SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/24/2022 8:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Parable
of the Hidden Treasure
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 13:44
Message of the
verse: “44
"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man
found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he
has and buys that field.”
Jesus again is talking about something that was very
familiar in the culture that He was living in, as He takes a simple story using
it to make spiritual points. One may not
think about finding treasure in fields in today’s life, at least not living in
our country, but people did that because they did not have banks like we have
today. Banks with security deposit
places in them which can be rented in order to put valuables into.
Now it was because Palestine had
been a battle ground for hundreds of years, families would often even bury
food, clothing, and various household objects to protect them from plundering
enemy soldiers. Josephus writes “The
gold and silver and the rest of that most precious furniture which the Jews had
and which the owners treasured underground was done to withstand the fortunes
of war.”
With all of this said the ground
around Palestine became a veritable treasure-house sometimes deported to a
foreign land such as Assyria or Babylon—the treasure would be forever lost
unless someone accidentally discovered it, as occasionally happened.
So as we look at this parable we see
that this is what happened as the fate of this man found treasure hidden in the
field, which a man found and hid again.
This man just stumbled upon a great treasure and so he hid it again and
then he goes to the owner in order to buy the field from him, but before he
could buy it he had to sell everything that he had in order to have enough
money in order to buy the field.
MacArthur writes “Many Christians
are embarrassed by this story, thinking Jesus used an unethical act to
illustrate a spiritual truth. It seems
to them that the man was obligated to tell the owner of the field about the
treasure, since it was on his property and therefore rightfully belonged to
him.
“The point of the parable does not
involve the ethics of what the man did but rather his willingness to sacrifice
everything he had in order to possess the treasure. But what he did was not unethical or
dishonest.
“In the first place, it is obvious
that the treasure was not hidden by the present owner of the field and was
unknown to him. Otherwise, he would have
retrieved it before he sold the field.
The man who bought the field obviously knew the owner was not aware of
the treasure or he would not have offered to buy the field, knowing the
treasure would not be included in the deal.
“In the second place, rabbinic law
provided that ‘if a man finds scattered fruit or money, it belongs to the
finder.’ If a person came across money
or other valuables that were obviously lost and whose owner was dead or
unknown, the finder had the right to keep what was found.
“In the third place, the basic
honesty of the man is testified to by the fact that, had he been dishonest, he
would simply have taken the treasure without any thought of buying the
field. But he did not even use part of
the treasure to buy the field; rather, the sells all that he has, and buys that
field.”
I thought it best to quote from
MacArthur in order to better understand the parable, and I may do the same
thing in our next parable, and then after that there will be a time when we can
learn lessons from both of the parables we will have looked at as they are
similar in meaning.
4/24/2022 8:24
AM
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