Y’shua was gifted at painting pictures with His words. This was helpful for preaching and teaching people of mixed literacy levels and social status. The pictures often comforted, but there were those that challenged injustice as well as unfaithfulness to God. Through it all, He kept the focus on God and godly living. Today’s Holy Nougat challenges our lifestyle if we are not entirely souled out to Christ.
Matthew 7:6 NIV
[6] “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
Hard Comparisons 2
Pearls.
What image comes to mind when we think of pearls? Long before I knew what a pearl looked like, I knew that they were costly. Later, I discovered that fake pearls also exist and some are sold for high prices, especially when buyers are unaware of the features of true pearls. Today, when a woman adorns her neck with a string of pearls, she is regarded as wealthy and sophisticated – even the fake ones have the potential to add oomph to an outfit.
In biblical literature, pearls generally referred to valuable items. Matthew 13:45-46 offers one such example. Y’shua compared the Kingdom of Heaven to the most expensive and exquisite pearl which a merchant discovered hidden in a field. The pearl was so precious, the merchant sold all he had to purchase the field in which the pearl was found.
Self-Check
Have we found life in Christ to be valuable enough that we would sacrifice all for His sake?
Digging Deeper
Pearls are not randomly placed in fields. If pearls were as precious now as they were then, it is likely that finding a rare and precious one in a field meant it had been previously lost. So the merchant was either searching for that pearl in particular, or perhaps he suspected there were other gems in the field.
Pearls were not common to Gallilee, they arrived from elsewhere in the Roman Empire by way of traders. The distance they travelled to arrive may also have impacted their value. Their size made them very portable, but also easily lost. (I could easily see pearls replacing money in the parable of the lost coin.) We can assume that Y’shua’s audience knew the worth of genuine pearls. No one would cast, i.e., intentionally throw or toss, such valuables away.
Tossing anything to swine was the ultimate act of degeneration. Swine (pigs) and swine food (that which was cat to swine) represented unclean items or idolatry. We recall a later reference to swine during Y’shua’s Ministry, where the legion of demons asked to be cast into a herd of swine nearby (see Matthew 8:30-32; Mark 5:11-13; and Luke 8:32-33). That request served to underscore the theory that swine were very unclean (profane). The swine could refer to any person whose lifestyle rivalled the Epsteins of the era, or those who openly went against the teachings of God’s Law.
If pigs represented such depths of spiritual degradation, then the act of intentionally throwing our most sacred and valuable gift to them symbolised the ultimate act of being spiritually deceived or intentionally backsliding. Ultimately, casting our pearls is a choice we make. Yet it can be a process as outlined in Psalm 1. Y’shua warns us against making those choices.
Siblings, regardless of who the pigs represented then or are now, we are the ones in possession of the precious gift of salvation. It is most valuable, yet very portable, and ought to adorn our spirits daily. Ours is the responsibility to safeguard this gift, lest we lose it. That requires us to be intentional about maintaining the spiritual disciplines of prayer and Bible study to avoid devolving into degenerate living.
Point to Ponder
God’s Spirit lives within us and can help us to discern spiritual danger before it comes. Let’s intentionally lean into God’s Spirit to safeguard our pearl and avoid backsliding.
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May all we seek be found in Christ
