Unlimited Value (Psalm 49:8; Matthew 18:21-35)

PURE GOLD

In the art world, something created by one of the masters, like Rembrandt; Leonardo da Vinci; or Michelangelo, is almost deemed as priceless, since there is only one such creation, for each of their several works. You too are unique, and only one of you exists in the world, making you extremely valuable and precious.

Psalm 49:8 says, " For the redemption of their soul (is) precious, and it ceaseth forever" (KJV).

WORD MEANING

The word 'precious', in the Hebrew, is (yaqar), 3365, and means, 'valuable'; 'precious'; 'highly valued', and emphasizes just how extremely rare and valuable each human person is.

OTHER TRANSLATIONS

Various other translations make the meaning of the passage a little clearer for the reader:

"Redemption does not come so easily, for no one can ever pay enough" (NLT, New Living Translation).

"The price for a life is very high. No payment is ever enough" (NIRV, New International Reader's Version).

"The ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough" (NIV, New International Version).

"It costs far too much to buy back your life. You can never pay God enough" (CEV, Contemporary English Version).

"...because the payment for a human life is too great. What we could pay would never be enough" (GNT, Good News Translation).

"...for it would cost too much to redeem his life, and the payments would go on forever" (ISV, International Standard Version).

"For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough" (NHEB, New Heart English Bible).

"For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough" (WEB, World English Bible).

"For the ransom of life is costly, and can never suffice" (NRSV, New Revised Standard Version).

"No one can ever redeem his brother or give God a ransom for him, because the price for him is too high (leave the idea alone!)" (The Complete Jewish Study Bible, Ps. 49:7-8).

"A brother cannot save a brother, nor can a man give to God a ransom for himself; for the redemption of their souls is precious" (Lamsa, A Translation from the Aramaic).

"No man can deliver himself from his human lot, paying a ransom price to God; too great is the cost of a man's soul" (Knox, A translation from the Latin Vulgate).

"For a soul is far too precious to be ransomed by mere earthly wealth. There is not enough of it in all the earth to buy eternal life for just one soul, to keep it out of hell" (Taylor, A Modern Translation, Ps. 49:8-9).

"A brother does not redeem, shall a man redeem? He shall not give to God a ransom for himself, or the price of redemption of his soul, though he labour for ever" (Brenton, LXX, Septuagint, Greek translation of the Old Testament).

JESUS WORDS

"For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt. 16:26).

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mk.8:36-37).

INFINITE WORTH

All of these scriptures demonstrate just how valuable and important you are. There is only one of you, and you can never be replaced or duplicated; you are of infinite worth.

PARABLE ON FORGIVENESS (Matt.18:21-35)

Jesus, in teaching on forgiveness, recounted the story of two debtors, in which the one owed the king ten thousand talents, to whom, he had compassion on, and forgave all the debt, because he asked him, but the debtor went and found a fellow servant that owed him a hundred pence (denari), and he wasn't able to pay, so the wicked servant had his fellow servant thrown in prison, who owed the 100 pence (denari). The king, once he was made aware of the grievous injustice, delivered the wicked servant over to the tormentors, until all the debt would be paid.

TALENTS

To get a better idea of the imagery of the story, a denari, or pence, was a day's wage. The one servant owed his fellow servant 100 days wages, or about 1/3 of a year's pay. The wicked servant, called so because he did not have compassion on his fellow servant, owed the king 10,000 talents. One talent was 6000 denari, or 6000 days wages! The Jewish peopel worked 6 days per week, with 1 day as the sabbath, plus there were feast days, but there were at least, on average, about 300 'work' days in a year. This means that 6000 denari would be the approximate equivalent of 20 years wages. In other words, 1 talent was about 20 years wages. The wicked servant owed 10,000 talents, or 200,000 years wages! Obviously, this was an impossible debt to ever pay, even if a person could live several life times, and is reflective of the sin debt we owed, but could never pay, but He considers us to be so valuable to Him, that He gave everything to pay the debt and make us His own.

PURCHASE PRICE

When we purchase something at a store, or give something in exchange for something that we want, we establish a value on that item that we want.

1) What we pay for something is the price that we believe it is worth, otherwise, generally, we wouldn't exchange money for the product or service, if we didn't believe it was worth it.

2) Not only so, but essentially, when we exchange money for some product or service, we are basically 'valuing' the product or service as being worth more than the money that we spend for it, or we would not pay the price being asked for, and relinquish our hard earned money for the product or service, if we didn't believe that the exchange would be beneficial to us.

3) When we do pay for some product or service, with money we have earned through labor, that money represents a portion of our life that we are expending, to purchase what we want. We are giving up part of our life by giving up our money.

[NOTE: This principle partially explains the reason for the tithe. We are giving 10%, as representative, of our whole life belonging to God, and our covenant with Him. It also demonstrates that God doesn't really 'have' a person's life, until they are willing to give their money, a portion of their life, back to him. The tithe says that we belong to Him, and that, through covenant, He belongs to us. If God, our Father, has your money, then He also has you].

GOD SO LOVED

The very familiar verse says, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

God, the Father, gave His best, because you were worth it. In fact, you are the pearl of great price, that He gave everything to possess (Matt.13:45-46), and you are the treasure in the field, that He gave everything for to make his very own (Matt.13:44).

You are God's Best and God's Best is Yours