Silver and Gold have I none

February 13, 2009

Today's Reading: Exodus 37, 38 and Acts 3

In the New Testament reading today, a beggar is in front of the Temple, and he wants only one thing: money. I imagine that people looked at this beggar like they look at homeless today, they just walk on by and pretend that they are not there.

Peter and John played it the opposite way. They told the beggar to specifically look at him. I am not certain why, but Peter then added “silver and gold I do not have”.

This is ironic, because the beggar was sitting in front of the tabernacle of God. In the reading of Exodus, it talks about the Tabernacle and how much valuable materials like gold and silver are in it. I don’t know how much it would be worth in today’s economy, but it enough to get rich.

Not that I am planning on cutting up the Tabernacle and selling it on eBay, because I think I regretted mentioning that.

I’m talking about money. There is a beggar sitting out in front of one of the most valuable pieces of architecture in the world. All he would need is a brick, and he would probably have been set for life.

I think I have already stated why in the world God would want to have the Ark. Why need something so material to represent spiritual things? Why is it that we spend a bunch of money on things that don’t even come close to representing the real thing?

I could go into detail about the vanity of money. The thing is, money is simply not evenly distributed in the world. I think I once heard that ten percent of the world owns ninety percent of all the income.

In a way, God is not evenly distributed either. I think that we all know some people who are very godly and some people who are completely godly. I know a few people who are just godly enough to be saved, and I guess that is all we really want, isn’t it?

The issue is that there is enough of God to go around, and it is our own choice that keeps us taking a slice when God wants to give us the whole pie.

After all, it sounds like Peter is saying that he is willing to give the goodness of God. It is easy to give away, like a charge card that has no limit and best of all, no interest rate. Are we using it?