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Biblical Wisdom

The Master He Described

The third servant says he knew his master. The rest of the parable does not agree with him.

By EmberKeeper Editorial 1 min read

Scripture Matthew 25:24–27

The third servant opens with a portrait. “Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed.”

Everything he did followed from it. “So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground.”

But the reader has just watched this master. He entrusted his possessions to his servants and went away. Twice, to two different men, he said the same words: “Enter into the joy of your master!” The servant is describing someone the parable has not shown us.

He calls what he felt fear. The master uses other words for it: wicked and lazy. And he points out that even by the servant’s own picture, the bankers were right there.

What we believe about God does not stay in our heads. Sooner or later it decides what we do with what He has placed in our hands. A hard God tends to produce a hole in the ground.

Scripture in English is from the Berean Standard Bible, placed in the public domain by its publisher on 30 April 2023.

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