In Matthew 14, Jesus, the disciples, and the multitude and they wound up in the desert with no food. Well, they had five loaves and two fishes; actually, John says that the disciples didn’t even have that, there was a lad there that volunteered his lunch. In any case, the disciples asked the question, “What are they among so many?”
I imagine that the man with only one talent thought very much the same thing. “What can I do with only one talent?” I suppose I should point out that at that time, a talent didn’t refer to an ability; it was a coin, or a sum of money (I believe that is was because of this parable that the term ‘talent’ became known as an ability). The fact that in this one instance it specifically says ‘one talent’ suggests to me that it was a coin—at the very least, a small sum of money. What could he do with it? Maybe he could invest it, but a small investment, if not made wisely, can easily disappear altogether. I’m not quite sure how the stock market worked in Biblical times, but I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t any less risky than the one we have today.
I think that many times we get the idea that we can’t do anything, because we have so little to work with. What we have to remember is that we are, when we are at our best, instruments of the most High God. All we really should be doing is letting Him work through us. If we try to do things on our own, we will mess it up every time (although sometimes we don’t realize that we have messed up until much, much later). We never could do anything on our own. I’ve posted about that before.
We know the stories: the five loaves and two fishes that fed the multitude (with twelve baskets of leftovers), and the man with one talent that was rejected because he didn’t do anything with his one talent, and yet, we have a bad tendency to think that doesn’t apply to us, that’s only for other people. We tend to excuse the man with the one talent, because he only had one talent, what was he supposed to do with it? And yet, in the parable, it’s clear that he was supposed to do something with it. God obviously believed that he could have multiplied his talent (Jesus said that he should have at least given it to the exchangers to collect usuary—in modern day terms, essentially, put it in the bank and let it collect interest). And the disciples, they were special guys, not like you and me, they were the ones chosen by Jesus to work directly with Him. God doesn’t expect us to be like them, does He? The disciples were very ordinary men: Four fishermen, a tax collector, and who knows what else. They had the advantage that they were taught directly by Jesus, but we have the advantage of two thousand years of structure. Oh, it’s not perfect structure. A lot of things have crept into what people think Jesus taught over the years, but the Word is there. Read it, study it, learn what it says. Pray about what you can do, how you can make a difference, and while you’re at it, pray for me, because I’m far from perfect, and I make a lot of mistakes; sometimes my biggest mistake is not doing what God would have me to do, simply because I’m afraid I’ll mess it up. I would, too, if I did it on my own…
I imagine that the man with only one talent thought very much the same thing. “What can I do with only one talent?” I suppose I should point out that at that time, a talent didn’t refer to an ability; it was a coin, or a sum of money (I believe that is was because of this parable that the term ‘talent’ became known as an ability). The fact that in this one instance it specifically says ‘one talent’ suggests to me that it was a coin—at the very least, a small sum of money. What could he do with it? Maybe he could invest it, but a small investment, if not made wisely, can easily disappear altogether. I’m not quite sure how the stock market worked in Biblical times, but I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t any less risky than the one we have today.
I think that many times we get the idea that we can’t do anything, because we have so little to work with. What we have to remember is that we are, when we are at our best, instruments of the most High God. All we really should be doing is letting Him work through us. If we try to do things on our own, we will mess it up every time (although sometimes we don’t realize that we have messed up until much, much later). We never could do anything on our own. I’ve posted about that before.
We know the stories: the five loaves and two fishes that fed the multitude (with twelve baskets of leftovers), and the man with one talent that was rejected because he didn’t do anything with his one talent, and yet, we have a bad tendency to think that doesn’t apply to us, that’s only for other people. We tend to excuse the man with the one talent, because he only had one talent, what was he supposed to do with it? And yet, in the parable, it’s clear that he was supposed to do something with it. God obviously believed that he could have multiplied his talent (Jesus said that he should have at least given it to the exchangers to collect usuary—in modern day terms, essentially, put it in the bank and let it collect interest). And the disciples, they were special guys, not like you and me, they were the ones chosen by Jesus to work directly with Him. God doesn’t expect us to be like them, does He? The disciples were very ordinary men: Four fishermen, a tax collector, and who knows what else. They had the advantage that they were taught directly by Jesus, but we have the advantage of two thousand years of structure. Oh, it’s not perfect structure. A lot of things have crept into what people think Jesus taught over the years, but the Word is there. Read it, study it, learn what it says. Pray about what you can do, how you can make a difference, and while you’re at it, pray for me, because I’m far from perfect, and I make a lot of mistakes; sometimes my biggest mistake is not doing what God would have me to do, simply because I’m afraid I’ll mess it up. I would, too, if I did it on my own…
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