Do you ever read a passage in the bible and get slightly pissed at God? You read and you’re like “What was he thinking? This is so unfair especially coming from the ‘Big Man’ up there?” The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25: 14-30, used to be among the few passages I felt distaste for until my dear friend Taiwo Omotesho, in one of our seriously playful conversations, led me to read it again. This time, something changed.
A little backstory here. Taiwo had lead me on some career talks about how she has a lot of things she wants to venture in but for every one of them, there’s a barricade clogging the wheels of its success. For her (not until the revelation) it was a case of “If the road isn’t smooth, then I’m not even gonna try to make a little out of nothing”. Then she narrated to me how one evening she was having a sober reflection and asking God why it was like that and then he took her mind to recall the Parable of the Talents. According to her, God asked her what she has done with one of the many ideas at least. And her answer was Zilch. “So how is it that you want more?” God asked. How awakening! I knew I needed to revisit the parable again to gain a fresh understanding.
Read: When God Takes A Nap
Why I Used To Be Offended
The Parable of the Talents likened the kingdom of heaven to a master traveling into a far country. Before embarking on his trip, he summons his three servants and gives them talents. He gave one five talents, another two talents, and one ‘only’ one talent. Each of them was expected to trade and make profits on his behalf.
Notice my emphasis on the word ‘only’? Yes! That was why I always got pissed with the parable but thankfully not anymore. I used to exercise my resentment as to why the master (who represents God in the parable) was unfair and didn’t give each servant the same amount of talent. I always asked why? Did he not like him? Maybe.
The gospel of Matthew puts that when he returned from his trip, he called each servant to give an account of how the talents were utilized. The one who was given five had made an extra five (ten), the one given two, an extra two (four) but the one given one due to his dissatisfaction buried it. Back then I used to say that if I was in his shoes, I might have done worse, maybe quit the job because of the oozing partiality.
Revisiting the Parable again, asides from gaining new insight, what made it even more interesting and easy to comprehend was reading from The Living Bible translation; one of the best things to happen to my spiritual growth.
The Big Revelations
God Detest Idle Hands: First, I got to understand that the talents represented money and the one talent was actually $1000. If I got a thousand dollars now, will I bury it simply because it wasn’t the same amount as the rest? Hell No. I will probably get pissed and jealous but burying it is the last thing I’ll do.
“Sir, I knew you were a hard man, and I was afraid you would rob me of what I earned, so I hid your money in the earth and here it is!” (Matt 25:24-25) This was the servant’s response when he was asked to give an account.
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The master replied, “Wicked man! Lazy slave! Since you knew I would demand your profit, you should at least have put my money in the bank so I could have some interest”.(Matt 25:26)
The response of the master who represents God in the parable opened my eyes to the fact that God hates it so much when we are discontented over what he gives us and worse of lazy to use our gifts. He expects that no matter how little it is in our own eyes, we must put it into use. God loves productivity. If you are not interested in using what he has blessed you with; bless someone’s life with it or invest it somewhere fruitful. It laying idle is a sin. It’s more like every gift he gives us is a ticking time bomb, for every tick, he expects a little profit at least. Notice his reference to the bank and you know how small bank interest can be depending on the amount invested.
We Are Unequal in God’s Eyes– If you are one of those who think that God loves everyone equally then you are mistaken. Just like we are advised in Philippians 2:12 to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, we must also work out the level of love we want God to have for us. At the beginning of the parable, it was written that the master divided the money ‘in proportion to their abilities’. It is evident that the servant he gave five is his favorite, most hardworking, and loving servant who has overtime worked so hard to merit it. He is that servant you will call and without hesitation, he responds. God creating us is not enough to conclude that we are entitled to his blessings, we must work for it with faith, diligence, and obedience.
Read: Did God Really Create The World In Less Than 7 Days?
Why God Keeps Blessing Some People More– Have you noticed some people around you who keep having a lot of ‘Good Luck’ in their lives. No! A genie didn’t curse them with so much richness at birth but they choose to make use of what they have despite the challenges. And from there, one idea births several other ideas. Open doors galore…
After the confrontation with the servant who buried his talent, the master said “Take the money from this man and give it to the man with the $10,000. For the man who uses well what he is given shall be given more, and he shall have an abundance. But from the man who is unfaithful, even what little responsibility he has shall be taken from him.” (Matt 25:28-29)
God loves the one who is more hard-working. Judging the case for mere face value, one will assume that he will give it to the servant who made $4,000 (four talents) after all his is little, he can have that to make his half of the ten talent servant’s sum. But No, the one with $10,000 was blessed even more. This proves that God doesn’t delight in second best. Mediocrity is not an option. God loves to deal with the best winners.
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Dear Mutterers
It is imperative that I shared this revelation with you because I know that at this stage of your life, you’ve got so many questions to ask about your career path and what the future holds. I strongly believe this will go a long way in answering some of your questions.
While it is not wrong to pray to God to bless you with more, it is wrong to be unfaithful with the little things he has blessed you with. Do not fret, there’ll be more wins to come, you just play your part.
There are always good ideas and insights from Taiwo(my woman), you’re lucky to have her as a friend, no matter how limited your resources or skills are, always try to be productive, idleness is a sin.
😁😁😁 Lucky indeed. Thank you for the support and also welcome on board 🎈🎈
I am sincerely stunned by this article🤯🤯.. I feel like you have done proper justice to it and anyone who reads this story won’t be sorry. So many people don’t know these things as we have been raised by our church leaders to be somewhat entitling when dealing with God. God is not a man but there are basic things he requires from us, so would any master too as emphasized in the article. Sometimes we view God as our Boss and know that for every thing(talent) he gives us, he is holding us accountable to it and expecting if… Read more »
What you just said here is an icing to the cake.
In summary:
* We have to shun our sense of entitlement in dealing with God.
*Before we complain that there is so much inequality in the world, we must not forget that we are not even equal in our creator’s eyes.
*God blesses those that don’t serve him so much so long as they are deligent
*Life is not fair.
*Someone is watching. God is Watching.
God bless you so much Tee 😍😍
Thank you for the opportunity Dee😍
I guess this is the taiwo you were talking about…… So much wisdom
Yes she is ❤
Very enlightening article. A must read!
Thank you Wammy 🙏🙏
This is a once in a lifetime post @mutteringminds. Please do more. I have a brother who won 50,000 in sports betting and squandered it In two days. He didn’t take any of my suggestions. I told him “do you not know that if you cannot manage 50k well, you’ll never go beyond owning 50k?” Few months later, he won 920,000 from the same source, and actually called me to brag that he could “own” more than 50k. I told him that hitting that jackpot will either be the best or worst thing that happened to him. He didn’t take… Read more »
Wow. This settles it.Most times I want to spend like an idiot, there’s this voice that keeps reminding me of Luke 16:10.
And even times where I complain I don’t have enough to spare, my mum tells me “No one ever has enough but we must do what we have to do”. This is her advising me on the importance of giving despite not having enough.
Thank you. 🎈🎈
😍😍🥰🥰🥰
Exactly!! That’s another article I think @ mutteringminds should feature.. it is called Self Concept…If ones self concept is not intact, you can’t live up to or more so maximize your potential 🤓… Thank you for this story you shared… it’s another epic side of it🥰
Hmmmmm Self Concept 🤔🤔
Ehhmmmm can you give me his number, I want to check something
🤣🤣🤣 check what?
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed😫
2 Timothy 2:15🎈🎈🎈
frankly you shouldn’t want “more blessings”. what He has given each man is enough already to make you.
He does love all equally; He gave his all for all
you don’t work for His love, you just receive it
your salvation now depends on how much you have believed; love reciprocated
God deals us in diverse ways, as to having talents. it is a gift not for competition but for us to know that we need the other to be complete. this is where the theme “LOVE” speaks.
Welcome on board Nkem🎈🎈 If he has given each man enough to make them, how come in Matthew 7:7 he says “Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and you shall find”… how come? Yes we receive his love, but how come some people get the love more??? The answer is salvation. For me, salvation is working for his love in righteousness. In Matthew 6:33, He said, seek ye first the kingdom of God and every other thing shall be added unto you” Seeking the kingdom is a heavenly race which in my understanding is an act of… Read more »
Nice one. I also feel like in the careful application of the parable of the talent to our personal lives, we also need to be soul searching for direction. Trust me, not all of us have the clear foresight about what it is we need to do with our talents.
Let’s just keep asking for Grace to discern and to act aright
You’re on point Femi. Someone asked me the same question ‘How do I know what God wants me to do with my talent?’
I’m not sure I know how to answer that correctly. When I get clarity, I’ll probably do a part 2 of this post.
Thank you Femi 🙏
I think I have a perpendicular view about this….. I wouldn’t say God doesn’t love everyone equally. He does love everyone equally, matter of fact everyone is equally in his sight. He actually love everyone more than they love theirselves. But God looks at our hearts, but we humans judge from what we see physically. God weighs the degree of love your heart got before he shows you where the money is at. ( some will say what of the wicked people that have money?? I will tell you is not every successful or money is from God.) Some are… Read more »
I totally get you in fact, the question “Does God Love Everyone Equally?” has been a major bone of contention since this story came up. Specifically Twitter. I stand corrected in that area, but I’m sure it doesn’t write off the message I am trying to pass with this post. I also love the angle you came from. Speaking of the part where you said “if the servant that was given one talent was given five, the outcome might be the same”. God truly sees our heart and detest idleness that’s why I also laid emphasis on the fact that… Read more »
My Goodness,Few minutes ago I was in church (still in Church though) and I was lost in thoughts thinking about this story of the parable of Talents,I took a sober reflection, asking myself if the master ( God) was partial to have given different talents to his servants,all of a sudden this Story(Revelation) from Muttering minds pops up on my Chrome update ,My Goodness I was so shocked that I had to open it to read for further digestion and understand while still in Church ,I tell you the Revelation is superb as am blessed this morning with further clarification… Read more »
😃😃😃 this means so much. God bless you too Emejoe for always taking time to read and reflect on the stories here. I appreciate you.🙏