Throwing Caution to the Wind

July 12, 2019

Throwing Caution to the Wind

“The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light” (Luke 16:8).

Parable of the Shrewd Manager - Luke 16: 1-9

Many Bible translations call this parable, the Parable of the Dishonest Manager. I prefer the NLT’s, the Parable of the Shrewd Manager. In the context of first century Israel, it was the rich man in the parable who was dishonest. Israel’s law prohibited charging interest when loaning money. Some opportunists tried to get around the law by loaning commodities, such as oil and wheat, and charging interest on the transactions. Thus in the parable, the shrewd manager is eliminating the interest to the delight of the rich man’s customers. The shrewd manager also put the rich man in a position where he could not complain without bringing to light his shady business practices.

This story is not about commerce; it is about Israel and her failure to be a light to the world. Jesus’ teachings made it clear that Israel’s days were numbered; she was in danger of losing God’s favor as well as being destroyed by the Roman army. The Pharisees responded to the crisis by trying to become even more strenuous in their keeping of every dot and tittle of the law. Jesus’ response was that if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep on getting what you're been getting. The Pharisees knew that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. In this parable, Jesus was telling them they had lost sight of the main thing.

My Takeaway: I heard a bishop in my church say recently that during a week-long meeting of the Council of Bishops not one word was said about how to reach the people outside of the church. Maybe they too have lost sight of the main thing.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.