Entrusted His Wealth
Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them.
Matthew 25:14
I have often read this parable and thought it was highly unfair. I thought the punishment released on the servant who hid his talent was too severe. I questioned the statement the master made when he said:
For everyone who has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have even what he has will be taken from him.
Matthew 25:29
I thought this was unfair until I understood just what it meant for the master to entrust his wealth to the servant. To get this understanding, we need to go back to the beginning:
And the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden to dress it and keep it
Genesis 2:15
I want you to see that God DID NOT give man the Garden of Eden, rather He ENTRUSTED the Garden of Eden to him.
Entrust – to give a task, duty or responsibility to…
Look at the responsibility God gave man regarding the Garden of Eden:
i) to dress it – in Hebrew the word used here is abad which means to work or to till.
ii) to keep it – the Hebrew word used is shamar which means to guard, to have charge of
This shows us that there was an expectation God had of Adam when He placed him in the Garden. For the expectation to be met, God must have empowered Adam to do exactly what He asked of him. Otherwise, God would have been unfair. So did God empower Adam for the assignment?
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Genesis 1:28
Let us break down this verse:
1. God blessed them – this means that God empowered them to do what He was asking of them.
2. Be fruitful (parah) – bear fruit
3. Multiply (rabah) – become great/ many; enlarge; increase greatly
4. Replenish (malé) – to fill, to accomplish, abundance, complete
5. Subdue – bring under control, overcome, quieten, crash
6. Dominion (radah) – to rule, to tread down.
That was in essence man’s job description. Genesis 3 tells us of the fall of man as a result of his inability to keep to the God’s instructions. Look at verse 23:
So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
Contrast this verse with Matthew 25:29 above. Do you see a similarity? Do you see God as the Master and man as the servant? Yes..no..? Let us look at the definitions of the word ‘servant’ used in Matthew 25:14:
Servant (doulos– Greek)
– a slave;
– one who gives himself up to another’s will, those whose service is used by Christ in extending and advancing his cause among men;
– devoted to another in disregard of one’s own interests.
When you read the parable, do you realize there is nowhere the master tells the servant what to do with the wealth he entrusted to them, yet they knew to give him a brief of their achievements or lack thereof, when he returned from his trip? Why is this? It is because as the servants, they were aware of the expectations their master had of them which was fruitfulness.
The servant who was not fruitful with his talent was walking in blatant rebellion to his master. He knew what he was supposed to do but he let fear prevent him from walking in obedience.
Your Turn
The master in this parable is God. The servants represent you and me. God has entrusted you with His wealth and in turn He expects you to be fruitful, to multiply, to replenish, to subdue and to have dominion in the area He has entrusted to you.
Is this true of you? Which of these two statements will apply to you on the day you shall give Him your report?
Well done, good and faithful servant!
Or
You wicked, lazy servant!