In the time of our Lord there were banks where people could deposit their money for safe keeping, but they were not for ordinary people. Ordinary people used the ground as the safe place to keep money or some other thing which they valued very highly. Like the man who buried his talent-a large sum of money-in the ground. Also, in Palestine there was always a lot of fighting and people would hide their valuable things in the ground before running away from the fighting. Sometimes they did not come back and their things remained there and no one knew. The first picture Jesus gives was quite familiar to the people of his time. God’s plan for them.
The kingdom of God is a treasure. The kingdom of God means knowing what God wants of us and doing it as well as we can. And that is something that is worth any effort, any sacrifice and the loss of any other thing. God’s will must be the most important thing in the life of each of us. It may require us to accept discipline and self-denial. It may require us to give up certain ways of life or give up wealth or power or other things which we would very much like to do and to have. Only the man who has understood the importance of God’s will in his life will be ready to appear foolish and give up everything he already had, because he knew that the treasure was more than all he had
A pearl is a very beautiful kind of stone found in the sea or sometimes washed up on the seashore. These pearls are so beautiful that many people want them very much and are ready to pay a high price for them. The more beautiful the pearl, the higher the price it will bring. So it was in the time of Jesus too. A trader could only be very happy if he found a pearl, especially if it was outstandingly beautiful. The kingdom of heaven means living as God wants and enjoying his friendship. There are many beautiful things in the world, but none as beautiful as that. The wise man will be other beautiful things in order to have the most beautiful thing of all.
The man who was digging in the field found the treasure accidentally. The man who found the expensive pearl was looking for it all the time. When we discover what is the most important thing of all living as God wants and enjoying his friendship – whether we discover it suddenly and unexpectedly or we discover it only after a life- long search, the result is the same: we will be ready to gladly give up any other thing in order to obtain it. That am I prepared to do or what am I prepared to give up in order that God’s will may be better carried out in my life and my friendship with him may become closer? After all, love always makes demands and that’s when our love is shown for what it really is. There are no limits to what you are prepared to do or to suffer for one whom you really love.
Solomon was the son of David and Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan persuaded David to choose Solomon as his successor instead of Adonijah. Solomon succeeded David about the year 970 B.C. and ruled for 38/39 years. The name Solomon comes from the word which means peace and prosperity, and this was a feature of his reign. He had good relations with the pagan nations and trade flourished and he built a palace for himself and especially he built his famous temple for God and tradition says that he surpassed all other people in wisdom. Today’s reading reflects the tradition about Solomon’s great wisdom which came to him as a gift from God, in answer to his request, to enable him to rule God’s people well. The reading shows Solomon as a king who puts the good of his people before his own material and political gain. The story of the two mothers and their babies which almost immediately follows this reading, vv 16-28, stresses the wisdom of Solomon. But even the following chapters, which deal with his organisation of the kingdon, his building projects and his commercial enterprises, still underline his wisdom. It is also significant for Solomon’s reputation for wisdom that much of the Wisdom Literature was attributed to Solomon as the master of wisdom writing. Whether or not Solomon was successful in governing his people, his own personal life left something to be desired. He had a reputation as a lover. He fell victim to foreign women. That opened the door to the pagan religion which they brought with them. The “high places” of pagan worship, about which we hear so much in the Old Testament, go back to the time of Solomon. In spite of all the emphasis that is laid on Solomon as wise man and builder and trader, chapter 11 closes the account with a description of Solomon the sinner.
Paul speaks first of the outlook on life of people who love God. Some people can look back, even on the worst moments of their lives, and see disasters that turned into advantages and disappointments that turned into blessings and can see the guiding hand of God there. It seems they are convinced that the mind of God brought everything into existence in the first place and guides its orderly development all the time and has a plan for every human being, so that nothing can happen to any of us, which is not part of God’s plan for us. It is this conviction that God is both all-wise and all-loving that makes it possible, for some people at least, to accept even the worst things that happen and not rebel against people or against God.
Then Paul speaks of that loving plan of God for us and the Christian experience. God had a plan for us from the beginning. His plan was that we men and women should be his sons and daughters. To this end he sent his own Son amongst us to be one of us. We at once became the brothers and sisters of his Son. Through the gospel preaching we should be transformed into the likeness of his Son. God marked us all out for salvation; as each one of us comes into being he calls us to salvation; to make salvation possible he puts us in the right relationship with him by forgiving us our sins; in the end he will glorify us, by giving us the life of eternal happiness which he always had in mind for us. The passage stresses two things. Salvation is in the first instance all God’s doing-he wants us to be saved, he invites us to be saved, he does everything he can to make it possible for us to be saved. In the second instance he has to leave it to us to freely respond by accepting the invitation to live in the way that he wants in order that we may obtain the reward that he promises. The beauty of the whole scheme of salvation is that it is a free invitation on God’s part and a free response on our part. And men and women are free to being God’s plan to fulfilment or to bring it to destruction. In the meantime, under the guiding wisdom and love of God, no matter what happens to us, it can only be for our good. Does your own conviction go as deep as this?
Kefa W. MHM
What you’ll find here is my personal reflection on Scripture. I don’t claim to have all the answers, only a sincere desire to seek truth. Some of the references used are drawn from past study and experience, and I may no longer be able to recall all their exact sources. Feel free to leave your comments or personal reflections below as we continue to grow deeper together in the Word of God. I’ll see you next Sunday.
