The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 9 – 12
We are so used to the word “covenant” that we barely even process what the word actually says anymore; but a covenant is a CONTRACT. Specifically, a contract between two parties with commitments on both sides.
A covenant, literally by definition, binds two people together; a covenant formally defines their relationship, and they are bound by these words to do certain things. So any covenant, and EVERY covenant… including the NEW covenant… is a form of bondage.
But bondage is not what you think it is. Even God is in bondage – for is He not bound by every single word that passes His lips? (Isaiah 55:11). He was surely not bound to say those words; but once said, He is bound to see them fulfilled, or He will make His own name vain (Hebrews 6:13-18).
If He says it, He absolutely, positively, must see it accomplished, no matter the cost (Numbers 23:19). How is that not bondage? He binds Himself to His word, binds Himself to do what’s right… and thus, no one else has to bind Him. But it’s still a form of bondage!
You, likewise, are in bondage, whether you realize it or not; for God holds you responsible for every idle word you’ve ever said (Matthew 12:36). But you do not have the same commitment to your word that God does – although you should (Psalms 15:1-4). And because you do not hold yourself to your own word, securing your own bond as God does, He sends others to bind you.
Which is why all of us are, in varying degrees, in bondage to someone else (Romans 13:6-7). We are bound to our nation by a social contract, where we tacitly agree to the benefits of civilization like electric light and clean water in exchange for submitting ourselves to the legal and sanitary codes which make them possible.
In addition to these passive contracts, many of us are additionally bound to a spouse by a vow, bound to our families by blood, bound to our churches by tradition, and all of us are bound to our heart and spirit by our soul’s weakness. All of these, and many other things, are bondage; and yet we freely embraced all of them.
Similarly, for society as we know it to function, we all must agree to pretend that a piece of paper or a string of 1’s and 0’s is “money”, worth food or work; we likewise must pretend that a politician elected primarily for his skill at lying has the right to impose laws upon us and demand taxes; we even pretend that we believe the rights of someone else are worth as much to us as our own rights.
No one truly believes any of those things; and yet civilization rests upon the shared, unspoken delusion that we all believe them. So we bear the burden of all these social contracts, all these forms of bondage, because the only other option is the law of the jungle – that might make it right. That the strong take from the weak.
Yet this, too, is bondage, because anyone who is compelled to do something that he doesn’t want to do is in bondage (2 Peter 2:19). It doesn’t matter whether you’re compelled to do good or evil; it is the compulsion itself that makes it bondage.
Because anyone who has the ability to compel you, has the ability to bind you (Matthew 12:29). And anyone with the ability to bind you is your master; and anyone with a master is a servant. So bondage is not what you’ve always thought it was. It is an inescapable part of having lips, an unavoidable part of interacting with our fellow man.
How tight the cords of this bondage must be, and how gilded your cage, depends largely on how much you chafe against these bonds – and how well you can be trusted to, in the end, fulfill your end of the bargain (Romans 13:1-4).
If the Roman soldier or the American sheriff need only ask you to drive your chariot slower to make the roads safer, that’s all they will do. But if they don’t believe you will, they have the right – nay, the responsibility – to compel you do so by any means necessary.
COVENANTS OF BONDAGE
We know for a fact that the OC was a covenant of bondage to a master (Genesis 17:10-11, 2 Kings 11:17, Jeremiah 22:9), analogous to the bondage of a wife to a husband (Jeremiah 31:31-33). But note that this New Covenant is also a covenant of bondage; a covenant of possession: for God said they shall be MY PEOPLE (Ezekiel 16:8).
You will surely be thinking of all the places where Jesus and Paul spoke of the NC as a covenant of freedom; and it certainly is, relatively speaking. But before I prove that, just think about it; if He is your God, you are His worshippers; if you call Him Lord, He calls you His servant (Isaiah 42:1, for instance). Again I have to ask… how is that not bondage?
But how can I say the NC is bondage, when Paul plainly says it is not? (Galatians 4:24-31). As usual, the contradiction is explained by understanding the difference between the covenants; and as always the NC changed nothing; it simply moved the possession of God internally, from their beasts to their hearts.
In Galatians 4, Paul was talking about the relationship between a man (Abraham/God) and two different wives, Hagar (OC Church) and Sarah (NC church). Now Hagar was owned by Sarah, and thus in turn by Abraham (Genesis 16:1-3).
Hagar’s contract as servant, whatever it was, gave her mistress carte blanche over her life; thus, she had already agreed, by being her servant, to whatever Sarah wanted her to do (Luke 1:38, John 6:38-40). Sarah had purchased from Hagar the right to decide who she married and who she bore children with, albeit subject to the law (Exodus 21:7-11).
The only way Hagar would have agreed to such a contract was if she knew that anything Sarah could ask from her would be better than the life she left behind. Now remember, she was a maidservant purchased out of Egypt with money, probably on the trip mentioned in Genesis 12:10-13:1.
Obviously this was a direct parallel to Israel, who was so burdened in Egypt that they agreed to follow God unconditionally (Exodus 2:23-25, 24:7), before they even heard the terms (Exodus 19:5-8). I want to underline the unconditional part of the contract; God’s control over them was unlimited.
He could, legally, ask them to do literally anything – including sell them to an evil master (Judges 3:8), have children (or not) at His command (Jeremiah 16:2, Hosea 1:2-4, etc.), up to and including dying (Jeremiah 18:5-10).
So God purchased ancient Israel from their evil master, and they were so oppressed by Pharaoh they didn’t care what God asked – it couldn’t be worse than Egypt. Of course, they later rethought that position and missed Egypt (Numbers 11:4-6) – but by then, the covenant was signed (Exodus 24:8).
It was too late, for they had given their word (Ecclesiastes 5:4-6), and God was well within His rights to enforce His covenant – their covenant – upon them by any means necessary (Numbers 14:22-23). Because that’s what an unconditional covenant means – the surrendering of all your “rights” to your master.
THE NEW BONDAGE
Like Israel, Hagar had swapped one bondage for another. Exchanged bondage to Egypt for bondage to Abraham. Thus, like Israel, her relationship to her master was that of a lord and his servant; whether she liked Abraham or not wasn’t relevant; whether she wanted to do what he commanded didn’t matter. If she was commanded to bear him children, she had no choice in the matter.
Actually, that’s not quite true; she had a choice – but she made it long ago, when she decided that obeying Abraham unconditionally was better than Pharaoh. It was too late to change her mind now. And this is the exact relationship God had with OC Israel.
Israel didn’t need to understand what God did, or why; that’s why there was a veil over their law. It wasn’t important that she liked God; obviously, it would be preferable, but all that really mattered was that she obeyed His commandments, statutes, and judgments.
As long as she did so, she would live, and prosper; but if she ever failed to keep them for any reason, it would be a breach of the unlimited contract she had signed in order to leave Egypt, and the punishment for that was the death she would certainly have experienced had He left her in Egypt. For if she breaks her end of the contract, He is not bound to keep His.
On the other hand, Sarah had chosen to marry Abraham; she hadn’t been purchased. And Abraham clearly loved her back (Genesis 23:1-2). Yet, she STILL called him her lord (1 Peter 3:6). Because marriage is, by definition, a covenant of bondage; a man is bound to a wife (1 Corinthians 7:27, 39), and she is bound to obey her head by contract (1 Corinthians 11:3).
Marriage is a covenant – which, like all covenants, is by definition a type of bondage! And so when the NC church marries Jesus, He, too, will be BOUND to a wife; again I ask… how is that not bondage for all concerned?
And yet who fears a covenant of bondage to their true love? How burdensome is it to stay faithful to someone whom you actually like spending time with? And so this internal bondage from your soul is not a heavy burden, unlike the external bondage of the flesh was to Israel (Psalms 78:10-11, 32-39).
Because their bondage led them to do things they did not want to do; but the whole point of the NC is to change your heart so that it wants the things your bondage requires you to do! So that when you enter into THIS covenant, you do so freely – and thus, feel FREE within it!
A LIGHT YOKE
Invisible cords are still bondage; and a golden cage, no matter how large, is still a cage. In the NC, you’re no less bound to do the same things, nay, MORE bound than under the OC; but by changing yourself, and not the covenant itself (Hebrews 8:8), the covenant no longer seems burdensome for it requires you to do exactly what you most want to do!
God is bound by His word to do exactly what it is He already wants to do; the law spells out His responsibilities in the form of a contract for our benefit, but that contract is simply an expression of the nature which He is already bound to obey by desire, not of bondage but of choice!
As it should, likewise, be for us. For the wise soul only allows itself to be bound to do those things that it loves doing, the things all three fractions know need done. Just as Jesus does – which is why, although He wears a yoke, it is not a burdensome one! (Matthew 11:29-30). A skill He promises to teach us – provided we’re willing to first wear the yoke.
Several things prevent us from doing that on our own; the first is disagreement between our fractions; even outright rebellion among them. As long as your heart will not want what you tell it to want – and as long as you can’t convince it to want the right things – then your bondage will be heavy, and burdensome.
Then there is the fact that what we want changes from one day to another, since it is based on passing fancy and not absolute truth; God can be trusted with His word because His fractions decided long ago what to want, and they consistently, reliably, want that (Malachi 3:6).
So what today seems like a joyous bondage (say, marriage) in five years might seem like being manacled to a frozen cactus. So while it would be easy to fulfill your bondage at first, it becomes like the forced labor of Egypt later on.
Which is why God has given us parent-figures of all types; to reason, pressure, and compel us to keep our bond and also to teach us to make better commitments in the future. For it is by making a covenant with them, that we can better learn how to keep our covenant with God and our fellow man.
FUTURE FREEDOM
Earlier, when I first mentioned that the NC was, like every contract, a form of bondage, you were surely thinking of John 8:31-37. Doesn’t that clearly say that Jesus came to make us free? Absolutely! But not in the present tense!
The word “shall” is in the future tense! Jesus WILL make us free, but He cannot do it yet, not as long as we are the servants of sin! Verses 34-35. The Son WILL make us free; but we are not truly free as long as we are not freed from the ability to sin (Romans 6:11-14).
And yet even then, we are not freed from the terms of the covenant – for at no point in the future will it ever be acceptable to break the golden rule. The freedom Jesus promises us is the freedom from the desire to break the covenant! Which makes us, effectively, free of the covenant (1 Timothy 1:19).
But only effectively! The fact that you never again get a speeding ticket, doesn’t mean the law ceases to exist; only that it ceases, for all practical purposes, to be relevant to you. Likewise, the fact that your fractions are “agreed in one” in their desire to keep the golden rule makes you effectively free of all covenants.
And yet only effectively, for the importance of not harming others hasn’t changed; only your desire to do so. That must be trained into you, by various types of father-figures from your own soul up to the Father Himself; and that will take, at the very least, one week! (Daniel 9:27).
Until then, we require – and should earnestly desire – supervision as we pluck the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And not only His personal supervision – but the supervision of every building inspector, every traffic cop, every wise man we can find.
It is only pride and arrogance which would prevent us from embracing the idea of being supervised until we can be trusted to ONLY choose the best fruit; because only then can we truly be free, when His seed remains in us. For as long as we CAN sin, we CANNOT be made free! 1 John 3:8-10.
And when you think about it… what was the almond, if not the seed of the Father? When that seed remains in us, when we can digest it without dying, when we can keep it down without forcibly ejecting it from one end of the body or the other… only then can we be free.
As long as we can’t reliably choose the best fruit for ourselves, we are just bondservants, and must remain so (John 8:34-35). We must be under the rule of someone who can compel us to do the right thing until we cannot do the wrong thing! And we should want to be!
For as long as we cannot be trusted to keep our word by nature, we must be compelled to do so by some form of bondage! For as long as we act as servants, we must be treated as servants (John 10:12-13); until we learn to act as sons, at which point, we’ll naturally be treated as sons. Isn’t that the point? Proverbs 29:21.
TERM LIMITED COVENANTS
All of the relationships between a man and his son, a master and his apprentice, a lord and his servant, a disciple and his tutor, and so on are bound by contract; and in each of these contracts, there is a term-limit, generally of 7 years, with an option for renewal.
There are longer, 50 year contracts such as the “sale” of land; and, with mutual agreement in front of witnesses, lifetime contracts of servitude (Exodus 21:5-6). But even the longest covenants, such as marriage, are fulfilled by death (1 Corinthians 7:39).
Still, the vast majority are only a week long; even contracts between God and His people (Daniel 9:27 again). Obviously, this is true on every level, with all types of “weeks” included – literal, yearly, millennial, etc.
It says Jesus would confirm this covenant for one week. But this can’t be the Old Covenant, which lasted for 1,500 years or so – scarcely a millennial day and a half! Even if you count from Adam to Jesus, the Old Covenant would only be four days, lacking three days from a week. So what was it that took a whole week to confirm?
Obviously, the covenant in question must be the New Covenant. The one which causes all future sacrifices to be unnecessary due to a sacrifice performed in its midst of the week – His, of course, at the end of the 4th day.
But if you think about it, isn’t this rather odd? That this covenant, this NEW covenant, only lasts for a single week – a single seven thousand years? Shouldn’t this covenant be an eternal covenant? Hebrews 13:20. Clearly, there is a contradiction here… is the covenant week-long, or everlasting? Obviously, the answer is… both!
Because no saint is married to Christ during this week on Earth (2 Corinthians 11:2, Matthew 25:1-13). Now think about this; if we’re not married yet, it means we have not yet entered into a marriage covenant with the Lamb. Which means that after our resurrection, a NEW covenant must be made for us!
Remember, all laws are of force only until our death; so when we die, it annuls – or rather, fulfills – all existing covenants we’ve made… including, of course, the NC! Which is why after our resurrection we will be married, to enter into yet another, NEWER covenant!
But if we’re not married yet, we’re not yet part of that NEW covenant of marriage to the Lamb! For now, we are preparing for the marriage, by practicing being His servants. And after we have fulfilled our seven-decade week, and the bride has “made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7), only then are we capable of signing the True Covenant.
And yet… we are obviously part of some NC. A practice covenant, if you will; one with all the same laws and rules as the one our new Self will make upon the resurrection, but which doesn’t hurt our Betrothed’s feelings as much when we break it because He knows our death will erase all of that.
God knows that, while possible, none of us are realistically going to keep NC in the sense He wants it kept. So He gave us a chance to practice, to get better at it; a way to adapt ourselves to the bondage, a chance for us to see the benefits of this bondage and to learn to like it.
NEED FOR BONDAGE
The sad reality is, you’re not that different from other people; you know a few things they don’t, but your soul is pretty much the same as everyone else’s (Matthew 23:29-33). If you had been there, knowing only what the Jews knew at the time – with your soul intact, but with their spirit and heart – you would have made the same judgment they did and shouted “give us Barabbas!”
But Jesus wouldn’t have, even if He had their heart and spirit; His soul would have judged better, based on the same information and in the same circumstances. And if you are to be saved, your own soul must have acquired that same skill in judgment! And it hasn’t done it… and it probably isn’t even close.
Which is why you need a lord and master. In theory, you could dig your way out of prison by yourself; but in practice, if you could have, you already would have. By your age, Jesus already had conquered and convinced His fractions…. So what’s your problem?
The problem is simply James 1:23-24 and 1 Corinthians 2:14. We tend to judge ourselves subjectively, and others objectively; we hear the law, agree with it, then find reasons why it didn’t apply to us – or that we are justified in this case even if it did (Romans 7:14-24).
All of us make excuses for ourselves, but see the worst in others; and it should be the other way around, which is why the golden rule says to judge ourselves as we judge others. When we don’t, we need someone else to judge us as we would judge them!
I am not blinded by your heart; my own, perhaps, but my spirit has no reason to defend you! So I can judge you with an objectivity that is very difficult for your own soul to achieve. Since I have no reason to make excuses for you, I can easily see through the lies you tell yourself (Proverbs 18:17).
Which is why God has ministers, swords of Hazael, Jehu, or Elisha, to help us see ourselves for the carnal, stiffnecked creatures that we are. Masters and Lords and Gods to help us, and in some cases force us, to be better.
Ideally, and eventually, this job should be done by your own soul; but to the degree that you are blinded by your heart and deafened by your spirit, you need an ever-more visible and present set of judges and teachers, policemen, and prophets.
Which is, as always, a good thing – because these, all of them, are ministers to you for your good. And as we mature, our souls’ role in this bondage should increase, as you need less and less external force to compel you to do what you are bound to do.
FORSAKING ALL
Unfortunately, the opposite has happened; your soul not only failed to rule your factions, it let itself be imprisoned by them in a dark dungeon. This is not merely failure to lead, this is what the young people call an “epic fail”.
And if, when you were free, you couldn’t keep yourself from falling asleep in that dungeon… what hope do you have of EVER finding your way out alone? How can you find your way out of a prison when you can’t even see?
How can you understand the way out, when you can’t even hear the instructions? (Romans 10:14-15). Remember: the deceived man doesn’t know he is deceived. If he did, it wouldn’t be a very good deception, would it?? (John 9:39-41).
So you will rot in there until you die… unless someone leads you out (Isaiah 42:6-7, 16-20). Which is why, if YOU are to have any hope of saving your soul from death, you must learn from someone who has! Because the unfortunate fact is that you need help. ANY and ALL help you can get.
You have to realize and accept that no one could do a worse job leading you, than you’ve done leading yourself. That WHATEVER might be in the wilderness is better than what your life is like in Egypt. Because trust me, you have no idea the terrifying and difficult challenges are in the wilderness (Exodus 14:12).
You’ve spent your life in Egypt, perhaps on the borders of Egypt, but still – in Egypt. And as miserable as that life may have been, you always had the support structure of Egypt – its doctors, its food banks, its charities, your friends and family there – to pick you up when you fell. But the wilderness is scary and hard (Exodus 14:11-12, Numbers 14:1-4, etc.).
So unless you REALLY hate Egypt, you will find a way back there the minute things get hard (Hebrews 11:13-16). Until you’re ready to cut anchor and go wherever the spirit leads you (Ruth 1:16), your heart hasn’t truly left Egypt at all.
In a more down-to-Earth sense, as long as you defend yourself, your actions, and justify who and what you are, you’re still a slave to your fractions. As long as there is ANYTHING that matters to you in this world, including your family, and indeed your own life (Luke 14:26-33), you will fail.
It is the delusion that we can keep ourselves alive that keeps us in bondage (Hebrews 2:15). It is our heart’s panic, our spirit’s obsessive control and planning, the irrational belief that our fear can preserve our lives, that gives our beast an excuse to keep the soul imprisoned. So unless and until you’re ready to lose your life and everything and everyone in it, you’re still a slave (John 12:24-26).
Remember the rich young man in Matthew 19:16-22; he was eager to follow Jesus; and he would probably even have humbled himself enough to minister to Jesus; but he was unwilling to go “all in” on Jesus. But will God accept anything less? Psalms 73:25.
And yet pretty much any Christian in the world will gladly admit they can’t be saved without Jesus’ grace; that they are bought by Jesus, that they love Him more than anything. There surely isn’t a Christian alive that doesn’t gush about how strongly they’re committed to Jesus.
But they really aren’t. Because a Christian is legally owned by Christ. Remember, that’s what the word “Christian” means! A person owned by Christ! And following Jesus didn’t just mean scampering gaily along the streets of Galilee while bread rained from heaven; it meant ministering unto Him…
And following Christ today doesn’t mean going to Church for a few hours a week, singing, hanging out, and going back to work. It means ministering to Christ, then as now. Or… if He wasn’t physically present… ministering to His ministers.
LEAVING HOME
The world is full of those who are excited to hear or tell some new thing (Acts 17:19-21). But knowing things is meaningless (1 Corinthians 13:2, 8:1). Lessons like 7-7 or 7-10 are merely curious trivia; if that’s why you’re here, you’ll find great answers… but they won’t save you.
For the only thing that matters is agape; and agape cannot exist without rule over your fractions; and that cannot exist unless you can see yourself as you are, and judge yourself for what you are. And that cannot be done unless your eyes are opened (Romans 10:13-15). And dead words, frozen spirit, cannot do that!
Jesus knew the followers in the multitude weren’t there for the right reasons (John 6:25-26). The twelve were different, because they had done what none of His other so-called followers were willing to do (Matthew 4:18-23, Luke 5:27-28).
The multitude who followed Him hadn’t done that; so they were able to find a compromise when the going got rough; a way to rationalize doing their own thing, while continuing to think of themselves as Christians – like all Christians in the world do to this day (Luke 14:31-33).
Think about that; the first thing Jesus mentioned was leaving your family; because true disciples must leave their father’s house, as Abraham, Jesus’ first disciple, did! (Genesis 12:1). These multitudes were followers of Jesus… but not His ministers, not bound to Him by contract, and therefore… not His disciples.
This explains why Joseph of Arimathea was not one of the twelve real disciples (John 19:38). Because he denied Jesus before men (Matthew 10:33). Hence, he wasn’t worthy to be one of the twelve; but his later actions showed that he was perhaps worthy to be one of the 120 (Acts 1:15). Because, like the rich young man, Joseph had things he wasn’t yet prepared to abandon.
He clearly had money, which is why he had a grave in a rich part of town to donate to Jesus (Matthew 27:59-60). Which, since money and power are often hand in glove, is probably why he was the one who approached Pilate for the body (Matthew 27:58).
Which in turn meant he certainly had respect among the Jews which he feared to lose if he openly became Jesus’ disciple! Just like Nicodemus (John 3:1-2), and apparently many of the other Jews in power (John 12:42).
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told “I know that’s true, but if I say that, I’ll be kicked out of my Church!” (John 9:22). Anyone who says that is no disciple of God… at least, not yet (Luke 12:4-9, Isaiah 51:7, 12-13). Not until you’re prepared to lose everything you have to follow Him.
You’re not Jesus’ disciple unless you can say what the TRUE disciples said in John 6:67-68. And that very fact, that no-turning-back commitment (Matthew 13:44) made them much more willing to try and process this hard saying in John 6:52-59.
Others who called themselves disciples but who hadn’t forsaken things like the twelve had, found another choice: leave!John 6:60-66. But the twelve had no where else to go. No money to start a new life; no home to go back to; no family to count on. They had forsaken everything to be here (Matthew 19:27).
Have you?
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
A covenant is another word for a contract; in the OC, it was between a people and their god; in the NC, between a person and His God… a covenant of bondage which makes you a servant of Christ (1 Corinthians 7:22). A covenant which makes Him your Master and you His apprentice!
And a contract requires two parties to sign it. And in the case of the NC, it requires you to transfer your bondage from Sin to Jesus; and that means Jesus must sign the contract with you! You cannot simply declare yourself a NC Christian, draw up a contract and sign it and declare it valid.
Jesus, or someone legally entitled to sign Jesus’ name, MUST sign it for it to be valid! You can eat the Passover; but if you’re not legally part of Jesus’ house, it is a testament against you, not for you (Exodus 12:43-48, 1 Corinthians 11:27-29).
Sure, you can declare yourself Jesus’ servant. But unless Jesus ratifies your relationship, you’re just Jesus’ groupie, not part of His girlfriend. The point I’m getting at is… you cannot enter the NC without a representative of Jesus signing on His behalf.
And you cannot be a minister of Christ, or a disciple of Christ, without ministering to Him, and following Him as He walks around the world. And since He isn’t here… the ONLY way to do that… is to apprentice yourself to someone who IS here… someone in His house.
See, everyone misses the point of the young nobleman. What was the one thing that this man lacked? He was a perfect specimen of OC obedience! What was missing, to join the NC? People think he lacked poverty, but that wasn’t it at all. Read the story again: Luke 18:18-23; Mark 10:17-22.
He wasn’t lacking poverty. It might have been in his way, but it wasn’t the ONE thing he LACKED! What he lacked was the last thing Jesus said: “come and follow me”. He was lacking A LORD AND MASTER to initiate him into the New Covenant! Because you cannot enter the NC without one!
Remember… a covenant commits you to be part of a master’s house! And to enter that house, we have to “come, take up the cross, and follow me”. Now for those of you paying attention, Jesus mentioned three things, just as He did in Matthew 16:24… which I’m sure I don’t need to explain picture the fractions.
If you are part of the NC, you must deny your flesh (Galatians 5:24); such as by leaving behind possessions your flesh values (Luke 12:19). The things it trusts in (Psalms 49:6-12). And commit yourself wholly to the NC, with no safety net. These are things your Lord, or His representative, will ensure happen.
Furthermore, you must “take up your cross”; not his, but your own! As has been said, this means the almond staff of judgment; and when our soul wields the almond rod, our heart is both protected by this staff (Psalms 23:4), and punished by it (Proverbs 10:13).
Thus, we are both killed by the almond tree and given life by it – as Jesus was, and as you studied at length in Series 7. In other words, you must wake up your own soul, and have it begin to do its job again, “taking up your almond-rod daily”.
And finally, Jesus said “follow me”. Break your spirit, stop doing things your way, and do them His way instead. And if you can’t, find someone who CAN make you do so! Go, leave your herd/family/Church, let go of your old self, your old statutes, your old grudges, and be a new man in Christ’s HOUSE (Colossians 3:8-11).
You’ll notice that all of those things Paul mentions are spirit sins. And breaking the spirit is a crucial part of your growth, and something that will be done by your Master, or one of His representatives, as He teaches you new ways of doing things, new ways of hearing things.
The young man really wanted to learn from Jesus… and he was, no doubt, willing to pay handsomely for his tutoring. But he just wasn’t willing to pay the price Jesus asked, which was to gamble everything on the NC. Would you?
The Israelite spies loved the Promised Land (Numbers 13:26-27). Who wouldn’t? But they were unwilling to gamble everything on entering it (Numbers 13:28-33). They just didn’t believe in the promises enough to let go of their backup option, and forsake all that they had – as little as that may have been.
But the twelve had left lucrative careers as fishermen, as tax collectors, and so on, reentering the workforce at the very bottom as interns again. And because they did that, they would have far greater honor later (Proverbs 15:33).
The young noblemen was a righteous citizen with a mind opened enough to understand that something more than the OC existed. He was a good man whom Jesus loved, but he lacked faith and just couldn’t turn his back on everything he had and follow Jesus and be His minister.
Even though the potential reward would have been far greater than what the nobleman refused to give up (Mark 10:29-31), he just couldn’t face life without a backup plan.
The Master asked a price for his apprenticeship that he just couldn’t bring himself to pay.
Would you have paid it?
Time will tell.