Although the disciples were guilty of shooing away the disabled and children, rich and powerful men make it right up to Yeshua/Jesus without any problems, highlighting their still very worldly mindsets. This young man asks a question that weighs heavily on the minds of many, “What can I do to merit a place in the world to come?” What does this conversation reveal about him, about Yeshua, and about ourselves?
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17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Continuing on in Mark chapter ten, last week we covered a controversy dialogue about marriage and divorce, followed by a heads up about the status of children, and now we have this precious young man who knows at some subconscious level, that all his works are still insufficient. He’s very much like we all are—wanting someone to tell us that we are okay and doing enough. It is the human condition. We want to earn it and we want to have at least some measure of confidence that we are finally doing enough even though we always suspect that we aren’t. This is one of the few cases where the Scriptures points out Yeshua’s/Jesus’s love for someone. I always picture him about the age of my twin sons, who will have just barely turned twenty when this airs. It helps me see what Yeshua saw in him, that genuine hope and earnestness—not yet with the wisdom of an elder or the over-confidence that comes with being indoctrinated enough that he believes that his good deeds can outnumber his bad and he can call it good. At some level, he wants Yeshua to tell him that it’s all okay. At least that’s my take and so let’s explore it. I might throw in what some different scholars take from this where it differs with what I see there if there is time. I am sure there will be time. I love to see what different people take away from the accounts—sometimes I agree and sometimes I don’t, but I always respect it. Unless it’s nutty. And I try to stay away from that sort of material.
Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of the Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have five years’ worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on YouTube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com and transcripts can be had for most broadcasts at theancientbridge.com. If you have kids, I also have a weekly broadcast where I teach them Bible context in a way that teaches them why they can trust God and how He wants to have a relationship with them through the Messiah.
All Scripture this week comes courtesy of the ESV, the English Standard Version but you can follow along with whatever Bible you want. A list of my resources can be found attached to the transcript for Part two of this series at theancientbridge.com.
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
As He was setting out on what journey? His final journey to Jerusalem. Last week’s action occurred on the pilgrim road that went from Jericho, across the Jordan back into the realm of Herod Antipas and then south to Jerusalem. This was the road that the Jews in the north took to get to Jerusalem because it allowed them to avoid Samaria and the detested Samaritans. We will talk about the Samaritans some other time. I can’t remember if I have pointed this out—I have told you about all the “on the way” references regarding Yeshua’s final trek to Jerusalem, to the completion of His mission. We see, “on the way” and “on the road” and here we see a reference to his journey and they all employ the Greek word hodos. It all refers back to Isaiah 42:16 where Yahweh promises to “And I will lead the blind in a way (derech, or hodos in the LXX) that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.” This is also the follow up to the first servant song at the beginning of Isaiah 42. So, we will increasingly be seeing Yeshua combatting blindness on the way—from confronting the disciples about their lack of understanding of His mission to dealing with their ambition, to actually healing blind people! It’s all part of the whole picture of self-manifestation going on where Yeshua does things that only Yahweh can do in the Hebrew Scriptures. But, on that account, I do want to deflate some things that people go too far with, misunderstanding honor/shame culture.
First of all, this kneeling before him is explained by the fact that Yeshua is an elder and a respected teacher—at least among the people. This is the proper posture from someone who is seeking patronage—which is usually about gaining influence or goods but is also the posture someone takes when seeking any sort of favor, when they need something they cannot gain on their own. In this case, he wants an answer to the pressing question he has. He’s certainly heard the opinions of the Pharisees and Scribes and Sadducees and maybe even the fringe sects like the one in Qumran, and the answers differ wildly depending on which sect of Judaism you consulted. What He wants is Yeshua’s opinion and he is probably hoping for peace of mind, as most of us would do the same in his shoes. But, starting out, he calls him “Good teacher.” Whenever we see this in a public setting, our radar should go off because this is not simply a compliment. Like, nowadays, if someone calls me a good teacher, I am not expected to respond in any formal sort of way—however, whenever someone comes to me and starts buttering me up, my red flags go up out of past experience. Sometimes, it’s innocent but sometimes it is a trap. According to social conventions, Yeshua was obligated, if He accepted the compliment, to return one because this was a man of high social status. If the beggars by the roadside called him, “Good teacher” then He could bless them or move on or whatever, but when a man of high honor status does it, it creates obligations. So, right now, Yeshua is going to briefly ignore his genuine. “What can I do to inherit eternal life” question.
18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
So, for a moment He has to deal with the compliment. He is no respecter of persons—never has been and never will be—and so he can’t get trapped into being required to return honor for honor. This is called reciprocity—you honor me and I am expected to honor you in return. It was the accepted social convention among peers. But there’s a problem, they aren’t peers. So, Yeshua sidesteps the dilemma that would require Him to acknowledge the man as an equal or greater and He also refuses to snub the young man by ignoring the compliment. So, there are two sides of this—He refuses to play both the honor game and the shame game. This is actually a compassionate move. Paul could say, “Most excellent Felix” in Acts 24:2, but Yeshua is greater than Paul or Felix, obviously, being the divine Son of God.
Now, there are people who seize on this and say that He is claiming to be God in the flesh here but I see that as opportunistic and a big stretch. Although I believe Yeshua is God in the flesh, the Logos, the Word of God who created everything, I don’t believe that was what He was saying here. But, in refusing to play the honor game, I think He revealed an awful lot more about who He is than He would have by not questioning the compliment and declaring that only God is good. But, after deflecting the compliment bait, regardless of how genuine it might be, He goes back to the question at hand, namely what this young man can do to inherit eternal life. Yeshua’s answer is purposefully dissatisfying.
19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”
Notice what Yeshua does not say, “Keep the commandments well enough and you will inherit eternal life.” Instead, He engages in another misdirect—He wants this young man to state his real concern. He wants this young man to think about it on a deeper level because if it was as simple as this then there is no Jewish man alive who would be asking this question. Everyone knew the commandments and probably most everyone kept the external nature of them—well, within accepted interpretational guidelines as we have seen in past teachings. Pharisaic loopholes allowed a man to divorce for any reason whatsoever and to deny his ex-wife permission to remarry if it didn’t suit him (House of Hillel, not Shammai, which was very strict in the belief that divorce was only to happen in the case of adultery), and they also had complicated rulings as to when a man did or did not have to keep his oaths, or when he was required to support his aging parents or how much of his wealth he could legally give away to the poor. And, of course, we will come back to that one. The Qumran sect, possibly the Essenes, detested them for all of these oppressive rulings.
I do want to point out one of these that is not among the ten commandments but has direct bearing on this man’s specific case. Of course, there are commandments against murder, adultery, theft, lying and the positive commandment to honor parents. But what’s this “do not defraud” thrown into the mix? It was one thing, in the ancient world, for a man to grow rich via the honest use of his land and livestock. That was how Abraham became wealthy, after all, and Isaac after him. Jacob—well, there’s a lot of debate as to the honesty of his dealings on just about every level. Yes, we all hate Laban and Laban was a skunk but some of Jacob’s tactics were less than kosher, if you know what I mean. But no one begrudged the honest agricultural accumulation of wealth. But, when it came to gaining wealth any other way, even the Romans despised it. The reason is simple—the ancient world operated via a “zero-sum economy” or could be called a “limited goods” system. There was literally only so much to go around. Most of us never faced that here in America until people started hoarding a year ago. There were no actual shortages—people just panicked and looked out for themselves. In a very real way, they were defrauding the system and gaining through depriving others. This is why prepping is okay and hoarding is evil and oppressive. When there is only so much to go around, if you take more than your fair share then someone else is doing without. In a nutshell, that was the ancient reality and it still is the reality in many parts of the world today. The prophets had a lot to say against wealthy oppressors:
Ho 14:7-8 A merchant, in whose hands are false balances, he loves to oppress. Ephraim has said, “Ah, but I am rich; I have found wealth for myself; in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.”
Amos 4:1 “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
Micah 2:1-2 Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.
And this one is about the Messiah becoming the shepherd to the sheep oppressed by the rich and powerful of Judah in Zech 11:4-6 “Thus said the Lord my God: “Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. 5 Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, I have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them. 6 For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the Lord. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.”
So, the wealthy were always under suspicion by the people of the land, the am ha’aretz upon whom the Pharisees looked down. What is the young man going to say in response to this addition that was anything but complimentary?—lumping him potentially in with rich oppressors!
20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”
Evidently it doesn’t phase him at all, which marks his question and posture as genuine. Not all of the wealthy people of the first-century were oppressors and it would seem as though this young man’s conscience is clear with regards to his financial dealings. This is no Zacchaeus, wealthy by fraud. But we can sense the frustration in his voice because Yeshua hadn’t told him anything he doesn’t know—yet this young man’s mind is still unsettled and seeking answers. And, as externals, none of these commandments are hard to keep. We are not slaves to adultery and theft and murder and the like. The lying and honoring parents are a bit harder but in those days it was considered honorable to lie to outsiders and truth was only deserved by those to whom you owed loyalty. Dishonoring parents brought ruin to the entire family so it isn’t like it is today when anything goes. And we lie all the time now, just like they did then. If I have time at the end, I will include a book quote to show you what I mean but we still have a lot of ground to cover.
21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
The fact that this failed to satisfy the young man displayed his genuineness to Yeshua, and so Yeshua issued a call to discipleship—even at this late date with Passover around the corner. This young man is special for even asking as it was a common belief during those times that wealth came from God’s favor (unless it was ill-gotten) and the thought that some people were just rich without any deeper meaning eluded them. I mean, we understand that you can be rich without being particularly righteous or evil, but they didn’t understand that. It was a very black and white world. That this man’s conscience was clear from the vantage of the Sinai covenant and he was still seeking counsel tells us that he wasn’t buying it. If he was sinning against the Covenant laws, I believe he would have moved to correct it—as did Zacchaeus. But Yeshua isn’t talking about overt or gross sin here, He’s talking about priorities. “If you want to inherit eternal life, then follow me—oh, and to do that, in your case, means that you have to leave everything behind because I know you have your security in your wealth and in the status it gives you and not in God. That’s your problem. That’s what’s holding you back. That’s why you don’t feel any peace about inheriting eternal life because you are unable to enter in to it on terms that leave you completely dependent upon God. But if you can get over that, if you can do it, you can have full confidence that you will inherit the Kingdom.”
22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
And we shouldn’t be too hard on him because we all have something that gives us security in this life, something that makes us feel safe and secure—whatever it is that we don’t want to give up. It’s not always physical. I think the worst offenders are psychological—unforgiveness, bitterness, the need for revenge, ego, pride, ambition, violence, our doctrinal certainties that make us feel like we are part of an exclusive remnant and saved through this or that bit of knowledge instead of ditching it all and relying on God alone and allowing Him to put us back on the potter’s wheel to make something of the mess we come to Him with when we get saved. Possessions aren’t always money—money is a hard one but anything we would sacrifice anything to keep is a problem. When Yeshua tells us that if we do not forgive then we will not be forgiven, and we cling to our unforgiveness as a right—we’re walking away from discipleship. I am not saying that we are unsaved when we do it, but we are (on a very real level) refusing to follow Him in the wholehearted way that He deserves and demands. And so he went away and sometimes we do the same. We decide we can’t follow Him yet. Maybe after all our enemies are dead and ruined, then we can forgive…but good thing Yeshua didn’t feel the same way!
23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
And I want you to notice that the word here is difficult and not impossible. And anything we have a wealth of and cherish above Yeshua and especially those things which are incompatible with the Kingdom, as I mentioned already, makes it difficult to enter the Kingdom. But the Kingdom is now and not future—and this is important. These things we hoard, whether physical or emotional, keep us from entering into the Kingdom in the here and now. They keep us from true relationship because we are too busy doing things like arguing with the Sermon on the Mount and the rest of the hard commandments. We are distant because we say, “I am keeping the Torah commandments and so that is enough, these other requirements aren’t there so Yeshua must be talking in impossibilities or in spiritual terms.” And when we do that—and you know what I am talking about—we can feel the walls go up. Those walls need to come down so we can have the Kingdom life now—before it fully manifests. More than that, the world needs us to be fully a part of that Kingdom now because they are hungering for the reality of what it will mean for their lives if we do.
24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!
Why were the disciples so amazed? Because the beliefs at the time said that as long as a rich man was generous, he was totally good with God. Because, you know, he was being generous so he had a leg up on the poor people who couldn’t be. So, it was like their wealth gave them a commandment that they could fill that others were failing at—which is kinda messed up. Not only did they have the advantages of wealth but they also had the advantages of using the wealth to get in good with God. Mishnah Tractate Arakhin 8.4 talks about this: “A man may devote [part] of his flock or of his herd, of his Canaanite manservants or maid servants or of his field of possession. But if he devoted the whole of them, they are not considered [validly] devoted. This is the view of R. Eliezer. R. Eleazar b. Azaryah said: if, even to the highest, no one is permitted to devote all his possessions, how much more should one be [careful about] sparing in regard to one`s possessions.” (I am going to remove most of the Gemara commentary, except for the portion that is applicable to the first century—whenever you see “first Tanna” or Zugot like Hillel and Shammai in a ruling, pay close attention and also look at Usha, which is where the Sanhedrin was moved to after the disastrous end of the bar Kochba revolt in 135. Rulings attributed to this era will be more pertinent than others)
Eleazar b. Azaryah said: if even to the highest no one is permitted etc. But that is exactly what the first Tanna has said? The difference between them is implied in what R. Ela said; for R. Ela said: In Usha they ordained that one who would distribute [his possessions] must not go beyond one fifth [of them]. It happened that one wanted to distribute more than one fifth, and his colleagues would not permit him to do so. Who was that? R. Yeshebab . Some say, it was R. Yeshebab who [wanted to distribute it] and his colleagues would not let him do so. Who was [chief among them]? R. Akiba. (retrieved from innstonebrewer.com)
So, this man’s dilemma. If he sells all then he is bucking the conventional piety and will become destitute himself and a burden on society (which we get from the rest of the Gemara on this Mishnah). He has to choose whether to follow Yeshua or the Pharisees, and no one bucked their authority lightly. He also likely had family obligations and they also had claims on his wealth. He would have to face more than just poverty.
25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
This was a common idiom within Palestinian Judaism, whereas among the Babylonian Jews, it would be expressed as “an elephant going through the eye of the needle.” As the elephant was the largest animal commonly known to Babylonians, the camel was the biggest animal a Palestinian Jew would see in their lifetime. It means proverbially that something is impossible or very very difficult and finds common expression in extra-Biblical writings. Unfortunately, people like to get cute and make stuff up and at some point, it emerged as a myth sometime before the fifteenth century that there was a gate in Jerusalem called the “eye of the needle” and that the only way a camel could go through it was to remove everything it was carrying and for it to kneel. Cute but no. Even a casual knowledge of Jerusalem architectural geography will tell you that there was no such gate and it would be ridiculous to have one that small on a road approachable by camel and, more than that, there were so many other gates that a driver would have to be an idiot to choose that approach into the city. So, it falls into that category with wrapping lambs in priests undergarments, the napkin at the last supper, and the High Priest bringing the Lamb into the city four days before Passover and being celebrated and Yeshua stealing his thunder by arriving first. All myths that get made up in order to sound interesting but no foundation in reality and actually quite contrary to the context of the times.
26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”
Again, they are thinking, if someone who can generously give alms can’t be saved based on the merits he earns for doing it, then what chance do the rest of us have??? And back to what He said a few verses earlier when, for the only time, He calls them children. Last week we talked about how children receive gifts vs how adults receive gifts. We often start thinking about whether we should give a gift in return, how expensive it should be, do we deserve this gift, what can we do to repay it, etc. But kids, man–you give them a gift and they just run with it. They are happy. They don’t ask any questions. They don’t care. That’s how we are commanded to be when approaching God for salvation—it’s a gift. How we live afterward is a matter of love and loyalty and submission, but do we have the faith to simply take it with gladness or are we immediately thinking about what we have to do in order to earn it or to give enough back to be on equal terms with God and not be utterly beholden to Him, totally wretched in terms of what we have to offer in return. But we hate that we can’t give enough to earn it, it really offends us. It offends us because we don’t understand the concept of allegiance to a king or to a god. In a way, pagans had a leg up because they had no code of ethics that their gods demanded of them so they didn’t really see themselves as so much being able to earn favor. What they did was worship (aka take care of) the physical needs of their gods like servants and to appease them when they were perceived as being angry. The Torah and all the finagling that went along with it had implanted this idea that they could live a life where their good, or meritorious, deeds could outweigh their evil deeds and that they would inherit eternal life. Yeshua tells us no. Paul tells us no. There is no divine scale like we see on the tombs of Egyptian Pharaohs, where the evil in our hearts cannot weigh more than Ma’at’s feather or we are doomed. Salvation is by grace, it is a gift in exchange for nothing except our allegiance to Yahweh through His Son Yeshua. How we live after that, the works we do to bring healing and justice to the world and especially on behalf of the vulnerable, determines how serious we were about our allegiance and our greatness within the Kingdom. Keeping commandments in the comfort of our own living rooms isn’t really what God has in mind in terms of costly grace and costly loyalty. We wish. We totally wish.
28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.”
Peter, never one to miss an opportunity to exalt himself, feels the need to point out that they did what that rich young man would not. And it’s good that they did it but he’s also missing the point because there are plenty of things they have not given up and will not until after the resurrection—things like violence, a contempt for Gentiles, ambition and desire for worldly glory, position and honor.
29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,
This is important, “for my sake and for the Gospel.” Look at Annanias and Sapphira, laying dead at the feet of Peter and the other apostles because they wanted the status associated with giving this stuff up, without actually doing it. As you recall, in Acts 5, the couple sold a piece of land and conspired among themselves to give some of the money to the brethren without giving it all but to claim otherwise—that they had handed over the full sale price. Well, husband comes in first, lies, Peter rebukes him for lying to the Holy Spirit and the dude drops dead and the same thing happens with his wife later in the day. And the disciples didn’t lay a hand on them. There is a big difference between someone sacrificing for the sake of the Gospel and for the sake of Yeshua and someone making a sacrifice for the sake of prestige and admiration in the community. And what is this about leaving family? Is Yeshua suggesting abandonment? Notice nothing about wives here—he knows they already want to do that! We covered their love of divorce last week. No, if and when we leave family for the sake of Yeshua, it is only because we have been forced out. We are commanded to be peacemakers, forgiving, merciful, patient, all that. Let’s go on.
30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
Following Yeshua in those days came with a cost—sometimes simply excommunication, sometimes imprisonment and death, rejection by community and family, etc. depending on whether you were Jew or Gentile. But Yeshua is teaching a reversal of fortune here. Yes, you may lose in the here and now but you will join a much larger worldwide family of faith. You will have brothers and sisters everywhere, they will open their homes to you and share with you the fruit of their lands. And this is now. But it comes along with persecution. In the world to come, you will additionally receive eternal life. And we have to believe that and keep it in mind. I don’t think most believers really truly accept the reality of the world to come and I say that because they are focused on getting stuff now—be it vengeance or status or respect or recognition or money or power or whatever. It’s why we can’t forgive or won’t, because we are too busy believing that this life is all there is and if we don’t get justice now, our lives will be somehow lacking—but it isn’t true.
31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Like I said, reversal of fortune—and this is a repeated theme in Scripture. I wrote about it a lot in my first curriculum book, Honor and Shame in the Bible—that’s the first volume of Context for Kids. We don’t get to enjoy the things in this like that unbelievers strive for and feel as though they need. We put our trust in God and in the upside-down virtues (seemingly upside down) of His Kingdom. We fight against violence and oppression with love and forgiveness and the message of peace. And it’s crazy but that’s the command. Because we don’t get it, we keep striving to be first in the ways that the world strives to be first—by getting the upper hand in whatever way seems best. And if we do that, we will find ourselves least in the Kingdom because we refused to play by it’s radical set of rules. And those who seem like they are complete idiots who don’t know what the real world is like, they will be great because they trusted God enough to look like weak fools. It’s crazy but there is the story of the Cross and of how the disciples met their end one by one.
I said I would mention that blurb on how we all lie… “One of the large and persistent tasks of living the Christian life is learning to tell the truth. The opposite of telling the truth is telling lies. We lie a lot. Most of us lie a lot. We lie a lot more than we are aware of. We lie even when we think we are telling the truth. The reason we do so is quite clear: we want to be at the center of the action; we want to subordinate all reality, persons, things, and events to our willfulness. We want to control people’s responses and manipulate their perceptions. In order to do that, we arrange the data, filter the facts, and shape the information so that we can influence the way things will be heard and seen, so that the response will be congenial to us…
…Lying is a product not so much of maliciousness but of laziness. Most people tell lies with the best of intentions. They think that they are helping the cause of their country or company or their own fortunes and that this is the best way. Few people, at least at the outset, have bad motives or evil intent. They simply want something good or attractive or pleasing to take place, and the lie seems a shortcut to make it happen. Lying seems easier than the truth. Most people don’t have the patience to go into all the ramifications of the truth. So, they lie.” –Peterson, Eugene H.. This Hallelujah Banquet (pp. 48-49). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Remember, next week we are skipping over the third passion prediction because we covered that a few weeks ago at Passover. So, if you missed that, then you can catch it on my podcast channel or website.
