PARABLES OF THE TALENTS AND
THE POUNDS
PARABLES OF THE TALENTS
The producing
the five and two talents,
is the result of a person responding
to the gospel,
and receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as
his savior.
He is born again, and his soul (God's
interest),
is bought by the precious blood of our
Lord,
and produces a separated life (5),
and a testimony for the Lord
(2).
He
is divided from anyone and everyone,
who is not a born-again Christian,
be it his father, mother, sister, brother,
friends, working fellows, the world.
This is what happens to anyone who is
genuinely born-again,
and lives a life for the Lord.
His thoughts are different. The world
does not look the same.
He rejoice in eternal things, the things
that really matter.
The things of this world matter little,
and even less as he mature in the Lord.
The people of this world do not understand
the Christian,
and there is a division between them.
This person who received
5 talents, and produced 5 more,
has responded to the gospel, and has made
the exchange,
his soul for the Cross.
His soul (the Lord's interest)
,for the Cross,
and produced the 5 (division) in
his or her life.
The believer is divided from the world,
and lives a separated life,
for the Lord.
He or she, thus produces the 5 talents,
(separation),
through the death of the cross (crucified
with Him),
he or she has received.
Next,
the person also produced 2 talents,
and became a testimony for the Lord to
the world.
He or she lives a life of separation from
the world,
and testifies with their life, and with
their lips.
Isn't it significant
that the one who received five talents,
should be mentioned before the one with
the two talents?
If a person does not produce the 5 (division),
he cannot produce the 2 (become a testimony).
If we do not separate ourselves from the
love of the world,
There is no testimony in our lives,
and we cannot testify with our lips,
and tell them of the Gospel of God.
When these two numbers
are together,
the 5 always precedes the 2.
We should understand,
that He is not talking about complete
isolation from the unbelievers.
We should still live among the unbelievers,
so we can be a testimony and tell them
about the Lord.
Keep
in mind that the word talent(s) refers to the Cross of Christ,
which produces the division and testimony.
The number 5 does not mean it is more
in amount than the number 2.
The numbers are used to symbolize a spiritual
message,
and not a numerical quantity.
Thus the 5 talents and the 2 talents do
not mean 5 crosses and 2 crosses,
but symbolize the Cross of Christ,
which produces the division, and the testimony
in our lives.
In the literal story, the word talents
are in plural,
because the number 5 and 2 are plural,
but spiritually the number 5 denotes separation,
and the number 2 denotes the person's
testimony,
and this is done by the Cross of Christ.
Another
noteworthy distinction should be mentioned here.
The word traded in v. 16,
is used with the one who produced 5 and the 2,
because he is a believer,
The word exchanger in v. 27,
is used with the one who hid the talent
in the earth,
because he is an unbeliever.
1. Believer; Traded,
(Grk. ergazomai) to labor.
Because he is saved,
and has already put his money to the money
broker,
he produced 5 and 2, and thus the word
labor is used with him.
Although
the
word labor is used with the Christian,
in producing the numbers 5 and 2,
it is really only through the power of
the Word of God,
through the Holy Spirit,
and by faith that we can produce the life
of a Christian.
We are saved by faith and we live by faith.
Remember the words of the Apostle Paul,
"Work out your
own salvation,
for it is God,
who worketh in you both to will and to do,
of His good pleasure"
(Phil. 2:12-13).
Salvation is free,
and now the division and testimony are
manifested,
and produced in our daily walk as the
Holy Spirit moves in us,
which is again by faith and only by faith.
The Apostle Paul says in
Romans 1:17,
you are saved by faith and you live by
faith.
The word labor,
is used to convey this thought,
of producing the division and testimony,
but it is God,
who really produces this 5 and 2 talents,
by resting on Him.
2. Unbeliever; Exchanger,
(Grk. trapezites) money broker.
The word money broker (trapezites)
is used with the unbeliever,
because he is not saved.
He first needs to put the money with the
money broker,
and gain interest (his soul) for
the Lord.
Because he did not do this,
he cannot produce 5 and 2,
and cannot labor for the Lord,
and thus the word traded (labor)
is not used with him.
V.18;
"But he
that had received one went and dug in the earth,
and hid his lord's
money,"
The person who received
one talent dug (worked),
and hid the lord's money (silver, redemption)
in the earth.
The earth was cursed when Adam sinned,
(Gen. 3:17).
Adam had to work for his living after
he sinned,
and here this man dug.
All this man needed to do,
was to put the Lord's money (redemption),
to the exchanger,
and exchange it for his soul.
He added works to redemption,
and thus hid the way of salvation.
He is likened to the
man in the Parable of the Hid Treasure,
who went and hid the treasure in the field
(world).
The Talents, represent the Cross,
and this man dug (worked) and hid
it in the earth.
When you add work to the Gospel of God,
it becomes the same as other religions
of this world.
The true gospel is hidden from the unbelievers.
The earth was cursed when Adam sinned,
and he had to work the soil for a living
(Gen. 3:17).
He added his works and his curse to the
Cross.
The true Gospel is hidden to the world
(2Cor. 4:3).
Hiding it in the world is done by mixing
it with the world's religion,
by adding works to the gospel,
thus the Gospel of God is hidden in the
world.
(see Parable of The Hid Treasure under
Parables of
(Mat. 13)
When the Pharisees brought
the woman caught in adultery to Jesus,
He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
It is not revealed what Jesus wrote on
the ground,
and many Christians wonder what is written
there.
This is the question asked by many:
What did Jesus write on the ground?
If it was important for us to know,
it would be recorded in the Scriptures.
The message here is not WHAT He wrote,
but WHERE He wrote.
He wrote on the ground.
He was pointing to the ground,
to let the Pharisees and all of us know,
that we are all made of the same product,
from the dust of the ground,
and we are cursed if we believe not in
Christ.
We cannot go any lower than that.
The Pharisees had the Old
Testament Scriptures,
and knew this,
that we are all made from the dust of
the ground
(Gen. 2:7).
We are all sinners and He wrote two times,
again the number 2 (witness).
He said
"he that is without
sin cast the first stone."
Yes, they all got the message.
We are all made of the same material,
earthy and earthly.
We walk by sight, by feelings.
But in the spiritual realm,
if we are to understand the things of
God,
we should and must walk
by FAITH, not by the law,
by knowing, not by feelings,
by trusting, not by trying,
by grace, not by works.
The man born blind, was told
to wash the mud off his eye,
for him to have his eyesight restored.
We, too, in order for us to have spiritual
eyes,
and insight to the realm of the heavens,
must not see from the earthly point of
view,
but from the heavenly, God's point of
view.
It's not what I must do for God, but what
God has done for me.
We must wash the world from our eyes.
The disciples
were told to shake the dust off their feet,
if the unbelievers did not receive them,
as they went from house to house.
The angry crowd tossed dust in the air
when Paul preached to them,
(Acts 22:23)
.
In the New Testament especially, earth,
ground,
dust usually represent something that
is not spiritual.
They represent things that are negative,
unless it is stated that it is good ground.
In the feeding of the 4,000 (doubters),
Jesus made them to sit on the ground;
but in the feeding of the 5,000 (believers)
they sat on the grass (life),
green grass (progressive life),
and much grass (abundant life).