"[H]e found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
'Pay back what you owe.'"
This man was unwilling to live at the mercy and generosity of another. He had to be self-sufficient. He was desperate not to be indebted to his master. He didn't just demand the smaller amount he was owed. He resorted to violence to get it, not realizing that it would never be enough to pay his master back. Even when his fellow servant begged him for mercy in words which should have been familiar he was unsympathetic. He hurt his fellow servant and took away his freedom all for the pretense of owing nothing to anyone.
We owe the LORD more than any analogy can convey. We have to be watchful that we stay close to the LORD in a personal way. If we do not then the mercy we have received will just seem like something we owe which we will have to try to earn. Our relationship will have changed from one of family to one of transaction and business. This may lead us to hurtful desperation since we can never earn the mercy of God. At the very least it presumes that we would have any standing to negotiate with the LORD (as if we were equals) but how could we?
An attitude of trying to square our debt to God can render our sacrifices ineffective. They will just be trying to pay back what can never be repaid instead of being grateful for his mercy. That is why we should ask him to receive us with "contrite heart and humble spirit". That is why such a heart can mean more than "burnt offerings of rams and bullocks or thousands of fat lambs".
"He guides the humble to justice,
he teaches the humble his way."
he teaches the humble his way."
Humility is the antidote to delusions of self-sufficiency. We remember that we are creatures for whom every breath is a gift. We ask the LORD to remember his mercies. At the same time we resolve to walk in his ways and to follow the path he sets before us. Even though we are stubborn and often try to go our own way we can be confident of his mercy. We know that if he tells us to forgive 77 times it is because it is in his heart to forgive infinitely more.
"So let our sacrifice be in your presence today
as we follow you unreservedly;for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame."
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