Yitro – Jethro (his abundance, excellence)
Shemot (Exodus) 18:1 – 20:23
Haftorah – YeshaYahu (Isaiah) 6:1 – 7:6; 9:6-7
B’rit Hadashah – MattitYahu (Matthew) 5:17-20; 19:16-30
Hey, I’m a good guy, you know! I keep the ten commandments better than most folks! I keep the Sabbath, don’t cuss, never killed anyone, don’t cheat on my wife, don’t lie about anybody, and I don’t steal. Isn’t that good enough for the God Who gave us the Ten Commandments? What could I possibly be doing wrong?
Yeshua and the Rich Young Man
Yeshua referred to the Ten Commandments when He was asked about what good could be done to have eternal life (Mat 19:16-24). A rich young man had vast possessions on earth, but knew he was missing the greatest possession in all of life. So he asks Yeshua what good he could do to acquire the only thing that could fill the vast void in his soul.
Knowing the young man’s heart, Yeshua quoted five of the Ten Commandments that He knew the young man thought that he had kept well enough. (Mat 19:18-19) He also gave him the second greatest commandment as an answer for us to ponder:
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 19:20
The young man replied to the Master, ‘All these I have observed from my youth. What do I still lack?’ In responding to the rich young man, did Yeshua quote another commandment?
If Yeshua had told the man, ‘You shall have no other gods before Me,’ would he have understood what god he had before YHWH? Yeshua went directly to the heart of the matter with the rich guy to give him the choice that could have set his soul free:
“If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give…” (Mat 19:21)
Give to whom? The local synagogue? The coffers of the temple in Jerusalem? His parents or other family members? Where did our Master say to give his money?
Yeshua didn’t beat around the bush: “…and give to the poor…”
Reconciling the Disparity Between the Rich and the Poor
In keeping with the Master’s teaching, Paul wrote to the Corinthians about how the disparity between the rich who have excess should fill the needs of the poor:
…at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality. 2 Corinthians 8:14
In a worldly sense, this doesn’t seem fair. But is it really?
True Treasure Security
What incentive does the giver have to give up his or her hard-earned money? Is giving to the poor an investment that will reap rewards later in life? How can I know?
Yeshua answered the rich man: “and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” Matthew 19:21b. If only the rich would believe these words and keep them on the forefront of their minds about their money and possessions, how much more rewarded would givers and receivers be in this world and in the age to come?
“Do not treasure up for you treasures on the earth, where moth and rust cause to perish, and where thieves dig through and steal. But treasure up for you treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust cause to perish, and where thieves do not dig through and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21, LITV
What a super deal! Do you mean a guy can store up treasures in a place where nothing can eat away their value? Where no one or nothing could ever steal it away with an ironclad, 100% guarantee from God Himself – no risk involved?!?
Where in the world could you find such security banking away your money? What better place could you or I invest our money and possessions? We seem to trust our financial institutions well enough to keep our money treasured away. Why not invest more in our treasury accounts in Heaven?
Can't Keep it When All Money is Eroding Away
Like it or not, every financial institution in the world is failing. Like rust on iron and moths on garments, inflation is currently eating away at least 2% per month of anybody’s US dollars in any bank, stocks, retirement fund, or any financial vehicle holding the dollar.
On the other hand, count on it – no rewards account is losing its value in the treasury of Heaven.
Wait until the globalists’ Sandman Project is fully implemented as worldwide famine worsens around the world. When the petrodollar loses its elite world status, we’ll wish we only had 2% inflation again. The loss of the value of the US dollar is accelerating, but not one reward in Heaven will lose its eternal value, ever! Think about it!
The ruling elite has been stealing the common people’s money by printing trillions of dollars with no backing, inflating prices worldwide. Rulers in charge of the financial institutions are planning bank runs, bank holidays, and bail-ins which means anyone’s bank account held in digital US dollars or any other fiat currency will immediately be looted. The collapse of every fiat currency is planned, it is inevitable and it must happen for the mark of the Beast system with its one-world currency to go global.
What did Yeshua tell the rich young man to do with his wealth? Sell it and give it to the poor to store treasure in Heaven. Never before has that been better financial advice than for today’s rich Americans. Two-thirds of Americans live paycheck to paycheck; many end up homeless daily. What are the rich doing about it?
Reasons for Not Giving
If it’s such a great deal to store up treasures in the security vaults of Heaven, then why don’t we give more to the poor? Do we truly believe Yeshua’s words?
One excuse I’ve struggled with is that the recipient will squander it away on something like drugs and alcohol. We certainly don’t want to feed harmful addictions, so what can we do? We can buy food or clothing, or support organizations that do just that. On the other hand, there are brothers and sisters in the Messiah who are not addicts that need financial help we can give money to them directly, in my humble opinion.
In our years of experience giving to the poor, one thing we’ve learned not to do is to give with a condescending ‘hand down’ attitude towards the poor. Most people we’ve helped are humiliated enough. They don’t need a superior looking down on them when giving to their needs. If they receive funds without strings attached from a humble person who truly loves them selflessly and just wants to lift them up with a non-condescending, cheerful attitude then they do receive a hand up, not a hand down. That kind of giving changes a person’s heart to want to do better. If the poor person feels belittled and looked down upon, there’s no change of heart, no encouragement to lift a person’s heart out of their poverty. In my experience, they tend to end up still stuck in their dire straits.
Another reason is what Yeshua called ‘the deceitfulness of riches’ in the parable of the sower (Mar 4:19). Riches are a false security hedging a soul against the future. Yeshua told the church of Laodicea that they were blind to the fact that they were truly poor in their treasures in Heaven like the rich young man was with regard to eternal life.
“Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,” Revelation 3:17
What About Loaning Money to the Poor?
Leslie and I do not condone loaning the poor money, unless they willingly ask for a loan themselves, for a simple reason. We take these words of Paul as a commandment:
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. Romans 13:8 Sounds like a reference to Yeshua and the rich man.
We don’t want to be in debt to anyone ourselves – so why would we want someone indebted to us when they should be keeping the same command? Is that true love?
Too Much Stuff!
It’s too bad the rich young man left Yeshua without finding out more about what he could have earned that really matters. What? He couldn’t sell all his possessions and keep his money to take with him following Yeshua? Everything he had would have had to end up with poor folk, who had not been a part of his life. Nope, not doing that! That was just too much for the guy to accept. His heart turned immediately away from the Master’s direction – being grieved, the young man went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Matthew 19:22. His vast possessions were not making him happy.
Yeshua took the opportunity to teach His disciples an important lesson and to warn them about becoming rich in possessions.
Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “Amen, I tell you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:23-24
Shocked, yes shocked by His statement, the disciples then realized how much of a hold of riches and possessions can encumber a soul and keep them from following Yeshua.
When the disciples heard this, they were utterly astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” Matthew 19:25
Are we rich Americans shocked by Yeshua’s words and their eternal consequences? Does this even phase our thinking? Who’s been ‘utterly astonished’ by this revelation?
Yeshua had told the rich young man that he had to sell his worldly possessions, stuff that probably couldn’t help the poor anyway, and give to the poor what could meet their real needs. Only after he was unencumbered by the things of the world could he be fit to follow Yeshua. Nothing different today. Especially we Americans who say we keep the ten commandments, at least better than most people, but won’t give to the poor. Do we then truly qualify as followers of Yeshua? That shocking question has stuck with me ever since I was born again 38 years ago.
I’ve been criticized by richer brethren for having a spirit of poverty.’ I’ve been criticized for ‘enabling’ and making the poor worse off by not letting them suffer more until they change. As for me, I leave the changing to the Father in Heaven and the Holy Spirit.
For almost four decades, I’ve believed that I can be an instrument of Yah’s change through cheerful, no-strings-attached giving from a humble, non-condescending disposition. Leslie and I have seen the changes for the better. We have seen lives lifted up and souls put back on their own feet again. Sometimes it takes many years to see the results. The riches we have gained in life through it all are the priceless relationships with many grateful people over the years. In that way, we gladly reap what we sowed.
What my critics don’t realize is what we cannot see – my treasures in Heaven. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters to me. One day on a Yom Kippur to come, we’ll all be in store for some real surprises. Then we’ll find out who is rich according to the standards of King Yeshua. That’s all that matters to me anymore.
The closer we are to the end of times, the mark of the Beast and the one world government on the horizon, the more I realize – we can’t keep our money, for sure anything in a fiat-based currency. The US dollar will go into the dustbin of history along with other currencies not backed by anything real, like silver and gold. I also don’t believe property owners are going to be able to keep their properties as tyrannical as the governments of this world have become. What can rich Americans invest their money in that nothing can eat away or steal? Yeshua gave us the answer – “give to the poor.”
By telling the rich young man to give to the poor, Yeshua taught His disciples how to know whether or not they keep the second greatest commandment: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 19:20. Loving those who are too poor to give back means YHWH Elohim will see to it that rewards will one day be given to the giver.
Keeping the Tenth Commandment
Paul told the elders of Ephesus that he had kept the last of the ten commandments – You shall not covet. I love this about Paul. He proved he kept the tenth commandment with hard work that bore not his own burden, but those of the weak as well. The opposite of coveting is giving what a guy works hard for to strengthen the weak:
“I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothes. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me. In everything, I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Yeshua, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'” Act 20:33-35
May we all experience the blessings of hard work and giving. In this life, Yeshua rewards us with the blessings of sharing the joy of a soul lifted when a need is met, when souls are strengthened and encouraged to move on, knowing that there’s a God Who loves them enough to send help their way. That help could be you or I and our giving hands where both are blessed!
May we all experience the joy of giving to those who can’t give back.
May everyone’s treasury account in Heaven be enriched by giving cheerfully out of love for a neighbor.
May the blessings and the joy of giving be yours in Yeshua the Messiah,
David
