WHAT WOMAN HAVING TEN PIECES OF SILVER?

Luke chapter 15 is one parable told in three parts. Today’s read­ing is the second of those three parts. The theme throughout the parable is the same: God’s love for that which is lost, the lengths to which He will go in order to recover that which is lost, and the great rejoicing in the finding of that which was lost. One sinner is so valuable that all heaven is interested in his salvation. In the shepherd, the woman and the father we see the Lord Jesus, ‘the Good Shepherd’, the Holy Spirit and the Father, all involved in the recovery of guilty sinners.

Our parable introduces us to a woman owning ten pieces of silver. This may have been a frontlet worn on her head, a token of her betrothal or marriage. At any rate, she lost one of the ten silver coins and she missed it greatly. What a picture of the sin­ner without Christ. The sheep had gone astray, but the piece of silver was just lost. ‘Dead in trespasses and sins’, we might say. It could do nothing to help itself, like the sinner, described as being ‘without strength’. But did you notice, it was lost in the house? Not on the mountainside, like the lost sheep, or in the far coun­try, like the prodigal son, but in the house, the sphere of profession. How many people, familiar with the claims of the gospel, are as lost as those in the far country.

The silver coin was valuable. It was prized by the woman and she determined to find it. See her with her candle, searching, sweeping carefully and searching. And she continues, ‘till she find it’. What a lovely picture of the Holy Spirit using the lamp of the word of God to bring about the salvation of lost sinners. And what rejoicing there was when this lost silver was found! The woman invites friends and neighbours to a celebration, so they might join with her in rejoicing over the finding of her once-lost coin. The Lord Jesus tells us that this is just a picture of heaven’s delight when a sinner repents and is recovered.

‘There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth’. How interested are we in the recovery of lost sinners? We meet them on a daily basis. Do we pray for them? Do we witness to them? The joy of heaven will be our experience if we engage in the recovery of precious lost souls.