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Could Somebody Please Explain This Passage To Me?
#1
"FOR as a man who journeyed called his servants, and delivered to them his property: To one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, each man according to his faculty; and forthwith went away. But he who had received five talents went and traded with them, and gained five others. Likewise he who (had received) two by trading gained two others. But he who had received one went, dug in the earth, and hid the money of his lord. After a long time the lord of those servants came, and received from them the account. Then he drew near who had received the five talents, and brought five others, and said, My lord, five talents thou gavest me: behold, five others I have gained by them. His lord said to him, It is well, good and faithful servant; over a little thou hast been faithful, over much I will establish thee: enter into the joy of thy lord. And he of the two talents approached, and said, My lord, two talents thou gavest me: behold, two others I have gained by them. His lord saith to him, It is well, servant good and faithful; over a little thou hast been faithful, over much will I establish thee: enter into the joy of thy lord. But he also drew near who had received the one talent, and said, My lord, I knew thee, that thou wast a hard man, reaping where thou hadst not sowed, and gathering together from whence thou hadst not dispersed. And I feared, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: behold, thou hast thine own. His lord answered, Thou evil and slothful servant, thou didst know me that I reap where I have not sowed, and collect from whence I have not dispersed. Did it not behove thee to cast my money upon the table, that when I came I might require mine own with its increase ? Take therefore from him the talent, and give it unto him who hath ten talents. For unto him who hath shall be given, and it shall be added to him; but he who hath not, that also which he hath shall be taken from him. And the indolent servant cast forth into the darknesses without; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

This is from Ethridge's Peshitto version.

I really DON'T understand The Lord's doing here.

In the end, He takes away even what this man DOESN'T HAVE.

Every time that I read this passage, I must admit that Our Lord seems like a tyrant to me.

I KNOW from personal experience that this is NOT The Lord's nature toward hurting humanity (among whom, I count myself).

Could someone please explain this parable to me and help me to see how Our Lord is not a tyrant here?

I REALLY WANT to see this passage's goodness..........but honestly, right now, I DON'T see that at all!

Thanks, Shlama, Albion
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#2
Shlama Albion,

While this whole passage has a lot of theological implications, I would like to say that it needs to be read within the context to get the "whole picture".

On the simple side, the "talent" belonged to the master and never really belonged to the "evil and slothful servant". It was simply entrusted to him to bear fruit with it, which he did not. The master of the servant took what was already his (the master's). The talent never really belonged to the "servant".

We must be faithful in what we are provided with. We are soujourners in this world like our father Awraham. We own no possessions. What the Lord gives us is really only entrusted to us and whatever that is, we should use it to His glory. If we squander it, or waste it away or don't even use it at all, then we haven't been good servants. Then the Master comes and separates the sheep from the goats, the faithful from the unfaithful.

MarYah expects us to be faithful in all that we have been entrusted with.

I'm sure there are others here who can elaborate on this passage and related ones much more than I did above. I try to look at the simple side of things.
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#3
I wanted to make an additional note here. This reminds me of the Lord's words where He said, "If you love Me, keep My Commandments."

His Holiness in his latest Nativity message said, "Those of us who will keep this commandment of God, will be capable of keeping the entirety of these Divine Commandments. Please note, however, a human being can not love when we fail to keep the greatest of these commandments.... It is these very commandments which serve our benefit; provided we keep these commandments, we will live in joy and harmony with one another in our sojourn upon this earthly sphere."

If we love Yeshua we will do everything He says to do and this includes sharing the Gospel with our neighbor whom we are supposed to love. If we aren't faithful in doing this then we have a problem.
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#4
Shlama all,

The passage starts with, "Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants."
I think we make a mistake when we assume our Lord is saying, "This is what God is like." He is not talking about what God is like personally. To know who God is , all we need to do is look at Yeshua The Son. "He who has seen Me has seen The Father." That's all I need to know in order to know God.

The kingdom of Heaven is another matter. God's kingdom is a system of government, ruled by laws, just as an earthly kingdom is ruled by laws, though God's kingdom is based on perfect and eternal law, as fixed as the laws of nature. Indeed, they are the laws of the eternal nature of Life. This particular parable addresses the law , "Use it or lose it." It is a law of life. We cannot escape it or violate it. If we receive a gift that we do not use, we will eventually lose it.
God is merciful, but his laws are merciless. Even He must observe them, and of course, He does. If we do not give and put our gifts into circulation, we will lose those gifts eventually and they will be given to another who will improve them by exercizing them in serving God and others with the gifts He gives.

"Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants." It does not say "God is like a certain king.
..." Most of the parables are teaching about the kingdom of God. Look for that phrase, "The kingdom of heaven is like ..."

We cannot condemn God as unmerciful for setting up the laws of nature and life which are inviolable. He will not suspend the law of gravity simply because you or I fall or jump out of a 20 story window. He may or may not send an angel to catch you, but whether He does or not, He will not suspend His laws. Gravity is no respecter of persons; neither is any of God's laws a respecter of persons. If we live in ignorance of His laws, we will suffer and eventually die.

When our Lord spoke of the kingdom and government of Heaven, He was not speaking merely of the Law of Moses; He is talking of the nature of Life and creation itself, especially the spiritual kingdom, which is eternal. Our spirits and souls are subject to the laws of life and will answer to them. We are wise to learn those laws from our Lord, so that we will not be condemned or harmed by our own stupidity.

Look up all the references to the kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom of God. That is what He came to teach us. We can enjoy the kingdom of Heaven every day of our lives, or we can be ignorant of it until we die.


22. But you have come to The Mountain of Zion and to The City of THE LIVING GOD, to The Jerusalem which is in Heaven, and to the assembly of myriads of Angels;
23. And to the church of the firstborn ones who are written in Heaven, and to God The Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous who are made perfect,
24. And to Yeshua
, The Mediator of The New Covenant, and to the sprinkling of blood, which speaks better than that of Abel.
25. Beware therefore, lest you refuse him who speaks with you, for if those were not saved who refused him who spoke with them on Earth, how much less are we if we shall refuse him who speaks with us from Heaven?
26. Whose voice shook The Earth, but now he has promised and said, "One more time, I shall shake, not only Earth, but also Heaven." Hebrews 12

"You have come"

So what do we do now?

We must listen,read and learn the manual of Life in Heaven (The Book of Life) so we can enjoy the unspeakable gift of Heaven, which He has put within some of us, and into which we can enter by The faith of Maryah Messiah.

Blessings,

Dave Bauscher
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#5
Shlama all--

The parable is a story--or a midrash--meant to dramatize in graphic terms a spiritual point. Y'shua, and Jewish teachers both before and after him, have raised this kind of storytelling to an art form. Even the Gospel writers themselves midrash often.

The main point of the story is the literal phrase, "he who can be trusted with little can be trusted with much, but he who can't be trusted with little, even what he has, will be taken from him." The men who doubled their money were trusted with more money in the hopes that they would make even more for their Master. In this parable, the "hard man" is YHWH Himself, the servants are the type of followers we could be (like the Sower) and the "money" represents the blessings YHWH has bestowed on us and made us stewards of.

But the servant who simply HID his gifts was WICKED because he did not give his gifts any chance to INCREASE. He put it IN THE GROUND where no one could benefit.

In the same way, we who are given gifts from above have a responsibility to YHWH to multiply those gifts for the benefit of the kingdom. If we don't we are no better than the wicked servant and our fate at the end might not be so pleasant. Just because the story is a parable doesn't mean its message isn't LITERAL.

And Y'shua is not being cruel at all. He is simply amplifying themes from Tanakh as a warning to us, so that we don't rob YHWH (Malachi 3). Just like the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, the story's harsh nature is meant to "scare us straight". That is MERCY, but remember what Pastor David said, the kingdom of YHWH is LIKE this. That is, ONE ASPECT of the Kingdom is LIKE this, meaning it's metaphor.

Y'shua often tells us what the Kingdom is LIKE, or that it is HERE/AT HAND, or what it is NOT, but he never says what it is. Why? Because we can't comprehend all aspects of YHWH's infinite kingdom anymore than we can comprehend all aspects of YHWH Himself. No one can, except the Son who came down from heaven. So, instead, Y'shua roots that immense and inifinite truth in earthly expressions, things to "hang" his intended meanings upon, so we can get a good idea of his overall teaching. Doesn't make it easy though, and without Aramaic as a guide, I believe understanding these things is impossible.

Shlama w'burkate
Andrew Gabriel Roth
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#6
My Dear Friends,

I want to say 'Thank you!' to each of you who answered my post here, Yaaqub, Dave and Andrew.

You know, maybe this passage is hard for me because I'm not sure of my own 'talents and gifts.'

I'm 56 now, and I can think of only a few things that I do really well.

I love my wife, and I think that I do that OK, maybe even well, but you'd have ask her. <!-- sSmile --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/smile.gif" alt="Smile" title="Smile" /><!-- sSmile -->

I think that after the long spiritual warfare that I've been through (5 years now), that an out come of that is I learned (finally!!) "the discernment of spirits".

But that was The Lord's gift to me to keep me out of (further) trouble, I think.

But I did learn that. It might need to be shared with others, I'm not certain about that yet.

And I'm fairly good at historical research.

And I'm a real believer in *compassion*, because I've been shown so little of that in my own life, especially by "the church" (so-called).

That's the extent of my 'gifts' at 56 years of living.

I just don't want to be like the guy that buried his talent.

Perhaps that's my real personal struggle with this passage.

Maybe I've not shared the few things that I do really well, with others.

Each of your answers here lead me to think this about myself.

Forgive me for thinking 'out loud' here.

And one more thing, I know exactly what Yeshua mean't when He said: "I saw satan fall like lightning" (my paraphrase).

In all of his (supposed) "power" satan is mostly bluster (& 'smoke and mirrors'....that is, he's an illusionist), and is mostly powerless, as are his minions, who carry out his work here on earth.

Shlama, Albion

P.S. I did learn one more thing from going through 5 years of spiritual warfare...........that angels are *STILL REAL* (that is, they are still active in our world, just as they were in the Tanakh and in the N.T.), and one of their roles is to help us here on earth.

Once upon a time, I did not understand that!
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