2 corinthians 8:8-9

Kerwin,

I am not one given to conjecture, so for me, this is a bit of a stretch.

How was it that Jesus Christ was rich but became poor that we might become rich?

I have a line of thinking that intrigues me, maybe it will intrigue you as well.

I am not pretending to supply answers for all I have is more questions.

Yet, they may be instructional questions?

The wise men gave gifts worthy of a king to the king.

Gold, frankincense and myrrh.

What happened to these gifts?  

Joseph and Mary may have used some of it to finance their escape into Egypt?

Would they have used it all up?

Would they have done that?  The gifts were to the king, not to the parents of the king.

The parents would have wanted to steward this unexpected wealth wisely.

Would they have taken a vacation to Cairo with this wealth?  

would they have blown it all on a new swimming pool and etertainment center with huge flat screen TV and expensive audio equipment?

Was it wealth? or was it just small tokens of gold, frankincense and myrrh?

I don't know.  Do you?  Does anyone reading this have any evidence to suggest the worth of those gifts?

Maybe cultural evidence?

Would Joseph and Mary have taught the value of work and working for a living to JC?

Of course,  JC was not going to be a lazy savior.  I am sure it took a lot of diligent effort to fulfill the law and redeem mankind.

Would the carpenter work and the resulting tithes benefit the family?

 Of course, the promises of God regarding tithes would have been in practice in the family.  

Malachi 3  Would God open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that there would not be room enough to receive it on that family as a result of their faithfulness to tithe?

Of course,  God is not a respector of persons, but of conditions.  

He does not favor anyone over another, but as we meet His prescribed preconditions for receiving his promises, God is faithful to come through with his promises.  

Ie,  God directing our paths.  Proverbs 3:5-6, the preconditions are

1.  Trusting the Lord with all our heart – by trusting his word
2.  Not lean unto our own understanding
3.  In all our ways acknowledge him – by acknowledging his word as the truth.  John 17:17

then and only then will God direct our paths.

The word of God speaks of God filling our barns if we honor Him with the firstfruits of our increase.  Proverbs 3
and our wine presses shall burst out with wine.

Sounds like literal prosperity to me.  You?

Did Jesus Christ use parables to teach?  Yes,

He must have known something about shepherding to have parables that made sense to other people who knew about shepherding.

He must have know something about building houses for him to speak of building a house on a rock and not on sand.

He must have known about making profitable investments for him to use parables about business men  and their servants making and not making profit on investments to properly communicate truth using those parables.

Could JC been a business man as well as a carpenter's son following in Joseph's trade?  I don't know.

Would he have had access to the remaining gold, frankincense and myrrh with which to make wise investments?

Was not Jesus Christ approached by a rich young man who wanted to follow JC and asked what he must do?

Did not JC tell him to sell his excess stuff, his extra homes, vacation homes?  So that he might follow without distraction?

Would Jesus Christ say, “Do as I say, not as I do?”

Did he give that advice to the rich man if he was not at willing and able to do this as well?  Did he not lead and speak with the authority that comes from being a doer of the word and not a hearer only?

Is it possible that Jesus Christ had done this and was simply saying to the rich young man, “if you want to go where I lead, you must do what I have done.” ??

Granted, a lot of conjecture here, but not without scriptural support.

Let the games begin.

barley

Kerwin

that spirit was poured on Saul wen he was choosen to be king in Israel,

there is one thing you have to keep in mind that all Israelites were in the knowledge of the living God,

so material inside the man was good for God to use.

it is strange it is not sayed what was that they prophesy said.

NU 11:25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do it again

1CH 25:3 Of Jeduthun, the sons of Jeduthun: Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah and Mattithiah, six, under the direction of their father Jeduthun with the harp,

who prophesied in giving thanks and praising the LORD.

it seems that this is what was done

EZR 5:1 When the prophets, Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them

so it could be that the prophets were prophetising the thing the Lord told them to say

Pierre

Hi,
The answer is in the scripture
Grace
73.1 Corinthians 1:4
I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;