Bible Study from Matthew 9:9

This Bible Study comes from Matthew 9:9. Jesus sees Matthew and tells him to follow Him. Obviously Matthew must have given some thought to this prior to Jesus asking him. The reason why I say this is because I really don't see a person just up and following another person on the spare of the moment. Another reason I say this is because Matthew had a secure position. He was a wealthy man. The tax-collectors were known to be wealthy because they would charge heavy taxes to the people and keep some of it for themselves.

What we need to look at next is why Matthew would follow Jesus. Why would Matthew give up a secure position? Why would he give up his opportunity for more money? The only reason that I can see is that he must have been unhappy. The riches must not have fulfilled him. There must have been emptiness inside of him. How many of us seek more and more money all of the time never to be satisfied? How many of seek great positions just to find out that they are not fulfilling? Matthew was ready for a change in his life. He must have been tired of being unhappy. God knows when we are ready for change in our lives. He will call to us and tell us to come and follow Him. He will let us get to the point of being unhappy and tired with our situations. He stands by patiently waiting for us to get to that point.

When God calls us to a change in our lives it takes great faith to follow that change. Look at all that Matthew was giving up. He did not know how he was going to support himself. He was giving up the life that he knew and trading it for something that he did not know. How would he eat? Where would he sleep? If he had family, how would he take care of them? This was a major step he was taking. On a note, be sure to be in prayer before you make a big change in your life. Matthew thought this through. It was not a fast decision. It was one that he made with much thought put into it.

Our decisions impact other people that are in our lives too. Whether those people are family, friends, or acquaintances they are affected by what we do. There were crowds that followed Jesus. They saw that Matthew gave up the tax-collecting business. How would this affect them? Would this cause some to follow Jesus even more? In fact, I'm sure that many did follow Jesus because of the change that they saw take place in Matthew. Never forget that there are people watching us. They are looking to see how we respond to things in our lives. They are interested to see what type of decisions that we make.