SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/25/2022 8:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“The Parable of the Pearl of Great
Value”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
13:45-46
Message of the verses: “45 "Again,
the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46 and upon
finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought
it.”
The Greek word for merchant is emporos and this means that he was a wholesale dealer as he would
buy and then resell merchandise. This
man would travel around the country to find some things to buy and then he
would sell them in order to make a profit. I guess that we could say that this man’s main
line of purchases were pearls, as he would seek very fine pearls. MacArthur writes “Diving for pearls was extremely
hazardous, and many divers lost their lives or ruined their health in obtaining
the oysters that contained the beautiful gems.
The fact, in addition to their scarcity and natural beauty, made pearls
extremely precious.”
In
the ancient world pearls were the most highly valued gems and were often bought
as an investment, similar to diamonds are today. This investment could be kept in a very small
place, not like investing in land or houses.
It could be concealed in one’s clothing while traveling or buried in a
field for safekeeping, as we saw in the previous parable.
As
one studies the end times in the Word of God they will find that in the book of
Revelation that the twelve gates that John saw in Revelation 21:21 found in the
New Jerusalem were made of a single pearl for each gate. (Must have been a big oyster.)
Pearls
in ancient times were kind of used like diamonds are used in today’s world, as
the wife of the Roman emperor Caligula often wore a vast fortune in pearls in
her hair and on her ears, neck, wrist, and fingers. Cleopatra is said to have owned two extremely
valuable pearls, each of which would be worth several million dollars in today’s
market.
MacArthur
writes “When the merchant came across one pearl of great value, he went and
sold all that he had, and bought it. Obviously
the merchant considered that particular pearl to have been worth more than all
his other pearls together, because they would have been included in the sale of
all that he had.
“Because the emphasis of these parables is personal
appropriation of the kingdom of heaven, the message is obviously one of
salvation. In this context, the kingdom
of heaven represents the saving knowledge of God through trust in His Son and
all the benefits and glory that relationship brings.”
In
our next SD we will look at some lessons that we can learn from these last two
parables, and that will take several days.
4/25/2022 9:15 AM
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