Receiving What God Gives

Just to get a fuller meaning of the parable of the talents, let’s look at a few of the other words a bit closer.  (If you haven’t already looked at the meaning of the word talent, check out the previous post–what an encouraging and challenging lesson I found in that one word!)  In verse 14 of Matthew 25, the word entrusted is παραδίδωμι paradídōmi, par-ad-id’-o-mee; from a root word that means to surrender, i.e yield up, intrust, transmit.  It can mean to betray, bring forth, cast, commit, deliver (up), give (over, up), hazard; or to put in prison, recommend.  The master surrendered, gave over, hazarded his possessions to the servants. He willingly took a risk by entrusting the talents to the each because he was giving each the power to use or lose the talent.

The next verse gives even more detail about just how he gave his possessions to the servants.  If I can mingle the languages a bit, he “didomi”-ed 5 talents to one, 2 to another, and 1 to the third.  The word didomi (δίδωμι) means to give, to adventure, bestow, bring forth, commit, deliver (up), give, grant, hinder, make, minister, number, offer, have power, put, receive, set, shew, suffer, take, utter, yield.  There was a submitting of power in the act of giving,  an empowerment of the receiver in the act of giving.

The passage doesn’t leave the description of the exchange with just two verbs describing how he delivered the talents—entrusting and empowering the servants with the talent, though; in the next verse, the Holy Spirit uses the word lam-ban’-o (λαμβάνω) to show the exchange from the servants’ perspectives.  Lamban’o means to take, to have offered to one; it can mean to accept, to assay, attain, to obtain.  Three different verbs to emphasize this intentional act of entrusting, giving, committing, hazarding something to one who received it and took hold of it.  The receiver accepted the talent and received control of it.

We have all probably heard lessons on this parable many times.  We may know without much thought that the talent in the parable was a form of currency. We see the analogy of the master entrusting belongings to the servants and recognize the analogy–that all we have comes from God.  That lesson alone is powerful but how easy to take it for granted, to fail to remember that everything good comes from God, that all we have we should receive as stewards.

When we feel a bit greedy or selfish, when we feel a bit proud of all “we have worked so hard to get,” it is a reminder that everything belongs to God and He has entrusted us with it—temporarily.

How can we be greedy or selfish when it is not ours?  How can we be proud when He gave us life and breath and ability to do whatever we do?  We have probably considered the lesson in the parable of being a good steward.  I have, and tha