Observation: The parable of the talents is easily understood as metaphorical, with the Lord as the master, the servants being mankind, and talents being responsibility and opportunity and blessings given to us here on earth. While two servants have used the talents to make the master a profit, the third did nothing with what he was given, and this is his reason ... he is afraid and played it safe because he knows the master. In this knowledge, he describes the master as a "harsh man", and his example of the master's harshness is that he reaps and gathers crops from fields he did not plant.
There's a major problem with this. The master is NOT a harsh man, and he does not do what the servant claims he does. Not only is there no evidence of this in the parable, there is evidence of just the opposite. He gives the servants talents because he explicitly trusts them with his very possessions. He is a rich man and likely owns all the fields anywhere these servants may know of. In other words, the problem is that this servant absolutely does NOT know the master, and as a result he completely misinterprets the actions of the master and reaches the entirely wrong conclusion about the master's character.
Application: I know Christians who absolutely and completely do not know Jesus. I sure I do not know him well enough, but I know his and the Lord's love and grace and mercy. I know of his wisdom and authority, and also his patience and kindness.
It is interesting to think upon this servant who claims to know his master when he absolutely does not ... then read this side-by-side with Job where the Lord declares all the 'experts' who 'know' him have spoken falsely and Job himself confesses that he is so ignorant of the truth about the Lord that he will never presume to speak on his purposes ever again. And then I can't help but see the words and actions of certain Christians I know who are so quick to tell me and especially my wife about what they 'know' of God and his intentions and plans.
Prayer: Lord, I pray for those I am thinking of. May they find a way to know you. Amen.
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