In Matthew 18, the tax collector writes something about Jesus that may have struck him as more amazing than perhaps it initially struck the other apostles. It began with a question from Peter:
“Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” (Matthew 18:21 ESV).
As Jesus begins to teach an amazing lesson on grace and expectation, listen to how the tax collector records Jesus’ response:
“Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:22 ESV).
As Peter struggles to quantify forgiveness and expectations, Jesus responds by telling the apostles that we don’t make accounts of wrong. We don’t balance the ledger. There is no time when our duty is fulfilled before we are justified in withholding forgiveness.
What would happen if Matthew had employed these principles in his tax booth? As a tax collector, his job was to ensure what was due was collected. Forgiveness could perhaps be extended as the exception to the rule, but here, Jesus seemed to be teaching that forgiveness was the rule. To put a fine point on it, Jesus gives them a parable.
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’“ (Matthew 18:23-26 ESV).
Jesus tells of a man who owed the king 10,000 talents. My Bible has a footnote that a talent was equivalent to 20 years’ wages. That means that this man owed the king 200,000 years’ worth of wages. When he couldn’t pay, the king ordered that he and his family be sold to pay off the debt owed to him. But the man pleaded with the king for patience and he would pay all.
Really? 200,000 years of labor? This debt was insurmountable. You know the story. The king had compassion for the man and forgave him of his debt. (vs. 27). All of it. All 10,000 talents. All 200,000 years’ worth of wages. This was a far cry from Peter’s 7 times forgiveness. It makes me wonder what was the biggest debt the tax collector ever extended to anyone. I can see why the Holy Spirit chose Matthew to record this parable.
The rest of the story is what we usually focus on when we teach the lesson of this parable. We need to forgive others if we want the forgiveness of our Father. What we owe Him is far more than what others owe us. God’s forgiveness of us is heavily influenced by the mercy and grace in forgiveness we extend to others.
These are the main lessons that Jesus wants us to walk away with. But I want us to see something amazing we perhaps gloss over as a truth that should cause us to drop to our knees in worship and awe for our great God. It’s a lesson about the King. It’s a lesson I’m convinced Mathew picked up on immediately, perhaps before any other apostles picked up on it.
The King could forgive 10,000 talents. Have you thought about that? 10,000 is not an insignificant amount for most people. If someone owed us something that would bankrupt us if they didn’t pay us back, it would be much different than if they owed us something we could forgive and still move on in life having forgiven.
The king had this kind of wealth. He was full of forgiveness because he had the capacity to forgive anything without it bankrupting him. Jesus was telling us that God had this kind of forgiveness. There is no debt we have against God He cannot forgive. We have done Him no wrong which will cause Him to look at His ledger on the Day of Judgment and say, “Wow, what you have done is more than I can overlook. You were just too bad. You have done too much wrong for me to forgive.”
And it is the Judge of mankind who teaches this. Jesus isn’t overgeneralizing because He is the one who will be wronged and will settle accounts on the Day of Judgment. His capacity to forgive holds no limits. He is the King who can afford to forgive 200,000 years of debt against Him.
From you.
From me.
From billions and billions of souls whom He created.
He can forgive it all.
And yes, He expects us to show a speck of grace to each other because He gives overflowing grace to each of us. We forgive each other, not out of obligation, but from the overflowing measure of grace we receive from Him.
I bet Peter never looked at his question about how many times we must forgive each other the same way again. More interestingly to me, I bet Matthew, the tax collector, walked away with an overwhelming appreciation of a great God who has the capacity to forgive any and every debt charged against Him and wipe the balance page clean.
Let us drop to our knees daily to that the Great King for His generous spirit and His infinite capacity to forgive us all our wrongs.
Jordan Shouse: “Today, you are closer than you ever have been in your life to meeting Jesus.”
How should that cause you to live from this moment on?
Praise God, He is sovereign, and there is none like Him!
God has inherent authority, power, and ability to do whatever He wants.
God answers to no man, no power, or to any other authority.
God has the right to make the rules and the power to enforce those rules on whomever He chooses.
Man can say “no” to a sovereign God, but not in perpetuity.
There will be a day of reckoning.
In the end, God will prove to be sovereign over all.
I am back in Psalms in my daily Bible reading. One I read this morning was Psalm 15. It is a short, five-verse Psalm that will give you thoughts to meditate on all day. In verse one, David begins by asking a question:
“A Psalm of David. O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” (Psalm 15:1 ESV).
Isn’t this what we all look for? How can we dwell with the Lord, in His presence? In the next four verses, God gives us the answer through the Holy Spirit. I have much to consider after reading these revelations.
“He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart;” (Psalm 15:2 ESV).
Do I seek to be blameless and do what is right? Am I honest in my heart or do I harbor rottenness and uncleanness in my heart? I may fool men, but God reads what is true in my heart. To dwell with Him, I must have a clean heart that is seeking to be blameless before Him.
“who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend;” (Psalm 15:3 ESV).
How do I seek to be blameless? By controlling my tongue and actions toward my neighbor. My actions and motives toward others must be pure and in line with our Lord’s instructions to love my neighbor as myself. Am I harboring evil toward my brother? If so, I need to make it right so I can dwell in the Lord’s presence.
“in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change;” (Psalm 15:4 ESV).
Do I rejoice in those who fear the Lord and reject those who do not? In our culture, we are feeling the pressure more and more to delight in the ones who reject God while rejecting those who fear God. We must be careful with whom we cast our lot. To dwell with the Lord, I must stand with the just and reject the unjust.
“who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.” (Psalm 15:5 ESV).
The Psalm ends with the exhortation to treat others fairly and justly. Do I look for ways to mistreat people and take advantage of them or do I sacrifice gain at someone’s expense to put them first? If I want to dwell with the Lord, then I will extend justice to all.
I want to dwell with the Lord forever. I have much to meditate on today.
Time continues, but God said that one day will be the last.
We fill our calendars, but do we remember to keep the Day of Judgment in mind?
We plan for trips, education, dates, and our career but do we plan for what happens after life on earth?
Enjoy your time on earth that the Lord blesses you with, but remember, it is only here for a vapor.
Don’t trade your eternity for the vapor, or mist, that is gone as soon as it appears.
“yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (James 4:14 ESV).
Where do we really put our faith and trust? Do we wish for more mighty ships of war?
Do we seek more technology to create iron domes that can strike down incoming missiles and rockets?
Do we seek greater tanks and weapons? Do we seek more submarines and satellites?
I would trade it all for a leader who humbles his heart before the Lord. It is the Lord where strength is found.
Where do we really put our faith and trust? God can cause the most mighty nation to fall into the hands of the weak; God can lift up a people who have no mighty army.
“The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love,” (Psalm 33:16-18 ESV).
Where do we really put our faith and trust?
As I read through the Psalms, I hear David’s plaintiff cry for God to be with him as his enemies seek his life. We know that he refused to lift his hand against the Lord’s anointed, even when those around him urged him to kill king Saul on numerous occasions.
Yet, David always left vengeance to God. This is so unlike what we are tempted to do, isn’t it? And not just us, but we see even great men falling into the temptation of handling things according to our human ways instead of waiting on the Lord.
Abraham chose to bring about an heir his own way rather than to wait upon the Lord. Saul chose to prepare for the battle against the Amalekites rather than wait for the Lord.
I fear that we often try to fix things with our own power and wisdom rather than wait for the Lord. But David gives us the example of putting our trust in the Lord.
Certainly, we act with prayer and after seeking wisdom. But first, we must drop to our knees to seek God and His deliverance. We must learn to wait upon the Lord before trying to fix our problems without first coming before the Lord and waiting upon Him.
And we must live in wisdom, not doing what is wrong to bring about our deliverance. Our lot is never so bad that we are justified in doing what is wrong to deliver ourselves.
If we feel we must compromise our godly values to deliver ourselves, then let us look to David as our example and wait for the Lord. Our God can deliver us if we only wait for Him in faith.
When God makes a promise, is it as though it has happened, or do you have a sense of wishing it really will happen?
Bible hope in God’s promises is grounded in expectation, not in wishes.
Every day, I try to be more like King Jesus, especially in the way I treat others.
I try to control the words and tone I use with the ones I love the most.
I imagine that if Jesus used the tone with me that I sometimes use with my wife and children, it would be as devastating to me as it is to them.
My wife, children, and family deserve my respect. My King expects no less from me than to give it to them.
Today is the Lord’s Day. We come together to worship the Son on the throne as He is seated at His Father’s right hand.
Before we come to offer Him our gift and kiss the Son, let us make sure that our heart is right before Him.
Let us make sure that we are doing what He has earnestly taught us to do.
Remember the poor and weak.
Feed the hungry.
Take care of the children in need.
Will our God accept our gifts if we do not take care of those in need?
Will He listen to our prayers and songs if we close our generous hands to those who have a need?
This Lord’s Day, we earnestly seek to offer our great God worship, praise, and honor.
Do we think the One who desires that we love our neighbor will turn a blind eye when we offer our gifts to Him today having closed our hands to those in need?
The King we worship today tells us He will judge us on how we treat those in need.
When we offer worship to our King today, let us do it with a clean hand having opened it to our neighbor in need first.
“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm 82:3-4 ESV).
Rickie Jenkins: “We can’t make it through this life sleepwalking spiritually. We must maintain our fervent heart lest we create a rut that becomes our grave.”
Jordan Shouse: “We are all adopted children of God. There is a lot that makes us different from each other, but there is more that makes us alike.”
I have gotten into the habit of getting up very early to pray and read my Bible daily.
I have done this for very selfless and very selfish reasons.
My selfless reason is God deserves my first fruits. If I don’t give Him my prayers and readings first, I find it hard to fit them into my day otherwise.
Selfishly, I know I will come before God daily, asking for His favor and His providence. I want to ensure I give Him what is due Him before I ask what I need from His hand each day.
I am in Psalm in my daily Bible reading. In Psalm 108, David, the most successful conqueror in the history of God’s people, understands why he is so successful:
“Oh grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man! With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.” (Psalm 108:12-13 ESV).
David understood that his salvation was not by man’s hands. Salvation comes through the Lord.
The sooner we learn this lesson, the more at peace we will be. It is frivolous to try to save ourselves without God. In all things, let us learn to bring our need for deliverance to the One in whom all deliverance comes.
We live in a kingdom ruled by God Himself. Let us not act as the people act who abide in the kingdoms of men. Let us always look to our King for deliverance.