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The story is told of a man who was a lover of old books. One day he ran into an acquaintance who, in the course of their conversation, casually mentioned that he had recently thrown away a Bible that had been stored in the attic of his family’s home for generations. “I couldn’t read it,” the friend explained. “Somebody named Guten-something had printed it.” “Not Gutenberg!” the book lover exclaimed in horror. “Are you kidding? That Bible was one of the first books ever printed! Do you realize, a copy of Gutenberg’s Bible just sold at auction for over two million dollars?!” His friend was unfazed. “Nah, mine wouldn’t have brought a dollar. Some guy named Luther had scribbled all over it in German.”
Talk about not knowing the value of something right there in your hands!
Just about every guitarist has a woeful story of a guitar they wish they’d never sold. I’ve got one. In 1982 a guy I knew who didn’t play guitar, but who won a guitar in a card game sold it to me for $450. It was a lot of money for me, but it was worth twice that. But a few years later, on a whim, I traded it in for something else that I just “had” to have. That guitar was a 1974 Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty. Today it’s worth between $4,000-$5,000. I am such a dunce!
Now, in the eternal scope of things, it really isn’t a big a deal. Even now I can laugh about it. But there is a very real danger facing every human being; and it is a big deal. It is the peril of not recognizing the worth of what God has done for us until it’s too late. I am talking specifically about what it cost to make a way for our sins to be forgiven, to make possible our rescue from death and destruction and the judicial sentence of Hell, to satisfy the demands of infinite justice and holiness, to be reconciled to God forever, and to experience His love.
Salvation came to us as a gift, not as “payment for services rendered”. To us it was free, but to God it was very costly. What was the cost? The agonizing, humiliating death of Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, and the brief but horrible separation from God the Father that He experienced, so we wouldn’t have to. You ask, “Who wouldn’t appreciate that?” Most of humanity doesn’t appreciate it, including a lot of very religious people.
Forgetting what God has done for us is one of the disastrous by-products of our rebellion against Him in the Garden of Eden. It is just one symptom of the ‘human problem’ which the Bible calls ‘sin’. We forget His many kindnesses and His mercy towards us, and we become unappreciative, selfish, and truly wretched.
The author of the letter addressed to Messianic Jews (Hebrews) reminds us that this is what happened to Israel in the wilderness, warning us not to make the same mistake. Paraphrasing Psalm 95, he wrote, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, though they saw My works for forty years. Therefore I was angry with this generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they did not know My ways’; As I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”
Our people experienced rescue and redemption from slavery in Egypt. We saw first-hand the miracles and the power of God. We witnessed the plagues, while being protected from them. We saw Him open the Red Sea right before us, and then close it right behind us, destroying the army that was bent on destroying us. The Exodus from Egypt was amazing; but the rescue and redemption you and I have experienced is far greater, as is the promise of our eternal home.
What is the appropriate way to respond to that? With more religion? Hardly. Instead, we ought to have more gratitude, humility and obedience. Consider this encounter Yeshua had, and the lessons we can learn from it.
Early the next morning Yeshua was back at the Temple again. A crowd soon gathered, and He sat down and taught them. As He was speaking, the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought a woman they had caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. “Teacher,” they said to Yeshua, “this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were trying to trap Him into saying something they could use against Him, but Yeshua stooped down and wrote in the dust with His finger. When they persisted in questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then He stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Yeshua was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Yeshua stood up again and said to her, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Neither do I condemn you,” Yeshua said. “Go. From now on sin no more” (John 8:2-11).
Did you notice that, as one by one the accusers dropped their rocks and left, it was the oldest ones who left first? That isn’t an arbitrary detail. The older I get, and the longer I’ve been a follower of Messiah Yeshua, the more my sin and failures stand out to me. More and more of the Al Chait prayers seem to apply to me with each passing year. Have I become worse and worse, or is it that I’m recognizing with age and experience that there really is nothing good in me?
I could stand right there with Rabbi Paul, as he declared, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” And with him, I say, “Thanks be to God, through Messiah Yeshua!”
But let’s be clear about something: beating yourself over the head and feeling remorseful or guilty about things you’ve done or failed to do doesn’t atone for sin. Reciting long prayers doesn’t atone for sin. Fasting doesn’t atone for sin. Giving tzdaka doesn’t atone for sin. You need blood for atonement, and for that you need a Temple, and it has to be a flawless sacrifice. That’s what Torah says. And that’s what Yeshua has provided.
So, if you believe that… what’s it worth to you? What is HE worth to you? Listen to the words of the ancient prophet Malachi
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty. “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name. But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’… When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty (Malachi 1:6, 8).
Our people had lost sight of how much Adonai had done for them. We lacked any appreciation for the God who rescued us, provided for us, prospered us and loved us. We had lapsed into self-centeredness and ingratitude. But it wasn’t just Israel, and it wasn’t just back in the ‘bad old days’. This also describes us… today.
So, permit me to ask a question:
Is God getting your first and best, or is He getting the ‘leftovers’?
Make no mistake, how you use your time, which is precious and irretrievable, your abilities which He gave you to begin with, and your hard-earned money are the truest, most accurate measures of what and whom you value. Words alone are empty. The true substance of your priorities is revealed by what you do with what you have.
To paraphrase Thoreau: “The value of a thing is the amount of what I will call ‘life’ that is required to be exchanged for it, either immediately or in the long run.”
What’s it worth to you?
What is HE worth to you?
May this High Holiday season mark a turn-around for all of us for the better, in how we value the God who is infinitely good, and who is worthy of our best.