HOW DO YOU KNOW HIM?
Matthew 25:24-25 NKJV
24 "Then he who had received the one talent came and said, 'Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.'
Our verses for today are part of the famous parable of the talents. The talent was a measure of money that was actually quite substantial. One talent was worth twenty years' wages for a worker. In today's money, that could be as much as 800,000 dollars or even more. So when we read that one of the servants was only given one talent to invest, it's not as if he received an insignificant amount.
And our guy today did not invest the money. If you invest a million dollars today at 4% interest, you would earn 40,000 dollars, which is nothing to sneeze at. But he buried the money. Why would you bury that much money? The answer boils down to fear. The one talent man was afraid of the master. He was afraid of what would happen if he did not return to the master all of his money.
The one talent man said he knew the master to be a hard man. And not only hard, but a man who would reap where he did not sow any seeds. And the master was a man who would gather where he did not scatter seed. It seems redundant, but the one talent man knew his master to be a thief. If you are reaping and gathering where you did not plant, you are on the land belonging to another person. You are a thief. You are not a giving man, but a man who takes and takes unfairly. This was the testimony of how the one talent guy knew the master.
But from reading the entire passage, we don't see the master being this way at all. We see the master rewarding the servants who were faithful in investing his money. We see him giving more and greater responsibility to the ones who had been responsible. We see the master inviting the servants into his joy.
So where was the disconnect? Why were two servants risking and advancing while the other servant was hiding in fear? The key was in the words, "I knew you to be a hard man." This was the one talent man's perspective of his master. But it was a wrong perspective that resulted in fear and failure to act.
APPLICATION
There are vital questions we must ask ourselves. How do we know Him? What is our perception of Jesus and the Father? What do we believe about Him?
Do you believe the Lord is good and gracious, full of mercy and compassion? Or do you believe He is hard and an unfair task master taking from us? Does the Lord add or take away from your life? If you know God to be hard and Jesus to be unfair and the One who will take from you, it will make it extremely difficult to want to be involved in His kingdom. You'll do your best to fly under the proverbial radar, just hoping to stay outside of His gaze.
But if you believe He is good, kind, and more merciful than anyone you know. If you believe He will not ask you to do what you are not able. But will reward you for doing your part, then everything changes. We know the Lord through His word and spending time with Him. Take the time to get to know the One who loves you and wants a relationship with you. Then you'll be more prone to serve Him and have Him say, Well done, enter into the joy of your Lord.