Faithful in a Few Things…

I looking again at the parable at the talents and one of the things that strikes me is the refrain: “You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things” (Matt. 25:21, 23). The point is straightforward, just as the earthly master gave talents to each servant (one talent being about 15 years wages for the average laborer at the time) with the expectation that each servant would return a profit, God lavishes us with spiritual blessings and those whom God has blessed are to be faithful with what they have received. Conversely, the servant who failed to be faithful to what he had been entrusted with from the master was condemned, in the same way, those who despise the blessings of God are rightly condemned. This is really an important principle that recapitulates throughout the Scriptures.

I think of Rahab, a prostitute living in the Canaanite city of Jericho. In spite of being deeply immersed in paganism, she somehow came to the realization that “the Lord God of the Israelites is God in heaven above and on earth beneath” (Josh. 2:11). How did she come to this conclusion? She did not have a copy of the Torah to read, but she had heard stories, some of which went back over four decades. She knew something about the parting of the Red Sea, the key event in the Books of Moses depicting Yahweh’s salvation of His people. She may not have known all the details, and what she heard was likely to have been distorted as second hand news; yet, what grain of truth that was there, she grabbed onto, and was faithful to it. She turned from the gods of the Canaanites and pursued after Yahweh. Her faith brought salvation to her family. She became part of the Israelite community (Josh. 6:25), and the Lord even used her as a key person in the lineage of the Messiah (Matt. 1:5).

Other people in the city of Jericho would have also heard the same stories as Rahab, they too would have known about the Red Sea crossing; yet, they still continued to go their own way until their destruction.

The people of Nineveh in the days of Jonah are another example. We do not know all that the prophet said to the Ninevites, save the words: “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4) but upon hearing the Word of God, they repented in sackcloth and ashes (Jonah 3:6-9). God sent one reluctant prophet to Nineveh and the pagans repented. Whatever divine truth the Nenevites received, they were faithful to it, and that was enough for God to lead them to salvation.

Jesus Christ also called people to repent and receive eternal life. Some turned from their sin and followed Him as disciples, but others went on their own way. The Lord even warned those who rejected Him as Israel’s long awaited Messiah foreseen by the Old Testament prophets that their sin set them on a trajectory that would end with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (Matt. 24), and the fearful expectation of eternal condemnation at the final judgment (Matt. 25). Those who believed the Living Word received eternal life, but those who despised the Word become flesh, the ultimate revelation of God to mankind, they were justly condemned.

God is not trying to hide Himself from people; rather, He makes every opportunity available to covenant with people. Even “the heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hand” (Psa. 19:1). In the end, it is not so much the absence of truth that condemns people to an eternity apart from God; rather, it is the despising of truth received.

~ WGN