The Parable of the Talents as in Matthew 25:13-30

In the Lord's day, He spoke to the High Priests, The Pharisees, The Sadducess, and the scribes of the Jewish Church. And, as in Malachi, The Lord proclaimed His visitation upon them. They could not understand the Parables that He taught before them. Why was that? Answer: they were learned of the scriptures but without the Heart of the Scriptures ... and without the Heart of the Scriptures its interpretation is subject to error for the Holy Spirit is the one who teaches, not man. This parable is a case in point. You all know this parable from our teachings by our pastors about the management of money, but I have discovered through the Spirit that it does not deal with money per se as it does with what the Lord is concerned about, the saving of souls, which is his business. Follow me if you will in the reading of this scripture. Oh, and I won't change one word as I am typing out the scriptures as per the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

Matthew 25:13-30 (As per the Lord, as it is all in Red)

Remember, The Lord was talking to His disciples upon the Mt. of Olives, where they came and asked him what the signs would be of His Coming . But when you see the parable He is depicting the Sanhedrin and the leadership of the jewish church which was "His Own". Also when you see this Symbol (*) try to remember it.

Matthew 25:13-30

13: Watch(*) therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.

14: For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants *, and delivered unto them His goods *.

15: And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability *; and straightway took his journey.

16: then he that received the five talents went and traded with the same (* he used them) , and made them other five talents.

17: And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two (Again, he used them) .

18: But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. (He didn't use what was given to him -he kept it to himself)

19: After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.

20: And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. (*the servant used the 'gifts" that he was given to gain 5 more)

21: His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

22: He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.

23: His lord said unto him, Well done, good and fathful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter into the joy of thy lord.

24: then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:

25: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth (he didn't use what was given to him) Lo, there thou hast that is thine.

26: His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:

27: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.

28: Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.

29: For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall betaken away even that which he hath.

30: And cast ye the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Now lets take in a few things first before we get into the real meaning of The Talents such as a few definitions.

Talents :

According to King James Version; a talent is $5,280

According to World's Bible Dictionary; The talent was the heaviest weight used in Israel in Bible times. It weighed aproximately 50kilogram (110lbs), was equal to 3,000 shekels, and was used mainly in weighing metals (Exodus 38:27) Large quantities of money were usually weighed in Talents, while smaller quantities in shekels (1Kings 10:10; 2 Kings15:19).

According to the Websters Dictionary; A natural ability or power; an ancient weight or money.

Usury:

According to Webster's Dictionary; lending of money at an excessive rate of interest.

Now lets do some calculations, simple ones to be sure. which is why the Lord wanted it done this way.. Hmm? Talent= $5, 280 and the owner gave the one 5 talents so that equaled $26,400 that the Lord gave him and that the servant turned it into $52,800 a whopping rate of 100% interest! Would that be considered an exhorbatant rate of interest? Now the Lord gave the second man 2 two talents so that would mean he gave him $10,560 but the second man also did a whopping 100% rate of interest or profit! Hmmm? I wonder what the Lord says about usuary in the bible? Lets take a look

Dueteronomy 23:19 Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother; usury of money, usury of vituals, usury of anything that is lent upon usury:

20: Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand to in the land wither thou goest to posses it.

So to the Lord usuary is not to be done with thy brother, but its ok to do it to stangers. lets go on...

Isa 24:1 Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitnats threof.

Isa 24:2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender; so with the borrower, as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

For some reason, the Lord really frowns upon usuary and exhorbatant rates of interest.. so why would he use a parable that would describe an exhorbatant rate of interest that is so outlandish, its questionable? We also know from our teachings that we are not to charge an excessive rate of interest for that would put us in the Loan Shark category, which is definitely not of God. Hmm?

Ok, let's get back to the scripture and take a look at the individual words that were starred (*).

right away in the very first verse he says, " 13: Watch (*) therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.

So He wants us to be concerned with His Coming

And then in :14 he says, " Who called his own servants"

His own servants, and they must have known the "Owner" pretty good and knew what his business was all about, especially seeing how the owner gave each of them some of His Goods. and how to use them to make a profit, right?

Now :15-23 deals with the exhorbatant rate of interest the two servants made... or did they? Hmm? Keep that in mind for later.

:24-28 describes what happens to the one servant who didn't use the owners "goods" to become profitable. And so it was taken away from him.

Question... there seems to be something missing here doesn't it? The Owner gave them His Goods. Not money , so what was he was in business doing?... So the real question is.. What was the business, the owner (The Lord) was in?

The Lord is in the business of saving souls . Bringing the lost unto Him.

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believe in Him would have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved "

So the business that the Lord (The Owner) is in is bringing souls back to Him. Now what are his "Goods"? Let's take a look at a Pauline Scripture ....

1 Cor 12:1-11 Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differnces of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversitites of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to PROFIT withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom.; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit. To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." (so one might get one gift and another might receive two or another might receive five gifts of the Spirit, but they all are to be used for the glory of the Lord and the building up of the Kingdom of God.) Hmmm? You are on to something here, arent you?

Ok lets go back to scriptures and this time read it as if the talents are exactly that.. a talent, a gift that was given by the Lord to be used to bring in the harvest for it is ripe and the harvesters are few, are they not? and Is this what the Lord is really concerned with? Oh, and another thing. If the Lord is the owner of a thousand cattle on a thousand hills.. for what purpose does HE need more money? He doesn't... but he does need workers who will work the Harvest Fields and use the Gifts of the Spirit that he gave them to use..

Go back to the beginning of Matthew 25:13-30 and read it.. thinking the talents are the Gifts of the Spirit. Here we go.. get ready for an awesome revelation........ Ready? Read ..

Now, Why do you think the servant that was given one talent, had that talent taken away from him? Remember that the Busines of the Lord is souls.

The Lord in scripture said that not one would be taken from Him, no not one except for the son of perdition. that means that the one talent that was given to the one servant was meant to be used to bring in that one soul but he didn't use it and therefore that one soul was still out there, lost. The Owner giving the talent to the one who brought in 5 , knew that it would be used to gain the other soul and therefore it was not lost, but the servant who had the one talent, he was sent to the outer darkness. why? because he was given the gift of the Spirit and it was not used for what it was meant to be used for!

Now we are not talking about an exhorbatant rate of interest but infact we are talking about scripture that was from the Lord verbatim. Check out this scripture...

I wanted to quote it so I opened the bible directly to Mark 4:8 Wow!

The Parable of the Sower:

:8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.!!!!

Yeah Lord! There's the 100% profit that was told in Matthew 25:13-30!!!!

Isn't it exciting when you get the revelation of a scripture? It is to me.....

So, now what does this tell you? It says that we as Christians need to pray for the Lord to use us, to use the Gifts of the Spirit that He has given us to profit his business. Some with one, some with two , and some with five Gifts of the Spirit so that we can bring in a profit with some Thirty, some Sixty, and yes some with One Hundred !!!

GREAT! Now let's relate this to today.  Ask yourself, what gift did the Lord Jesus give to me to be used to help in the harvest? Then the second question, "Am I using it, or am I like the one servant who buried the gift/talent ?  yeah, I thought so. Why are we all in this group of talented Indie Gospel Artists? Because it is a forum that was developed to help others recognize their gift/talents so as to begin to use them for the Lord. So either you and I are a servant who needs a little help in stepping out to develop what God gave us, or we are one of those who has the 5 developed Talents/Gifts using them now.  But to sit and say we are a member of "His Team" and yet do nothing is being rather hypocritical isn't it?  The Lord doesn;t want observers sitting on the bench and that is what that one servant was doing.  He wants a participator! So When the " Coach - The Holy Spirit " gives you an unction to get up and get out there to play in the game, GO! He's got your back! 

There are over 1,000 of us who are members of the team, Can you imagine the damage we could cause if we all did just a little to help?

We have a lot of talented artists in Indie Gospel Artists and Zack, Ken and I got together and figured out that we need to at least recognize those who have attempted to " Raise The Bar " to better themselves in music, video and in the Gift of the Helps. What better way than to have a vote by the members and see who they think should be recognized. And so we have the 31 day vote going on right now. Just go to:  

http://indiegospel.org/profile/JamesBanfield690 ... and follow the directions. 

It does make you feel like you are " In Business with the Lord ", by helping bring in the lost. Amen

Praise the Lord!!!!

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

James Banfield