PT-3 "The Example of Forgiveness" (Matt. 18:23-25)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/24/2023 9:42 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-3 “The Example of Forgiveness”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 18:23-35

 

            Message of the verses:  As we go through this parable that Jesus spoke to His disciples, and remembering that in this entire 18^th chapter Jesus is speaking to children,  we will look at the verses at that time, but I am not putting all the verses on each SD.

 

            As we ended our last SD yesterday morning I stated that in today’s SD we will look at what the value of the ten thousand talents were in different time periods.  It is because monetary values change so widely from one point in history to another, it is never possible to calculate accurately how much a given coin of that ancient society would be worth in modern currency, so what we will be doing is taking our best effort here.  Actually we don’t need to figure out what this means because the point in the story is that it is an un-payable amount of money.  At this time I want to quote from the sermon that John MacArthur preached back in 1983 as in that sermon he gives more information about the value of the ten thousands talents.

 

            This provincial governor in the parable owed ten thousand talents.  As a fascinating comparison, you might want to know that at the same period of time, the time around the life of Jesus, the total revenue collected by the Roman government from Idumea and Judea and Samaria, the total revenue was 600 talents.  The total revenue collected from Galilee was 300 talents.  So if this guy had collected, embezzled, and wasted 10,000 talents, that is an astronomical figure.  If it’s taken just as a fact that it was actually 10,000. 

           

            You might want to know that when the tabernacle was built, the Lord said to them, “I want you to overlay all these elements in gold.”  You know, the Ark of the Covenant and many other things had to be overlaid in gold.  You might want to think back on that and imagine all of that precious gold that overlaid all of those factors in the tabernacle, and if you’re curious about4 that there were 29 talents of gold.

           

            And then when the temple was built, there were 3,000 and the whole place was overlaid in gold, and that was only 3,000.  Ten thousand talents is astronomical.  People have estimated anywhere from 16 million to 2 billion and everything in between.  You might want other comparisons.  The Queen of Sheba, she came to visit Solomon one time, and she wanted to give him a gift that was commensurate with his incredible wealth, and so she gave him 120 talents, .  The king of Assyria laid upon Hezekiah 30 talents of gold as a magnanimous amount. 

 

            I think that we get the point about how much money that this man owed the king and that is that it would have been impossible for him to pay that amount of money back, as we will see the king forgave him of this magnanimous amount of money.

 

            I think that I have mentioned that in the Greek language the word for ten thousand is murias, and that word is the highest number in Greek.  There was no billions or trillions around at that time, and this is important for us to know this for this servant of the king owed the king the highest amount it that there was.

 

            MacArthur writes “In that sense it has the same connotation as the English myriad, which is derived from it.  Murais is therefore sometimes translated ‘countless’ (1 Cor. 4:15) or ‘myriads’ (Rev. 5:11).  Jesus’ point in this parable, therefore, was that the man who owed the king ten thousand talents owed an incalculable and unpayable debt.”

 

            The point of the parable is that incalculable, unpayable debt represents the debt for sin that every man owes God.  In John 16:8 we see the following “"And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.’”   When this happens to a person he is faced with the fact that the extent of his sin is beyond comprehension and humanly unpayable.  Paul saw this and wrote about in Romans 7:13 “Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.”  It was in the 9^th chapter of Acts when the Lord saved Paul he realized that he could not keep the Law of God when the Lord Jesus saved him.  Paul was going to Damascus, in order to either kill believers or put them in jail, both men and women when the Lord stopped him in his tracks with a bright light, brighter than the sun and asked him “why are you persecuting Me?”  When Paul was persecuting believers he was persecuting Jesus, and the same is true today.  We will look at this some more in our next SD.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  In just two days from now I will celebrate my 49^th spiritual birthday, and there are some similarities with how Jesus stopped me in my tracts on that warm January 26^th in 1974 while visiting a friend in Florida. 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I remember that Jesus paid it all and all to Him I owe because He paid that impossible payment of sin for me when He died on the cross almost 2000 years ago.

 

1/24/2023 10:26 AM