stronger than a tent and being better able to stand up to adverse situations. But contrary to what we would expect it is the house rather than the tent which is destroyed.
Each person needs to examine his life and ask himself this question: Do I live in a house or a tent?
