LIFE IS A ZOO
THE CAMEL
DR. JIM DIXON
MARK 10:17-31
AUGUST 22, 2004
Throughout Asia and the Middle East, the camel is called “the ship of the desert” and it is treasured. The camel is mentioned more than 60 times in the Bible. In biblical times there were two types of camels, and of course these two types of camels still exist today. They are the Dromedary camel and the Bactrian camel. Both of these camels are able to travel a great distance without water. The Dromedary camel is the single humped camel, and it was used primarily for transportation. It was swift. It was bred for swiftness, a little smaller than the Bactrian camel. A person could travel, if they were in a hurry and if the need was great, more than 100 miles across the desert in a single day on a Dromedary camel. The Bactrian camel was used primarily for freight, for commerce, for trade. It could carry more than 500 pounds 30 miles in a day.
Camels were treasured in the Middle East. They were used for milk. They were used at times for meat. Their hair was used for clothing, but above all else they were used for travel, transportation, commerce, and trade. They were treasured. They were given as gifts. In the Mahr, the gift that the groom or the groom’s family gave to the bride and the bride’s family, oftentimes the Mahr, the gift, consisted of camels. One would speak of a 1-camel bride, a 10-camel bride, a 100-camel bride. The dowry, the gift that the father would give to his daughter on her wedding day, the dowry that was given by the parents to the bride and sometimes to the groom, sometimes consisted of a camel or camels because, again, camels were treasured. In the Middle Eastern world there were many young people willing to walk an aisle for a camel!
Now, of course Jesus used the camel in an unusual sense when we come to our passage of scripture for today in Mark, chapter 10, Matthew 19 and Luke 18. In all three of the Synoptic Gospels, we see this account where Jesus says to a rich man, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven.” It is a controversial passage, oftentimes misunderstood.
You can travel to the Holy Land today as a tourist and you can go to Jerusalem and you can walk those streets. Your tour guide might show you a gate in the city wall which they call the Camel Gate or the Eye of the Needle. It’s a small gate and they explain to tourists that when the main gates were closed late at night, people had to come in through the Camel Gate, or through the Eye of the Needle. It would have been almost impossible to push a camel through that Eye of the Needle. You would have to strip all the things the camel is carrying. You would have to take them from the camel, the camel would have to get on its knees, and even then you would have to push the camel through the Eye of the Needle. These tour guides explain to American tourists and to world tourists that this is what Jesus is referring to when he said this statement to the man. The problem is that’s bogus.
There are a lot of gullible tourists and for a period of time there were even some scholars who believed that story about the Eye of the Needle, but today archeologists and historians have understood the Eye of the Needle, the Camel Gate, was not built until the Middle Ages. In the time of Christ there was no Camel Gate. There was no opening in the Jerusalem Wall called the Eye of the Needle. Bible scholars today understand that when Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven,” He was talking about a sewing needle. He was talking about a needle and thread. He was not saying that it’s hard for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. He was saying it’s impossible. He was using hyperbole. In the Talmudic literature, we find the statement, “It is easier for an elephant to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for this or that.” Of course, the reference there is to a sewing needle and it’s using hyperbole, but Jesus changes it from an elephant to a camel, perhaps for two reasons. Elephants had become extinct in Israel and secondly the camel was associated with wealth. Jesus wanted to talk about wealth.
In the Bible, so often the camel is a symbol of wealth. When the Bible describes the wealth of Abraham in Genesis, chapter 12, it talks about all of his camels. When the Bible talks about the wealth of Isaac in Genesis, chapter 30, it talks about all of his camels. The same is true of Job. At that time, a person’s wealth was reckoned in camels. And so, Jesus uses the camel in context of a teaching on wealth.
This morning as we look at the camel, we look at wealth in heaven and the relationship between heaven and wealth. I have two life lessons, two teachings. The first is this: Heaven has to do with your greatest treasure.
In February of 1694, the bloated body of a British admiral washed up on the limestone shores of Gibraltar. It was the body of Francis Wheeler, who had led the British Royal Navy in the Battle of the League of Augsburg, a battle between Britain and France. Francis Wheeler had commanded the H.M.S. Sussex, an 80-gun warship that was the flagship of the British fleet. It was in February of 1694, in the midst of a horrible Mediterranean storm, that the H.M.S. Sussex and twelve other ships in the fleet sank to the bottom of the Mediterranean and Francis Wheeler lost his life. It was viewed as just another naval tragedy. Through the decades and centuries, it was so viewed until just recently, 9 years ago, in 1995, when researchers studying in the Naval Archives in London, England, found amazing documents. They discovered that the H.M.S. Sussex and Francis Wheeler were actually on a secret mission for the British government, and they were traveling to meet the Duke of Savoy and to buy his loyalty. The H.M.S. Sussex was laden with treasure, the greatest treasure in naval or marine history. It carried more than a million pounds of gold and silver, a treasure worth over a billion dollars today.
Since 1995, other researchers, historians, and legal experts have studied these documents and they’ve determined they’re genuine and they’re authentic. And so today, as reported in this week’s issue of U.S. News And World Report, the British government, in conjunction with a private salvage company called Odyssey Marine Exploration, has entered into a quest to find this treasure, to find the H.M.S. Essex at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. It’s one of the few times the government has entered into a contract arrangement with a private salvage company.
The British government has promised the Odyssey Marine Exploration group that they can get 60% of the first $45 million, 50% of the first $500 million, and 40% of the first billion dollars. Amazing. A quest for treasure. It is maybe the greatest marine or naval treasure in history.
You see, we’re all on a quest for treasure. I’m on a quest for treasure. You’re on a quest or treasure too. We would all define treasure differently but we’re all on a quest for treasure, some kind of treasure. Perhaps we never stop to prioritize. Perhaps we never stop to think what’s most important, what our greatest treasure is.
The Bible says in Jeremiah, chapter 2, verse 5, that God was angry at Israel because they had striven after worthless things. In Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, the Bible speaks of those striving after wind, vanity of vanities. God cares very much about our treasures and what our greatest treasure is. Do you know what your greatest treasure is? Because heaven hangs in the balance.
In the year 1841, a man named John Rowland was born in Great Britain in the region of Wales. John Rowland in that first week experienced tragedy, for his mom and dad both died and he was left orphaned. In his early years there was little but suffering and pain. But at the age of 17, John Rowland came to the United States of America as a cabin boy on a ship, and they arrived in New Orleans. There, John Rowland was adopted by a man named Henry Hope Stanley. John Rowland was given a brand new name, Henry Morton Stanley. I think many of you know something of his story. You know that Henry Morton Stanley was ultimately hired by the New York Herald. In 1869 when Henry Morton Stanley was 28 years old, he was sent by the New York Herald to Africa to the so-called “dark continent.” He was sent there to find David Livingstone, the medical doctor, missionary, and explorer.
So, Henry Morton Stanley, at the age of 28, journeyed to Africa. He came to the coast. He had 73 books and they were kept in three cases which weighed 180 pounds. He set forth on his journey, not realizing how hard it would be as he traveled into the African interior. The journey went from month-to-month-to-month, and he grew more and more tired. As Henry Morton Stanley grew more and more tired, he began to throw away one book, then another book, and then another book, just because of the weight of it all. Finally, by the time he reached David Livingstone and said those famous words, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” he only had one book left, and that book was the Bible. Henry Morton Stanley testified that he had read through the Bible almost countless times as he journeyed and that he was forced to prioritize. He ultimately decided, as he threw away one book and then another, that amongst his books the greatest treasure was the Bible.
He had to prioritize. Most of us go through life and we really don’t sense the need to prioritize. Maybe we never even figure it out as to what’s most important to us. We have many treasures. Your wife is a treasure. Your husband is a treasure. Your children are treasures. Your health is a treasure. You might view your career as a treasure. Maybe you think it’s a bummer, but it might be a treasure. Your house, your assets, your bank accounts—you have many, many treasures.
Jesus says one treasure is meant to be greater than all and that treasure is the kingdom of heaven. He makes this astounding statement that nothing should be more valuable to us than the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up, and in his joy went and sold everything he had and bought that field. How much is the kingdom of heaven worth? Jesus said it’s worth everything you have. Jesus said, “Do not lay up treasures on earth, where rust and moth consume and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither rust nor moth consumes and where no thief breaks in and steals. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
Jesus used the word “thesauros,” which in the Greek means, “your greatest treasure.” The message is clear. Nothing is more important than the kingdom of heaven. Jesus therefore said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and everything else will be added unto you.” So, this is to be our greatest treasure, the kingdom of God.
How about you? Have you ever prioritized? Have you ever asked the question, “What’s my greatest treasure?” You see, heaven is for those for whom the kingdom of God is the greatest treasure. I don’t mean to say that God is without mercy or grace. “Certainly, what is not possible with man,” Jesus said, “is possible with God.” But I think it’s safe to say that no one’s going to get into heaven unless they at least in some measure treasure heaven and the kingdom of God.
In 1919 our nation was feeling pretty good about itself. World War I was done and the United States along with her allies had been victorious. Woodrow Wilson was President of the United States. He journeyed to Europe and he came back having, through his leadership, helped to establish the League of Nations. But President Wilson wasn’t really happy because his own nation refused to join the League of Nations. The United States Congress would just not approve of joining the League of Nations, so Woodrow Wilson decided to take his case to the American people. This was prior to the invention of television and even radio was in its infancy, so Woodrow Wilson decided to travel the nation by train.
It was September 23, 1919, when Woodrow Wilson arrived in Montana in the region of Billings, Montana. There in Billings, Montana, he spoke of the League of Nations and two boys came up to him. One gave him an American flag. The other gave him a dime. The boy who gave him the dime said, “I want to give this to the League of Nations.” President Woodrow Wilson was very touched and he treasured that dime and he put it in a napkin and put it in his wallet.
On September 25, Woodrow Wilson arrived in Pueblo, Colorado, and he became ill. So by train they rushed him back to Washington, D.C. It was there, almost a week later, October 2, 1919, that Woodrow Wilson had a horrible stroke, a massive stroke. He was never the same. He spent the rest of his administration mostly in his bedroom signing papers in his bed.
On December 10, 1920, Woodrow Wilson received the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in establishing the League of Nations. But he still had no joy because his own nation had not joined. In 1921, Woodrow Wilson left the White House and he and his wife went to live in a little apartment in Washington, D.C. He gave his last public address on Armistice Day in 1923 and he spoke to the nation about the League of Nations. He said he was confident that the League of Nations would ultimately triumph. He said, “I’ve seen fools resist the providence of God and I’ve witnessed their destruction.” He said, “The League of Nations will ultimately prevail as surely as God reigns.”
But of course, it did not. On February 3, 1924, Woodrow Wilson said, “I’m tired of swimming upstream,” and that night the 28th President of the United States died. In the aftermath of his death, it was left to his wife to go through all of his stuff, through the belongings and figure out what to keep and what to throw away. She found Woodrow Wilson’s wallet. As she opened it up, she found that dime still in his wallet after all those years, wrapped in a napkin. Woodrow Wilson had treasured that dime. She opened up the napkin and Woodrow Wilson had written on the napkin, “This dime was given to me by a boy in Billings, Montana. He gave it for the League of Nations.” He treasured it.
There are some people who believe that God treasures every dime like that. There are some people who believe that God treasures every dime you give and every dime you put in the offering plate, that it’s a treasure to God. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that every dime we give is a treasure to God, not unless our net worth is a buck. God looks at the measure of our gift in light of our wealth, our relative wealth. God wants us to treasure His kingdom and He wants it to be evident in the way we support His kingdom and His work.
The Bible tells us that Jesus used to sit outside of the Temple Treasury and just watch. Does that surprise you? He used to just sit outside of the Temple Treasury and watch people give their gifts. Of course, at the Temple Treasury there were 13 trumpets. These 13 trumpets went into 13 boxes and each trumpet was for a different purpose but all of these 13 boxes and 13 trumpets had to do with the work of the kingdom of God. On each trumpet there was a plaque and it explained what the gift would go for. Jesus, we’re told in the Gospels, would sit there. We’re told this in Mark, chapter 12 and in Luke, chapter 21. He would sit there and He would watch for hours as people came and put their gifts in the trumpets. Very curious about people’s giving patterns. Bible scholars think that He really wasn’t so much concerned with which trumpet they put their gift in because it was all for the kingdom of God but rather He was concerned with the amount of the gift in comparison with the financial worth of the person. He could discern those things as the Son of God.
He saw this one poor widow come to the Temple Treasury. She took two small copper coins and she put them in the trumpet. She gave them to the kingdom of God. Jesus turned to His disciples and He said, “Did you see that? That was the biggest gift we’ve seen given. That was the greatest gift we’ve seen. Many others have come and given larger amounts but they have given out of their surplus (that’s the meaning of the Greek word) but this woman has given all that she has. She’s treasured the kingdom of God.” So how about you? And how about me? Do we treasure the kingdom of God?
Finally, there’s a second life lesson and it’s very similar to the first. These two are joined. Heaven has to do with our highest service. Not only does it have to do with our greatest treasure but it has to do with our highest service. Jesus said, “You cannot serve both God and mammon.” Bible scholars for many years debated whether mammon should be capitalized because they thought it was possible there might be a Canaanite deity that was called Mammon, the God of Wealth. But to this day they don’t know for sure, but they know this: The word mammon means wealth. It means money. The message of Christ was very clear. You cannot serve both God and mammon. You’ll either love the one and hate the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. That’s what Jesus tells us. He means our highest service is to be rendered to God and to His kingdom. He would ask His people, “Is this your highest service, to serve His kingdom? Is His kingdom your greatest treasure? Is He your greatest treasure?”
In the year 2000, Barb and I were blessed to take many of you with us to Israel. We took 130 of you to Israel. We had a great time there and a valuable time and then 90 of you joined us as we continued on down to Egypt. We arrived in Cairo. It was 110 degrees in Cairo, but we were happy to be there, happy partly because there was a McDonald’s in Cairo. But we were also happy because Giza is in the suburbs of Cairo on the Nile River—Al Giza, the Place of the Pyramids, including the great pyramid. We looked up at that pyramid, which rises 500 feet into the heavens, like a 50-story building, 2,300,000 massive stones, each stone weighing an average of 2-1/2 tons. Realizing that it had been built 4,500 years ago, you ask the question, “How did they do it? How did they do that 4,500 years ago?”
For a period of time historians thought, “Well, they must have used slave labor,” and they believed that they had used hundreds of thousands of slaves over a period of decades. But now they know it’s not true. It is true that many of the old Hollywood movies portrayed it that way, the pyramids were built by slaves, but now they know that generally speaking that was not true. The pyramid was built by free men. And they voluntarily, out of their love of the kingdom, gave four months out of every twelve in the service and the building of the pyramids. Over a period of decades, tens of thousands of citizens volunteered their time to build this structure that their kingdom might be great. It was an earthly kingdom which continued perhaps for 2,500 years.
We who are Christians are citizens of a higher kingdom, an eternal one, and we’ve been called into its service. Are you willing to do that? Are we willing to make the kingdom of heaven our highest service? If we are, it’s going to be reflected in all the areas of our lives.
In 1954, the Canadian Government was very embarrassed because all of their new paper currency that had just been issued had the devil etched into them. In Queen Elizabeth II’s curls, in her hair, someone had etched the image of the devil, and it was on all of their paper bills. They were so embarrassed when they discovered it, and it turned out that in the currency department there had been a group of men and women who were pranksters. They were kind of led by an Irish Nationalist who didn’t like the Canadian Government and they put the devil into the curls of Queen Elizabeth’s hair. All the money had to be repealed. They had to issue new dollars. It was a great embarrassment in Canada.
There are some people today who think, “Well, you know, maybe it would be appropriate if the devil was on all of our money. Maybe that would be appropriate.” There are some people who seem to kind of view money as evil in and of itself. They think that the Bible says, “Money is the root of all evil.” But of course, the Bible doesn’t really say that. The Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” The reality is that money is just a tool. It’s just a tool and it can be used for good and it can be used for evil. It can be used for many things in between but our highest service is to be the kingdom of heaven and that’s to be reflected in all areas of our life. That’s why wealth is so dangerous. People who are wealthy (and understand, here in America we’re all pretty wealthy by world standards) just seem to treasure the wrong things and serve the wrong things. Everything gets a little out of whack and heaven hangs in the balance.
I gave a sermon in February this year that was kind of controversial. Some people today refer to it as my “hell” sermon, “Jim’s hell sermon.” Of course, the sermon wasn’t really about hell. It was about Daniel, chapter 7, the ancient of days, the little horn, the Son of Man, the final judgement. But near the end of the sermon I did make the observation and the statement that 40% of people in our church and 40% of people in churches all across America give nothing to the work of the cause of Christ. They give nothing. Most of them will go through all of their lives and give nothing. I made the statement that most of them are going to hel,l and so many of you were stunned. You shouldn’t have been stunned because I didn’t say all of them; I said most of them. There is mercy. But you understand the issue here. The issue is, what’s your treasure and who are you serving? What’s your greatest treasure? What’s your highest service?
The message of the Bible is so clear. That’s why wealth is so dangerous. It is so dangerous because we treasure the wrong things and we serve the wrong things. Heaven is for people who treasure the kingdom of God and heaven is for people who long to serve it. If you don’t want to serve the kingdom of God now, you don’t even want to be in heaven. Heaven is for people who long to serve Christ and hell is for people who enjoy serving themselves and treasure the things of self. Don’t think that God is going to be in hell just whipping people, beating the heck out of them, never able to exact His vengeance in all eternity. That’s not how the Bible portrays hell. God’s not even going to be in hell. The Bible says that hell is the exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might. Hell is vacuous at the core. Hell is for people centered on self, but heaven is for those who treasure it and who treasure Jesus and who long to serve Him and long to serve His kingdom.
As we conclude, I want to tell a little story. It really begins in the year 1587. 1587 is when the Faust book appeared in Europe. I say “appeared” because the book was anonymous. To this day, nobody knows who wrote the Faust book, but it told the story of Johann Faust, a man who was a magician with mystic powers. Historians tell us that Johann Faust actually lived. His name was probably Johann Faustus or George Faustus, but he lived from 1480 to approximately 1540. He lived during the same decades as Martin Luther and it was Martin Luther, the great reformer, who said that Johann Faust was empowered by the devil. The Faust book, written in 1587, agreed. It claimed that Johann Faust had entered into a pact with the devil, sold his soul. For 24 years of power, he’d sold his soul.
This Faustian theme to this day has kind of permeated art and literature. You see it in history. You see it today. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe’s masterpiece was called “Faust.” Christopher Marlowe’s great play was “The Tragic History of Dr. Faust.” Even when we come into the 20th century, you see Stephen Vincent Benet’s “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” That’s a Faustian theme at work. Hollywood has made a lot of movies with Faustian themes, from “Damn Yankees” to “The Devil and Max Devlin,” to more recently “Bedazzled” and “The Devil’s Advocate.” They all have Faustian themes.
Of course, in the Faust legend, the name of the devil was Mephistopheles. To this day no one knows the etymology of that word. Some etymologists believe that this name for the devil comes from three Greek words which means, “He who hates the light.” Some believe it comes from two Hebrew words meaning, “destroyer and liar.” Etymologically all of these would be appropriate for the devil for he is a destroyer, he is a liar, and he hates the light. But understand this: The devil wants your soul. This isn’t modern speak easy. This isn’t politically correct and it’s not popular in our culture and time, but understand that the devil wants your soul and he wants my soul. He wants the souls of your children. That’s what he’s after and he knows if he can get you to treasure the wrong stuff and serve the wrong purposes and the wrong things, he’s got you. That’s what he knows.
So, here’s the warning of God. “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven.” Treasure Jesus. Make His kingdom your highest treasure and your highest service. Let’s close with a word of prayer.