Post by Cindy on Dec 17, 2015 11:56:40 GMT -5
I was studying about the rich, young ruler that starts at Mark 10:17 today and wanted to share some things the Lord showed me with you all. He was a member of the Sanhedrin and of course had heard a lot about Jesus, but this young man was apparently intrigued by Him and not against Him like the rest of the Sanhedrin. He really wanted eternal life and realized that something was missing, which puts him way ahead of the rest of them. The problem was that he was very rich, which of course he didn't view as a problem at all. In fact, at that time, the Jew's thought that the more money and material goods someone had, the more spiritual they were because they felt that only those who were blessed by God had money. (Sounds a lot like Word of faith teachings today doesn't it?) Also, while most of the Jews of that day had their minds firmly set on the Messiah coming and starting "The Kingdom of God" any time, he was more interested in what came after that: eternal life. That's pretty amazing really. So he had that going for him as well. So far, it sounds like a slam dunk that he'd be saved, doesn't it? Yet we know it doesn't turn out that way. He winds up walking away very distraught after Jesus tells him to sell all he owns and then follow Him.
Why would Jesus command him to do that, when He never made any of the other disciples do that and doesn't ask that of any of us either? From what the gospels tell us, we can see that the Lord saw into his heart and of course knew exactly what this man needed. First, Jesus shifted the emphasis from observance of the commandments to performance when he quoted those commandments to him. Then, Jesus shows again that he knows our thoughts and our hearts. In other stories in the gospel, it just says, "Jesus knew what they were thinking" or things like that. Here though, while it doesn't say that, we can see it in what Jesus says to the man. First, although he had all those good things going for him that we talked about, there was also some negative things in his heart. We can know that first because the man immediately called Jesus "good". that's no big deal to us, we say that about people all the time. But in those days, the rabbi's especially would never, ever allow someone to call them "good" for they all knew that only God was good. So this is our first clue that there's an ulterior motive in this man's heart. Most likely he was trying to set Jesus up or trap Him, like the Sanhedrin had been doing all along. Yet at the same time, there was a part of him that was truly interested and wanted to believe in Jesus. So he had his peers and all he'd been taught his whole life pulling him in one direction and Jesus pulling him in the other direction.
Then when Jesus answers him, we see that Jesus uses "do not defraud" instead of "do not covet", which is pretty strange, especially since it's only in Mark's gospel and none of the others. When I was reflecting on that, I kept thinking that if someone covets something enough, the next step would be to try and obtain that thing, and one way of doing so would be to defraud the person of it. So perhaps this young man hadn't been completely honest in his life. Oh nothing that anyone could point their finger at I'm sure! More likely something that the rabbi's all did which was find "loopholes" in God's law, (or make the loopholes themselves) so they could get what they wanted. Like the one that Jesus pointed out earlier in Mark 7:11 where they could call something "corban" and say everything they owned was dedicated to God in order to keep from having to help their parents out financially.
We know the young man turned down our Lord's offer and went away, what I wanted to know though was what can we learn from his experience to make sure we don't ever do the same thing. We're already saved, so we don't have to be concerned about losing our salvation, but we should be concerned with pleasing God. I wanted to know if there was anything in my heart that's similar to what was in his heart, because if there is, I don't want it to stay there! So I took a closer look that that part of the story.
To me it showed us that money was really his god. He trusted it and apparently felt that it fulfilled him and therefore did not want to part with it. In fact, because we know he turned God down because of money, we also know that he worshiped his money. He regarded it with great respect, admired and honored it, which is what worship is. This is true of many people today and not just rich people. Many people who are "poor" actually worship money because it's their greatest desire. It's something they think they "must have", or “can’t live without” and so it becomes a god to them whether they realize it or not. So really, no matter how much or how little money a person has, everyone can fall prey to idolatry where money is concerned.
I've tried to keep a careful watch on my own heart concerning money for that reason. After asking the Lord to help and guide me, I ask myself, "who or what do I trust" with various aspects of my life. For example, I'll ask who I trust with my health issues - doctors or God? What's the first thing I think of when I don't feel well, when I'm sick or in a lot of pain? Who do I run to first - the phone to call a doctor or the ER, or to the Lord? Who or what do I trust to provide for me so I can pay the bills? Again, what's the first thing I think of when money is tight or non existent and I'm in need? Do I start thinking of who I can borrow some from, or of getting another job, or asking an organization or agency for help? What's the first thing I do? And I go through as many different areas of my life as I can think of, including what we'd think of as "religious' areas, like church, etc to try and see what's really important to me. I want to know what my actions, words, and my life say is really true about me. I've come to realize that it's often the things and/or people that we think we can't live without, that have become our gods, and since I don't want anything to take the place that only God should have in my life, I examine myself with His help so that I can get rid of any that have snuck in since my last examination.
Another thing that caught my eye about this young man and his money was that he seemed to have the idea that because of his wealth and position, he could help Jesus. After all, he could bring in reputable people to follow Jesus so that it wouldn't just be the riffraff and lower classes following him, which would help his reputation a lot; and maybe because of that, maybe the rest of the Sanhedrin would come to see that he wasn't all bad. Plus, of course his money could obviously help Jesus out a lot too. Of course we know that Jesus didn't need his help or even want it. He just wanted his love and obedience, so that the young man would be saved. But thinking about this I had to admit that often I also have tended to think that I could help Jesus by doing something, or at other times, simply wanted to help Him in one way or another. It can be easy to put this young man down and see how ridiculous he's being with these kind of thoughts, but we really need to look into our own hearts with the Lord's help to see the ways that we may be doing the same kind of thing. Too often, especially the way the world has taught us since birth, we tend to think way too highly of ourselves, and think that Jesus just couldn't get the job done without us, whatever the "job" is that we're considering. Perhaps it's the salvation of a loved one... I've been caught in that trap before! I don't know how many times I've felt that their salvation depended solely on me saying the right things at the right time or doing the right things, or proving to them from the bible that His Word is true, etc. Yet they still weren't saved, so what was I doing wrong??? Then the Lord would gently remind me that it wasn't my job to save them, it was His. He'd also remind me to stop running ahead of Him and to simply do or say what He told me and then leave it in His hands, just praying for them. You'd think that after being told this a few times that I'd remember it, but still I tend to do the same thing over and over, although it may be for a different reason. At least I don't do it all the time anymore, but to me even one more time is too many. It sure shows me how difficult it is to stop falling back into bad habits, especially when we've always been taught by the world that those were "good."
I'm sure this is more then enough to chew on so I'll get it posted now.
Why would Jesus command him to do that, when He never made any of the other disciples do that and doesn't ask that of any of us either? From what the gospels tell us, we can see that the Lord saw into his heart and of course knew exactly what this man needed. First, Jesus shifted the emphasis from observance of the commandments to performance when he quoted those commandments to him. Then, Jesus shows again that he knows our thoughts and our hearts. In other stories in the gospel, it just says, "Jesus knew what they were thinking" or things like that. Here though, while it doesn't say that, we can see it in what Jesus says to the man. First, although he had all those good things going for him that we talked about, there was also some negative things in his heart. We can know that first because the man immediately called Jesus "good". that's no big deal to us, we say that about people all the time. But in those days, the rabbi's especially would never, ever allow someone to call them "good" for they all knew that only God was good. So this is our first clue that there's an ulterior motive in this man's heart. Most likely he was trying to set Jesus up or trap Him, like the Sanhedrin had been doing all along. Yet at the same time, there was a part of him that was truly interested and wanted to believe in Jesus. So he had his peers and all he'd been taught his whole life pulling him in one direction and Jesus pulling him in the other direction.
Then when Jesus answers him, we see that Jesus uses "do not defraud" instead of "do not covet", which is pretty strange, especially since it's only in Mark's gospel and none of the others. When I was reflecting on that, I kept thinking that if someone covets something enough, the next step would be to try and obtain that thing, and one way of doing so would be to defraud the person of it. So perhaps this young man hadn't been completely honest in his life. Oh nothing that anyone could point their finger at I'm sure! More likely something that the rabbi's all did which was find "loopholes" in God's law, (or make the loopholes themselves) so they could get what they wanted. Like the one that Jesus pointed out earlier in Mark 7:11 where they could call something "corban" and say everything they owned was dedicated to God in order to keep from having to help their parents out financially.
We know the young man turned down our Lord's offer and went away, what I wanted to know though was what can we learn from his experience to make sure we don't ever do the same thing. We're already saved, so we don't have to be concerned about losing our salvation, but we should be concerned with pleasing God. I wanted to know if there was anything in my heart that's similar to what was in his heart, because if there is, I don't want it to stay there! So I took a closer look that that part of the story.
To me it showed us that money was really his god. He trusted it and apparently felt that it fulfilled him and therefore did not want to part with it. In fact, because we know he turned God down because of money, we also know that he worshiped his money. He regarded it with great respect, admired and honored it, which is what worship is. This is true of many people today and not just rich people. Many people who are "poor" actually worship money because it's their greatest desire. It's something they think they "must have", or “can’t live without” and so it becomes a god to them whether they realize it or not. So really, no matter how much or how little money a person has, everyone can fall prey to idolatry where money is concerned.
I've tried to keep a careful watch on my own heart concerning money for that reason. After asking the Lord to help and guide me, I ask myself, "who or what do I trust" with various aspects of my life. For example, I'll ask who I trust with my health issues - doctors or God? What's the first thing I think of when I don't feel well, when I'm sick or in a lot of pain? Who do I run to first - the phone to call a doctor or the ER, or to the Lord? Who or what do I trust to provide for me so I can pay the bills? Again, what's the first thing I think of when money is tight or non existent and I'm in need? Do I start thinking of who I can borrow some from, or of getting another job, or asking an organization or agency for help? What's the first thing I do? And I go through as many different areas of my life as I can think of, including what we'd think of as "religious' areas, like church, etc to try and see what's really important to me. I want to know what my actions, words, and my life say is really true about me. I've come to realize that it's often the things and/or people that we think we can't live without, that have become our gods, and since I don't want anything to take the place that only God should have in my life, I examine myself with His help so that I can get rid of any that have snuck in since my last examination.
Another thing that caught my eye about this young man and his money was that he seemed to have the idea that because of his wealth and position, he could help Jesus. After all, he could bring in reputable people to follow Jesus so that it wouldn't just be the riffraff and lower classes following him, which would help his reputation a lot; and maybe because of that, maybe the rest of the Sanhedrin would come to see that he wasn't all bad. Plus, of course his money could obviously help Jesus out a lot too. Of course we know that Jesus didn't need his help or even want it. He just wanted his love and obedience, so that the young man would be saved. But thinking about this I had to admit that often I also have tended to think that I could help Jesus by doing something, or at other times, simply wanted to help Him in one way or another. It can be easy to put this young man down and see how ridiculous he's being with these kind of thoughts, but we really need to look into our own hearts with the Lord's help to see the ways that we may be doing the same kind of thing. Too often, especially the way the world has taught us since birth, we tend to think way too highly of ourselves, and think that Jesus just couldn't get the job done without us, whatever the "job" is that we're considering. Perhaps it's the salvation of a loved one... I've been caught in that trap before! I don't know how many times I've felt that their salvation depended solely on me saying the right things at the right time or doing the right things, or proving to them from the bible that His Word is true, etc. Yet they still weren't saved, so what was I doing wrong??? Then the Lord would gently remind me that it wasn't my job to save them, it was His. He'd also remind me to stop running ahead of Him and to simply do or say what He told me and then leave it in His hands, just praying for them. You'd think that after being told this a few times that I'd remember it, but still I tend to do the same thing over and over, although it may be for a different reason. At least I don't do it all the time anymore, but to me even one more time is too many. It sure shows me how difficult it is to stop falling back into bad habits, especially when we've always been taught by the world that those were "good."
I'm sure this is more then enough to chew on so I'll get it posted now.
!!
