What’s Value?
This title poses a very interesting point for contemplation. What is Value? You see, in my Bible, I have a certain “Book Mark,” and it is an Official “Bank Note,” and it is for 10,000,000 Turkish Lira, now as one Turkish Lira often buys about $0.50 Kiwi, therefore it is situated at loosely about $5,000,000 Kiwi, which should make me a “millionaire,” or so it seems. The only problem is, its only value is for a couple of dollars as a “piece of paper,” as it is of “No value,” it is “completely worthless.”
Some many years ago Tony Campolo, a kid at the time, broke into the local store and with his friend swapped all the “Price tags” around, and then as daylight dawned, they left. A toaster was now like $3,486, and a Lounge Suite was $1.83. You get the picture, everything was swapped about. Later he found Jesus Christ and became a Preacher of the Gospel. Many years later he told the story at a meeting series he was running when an older Business-man arose from his seat yelling, “It was you, it was you.”
There in front of him was the previous store owner who found everything swapped about and had to spend many hours re-evaluating what was the “True Value” of everything, and prioritising everything. In the process he had to admit that in his life he had his values all messed up, he sorted that out, came to Christ and found a much better way, and yes they were reconciled. I know of a chap that went “Prospecting for Gold,” back in the hills behind Thames in the Coromandel Peninsular, and deep in the hills he found the bank of the creek glistening with shovel fulls of Gold. Over joyed, he hauled bags and bags of it out to his car, which he overloaded, and headed back to Mangere in Auckland, with dollar signs swooning in front of his eyes.
A check with an expert, and it was “Iron Pyrites,” or what is known as “Fools Gold.” All that glitters is not gold, and he found that out the hard way, so one night he went to the local park and dumped it in piles, the “Golden Piles” even hit the local Newspaper, but still others were seduced by the glitter of perceived wealth, and in a few hours it had been all quickly gathered up by many others, leaving nothing behind, so “What’s Value?” Matthew 16:26 “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?” So what are you really worth? As a bunch of water and some assorted Chemicals, we are about $20-30 worth on a very good day, not much more than a Burger Meal Combo, and often much less.
Jesus tells a very pointed story as recorded in Luke12:20 “But God said unto him, [Thou] fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” You remember the farmer who got a super bumper crop, and he was going to pull his barns down and build bigger, sit back and enjoy his wealth and the fruits of his labours, and then never saw sunrise the next day, so who inherited? What’s the Value in all this? I once worked with a chap the left “The Old Country” (England) and settled in NZ, he never got around to ever going back to visit, and many decades later, as he was about to retire they booked tickets to return for a visit, he died just before he retired and never did visit his old homeland, “What’s Value?”
Genesis 47:19 “Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give [us] seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.” Job 15:23-24 “He wandereth abroad for bread, [saying], Where [is it]? He knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid; they shall prevail against him, as a king ready to the battle.” “What’s Value?” Famine, Pestilence and wars, really level “The Playing Field” very quickly and the value of things gets turned on its head so very quickly, then food and safety is worth way more than a “Fancy House” “Fancy Car” or anything else.
Isaiah has this warning for us found here, Isaiah 2:19-21 “And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.”
Ezekiel 7:19 “They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling block of their iniquity.” Is not “Eternal Life,” found only in Jesus Christ, living “The Holy Life,” walking the walk and talking the talk, the “Only Real Value?” So, “What’s Value?” Is all your current efforts of your life, at the very end, just Trash or Treasure?
