By Helena Lehman
Of the Pillar of Enoch Ministry
Someone wrote to me recently and asked me to decipher the
meaning of the Parable of the Talents for them. In pondering the answer, I
found that this parable has much to say to this generation that may see the
Great Tribulation and Second Coming of Adonai Yahshua (i.e. the Lord Jesus).
This is because it deals directly with the issue of how believers should spend
their time, talent, energy and resources in order to reap the greatest rewards
during Yahshua’s coming
To start, let’s look at the opening lines of this parable in the Gospel of Matthew:
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.” - Matthew 25:14-15 (NKJ)
In this passage, Yahshua clearly states that He is
telling us what the
Now, note that the man who gives to the servants in
the preceding passages and the lord over the servants in the following verses are referring to Yahshua, who is the Lord or King of the
“Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money.” - Matthew 25:16-18 (NKJ)
From these passages, we can glean the following facts: First of all, our Lord or Adonai Yahshua is the source of all the initial tangible and spiritual gifts and abilities that His followers or servants possess. Yahshua gives us these gifts when we are saved by believing in Him and receiving His Holy Spirit and gift of Grace. When we accept Yahshua as our Messiah, we become His disciples. Secondly, Yahshua expects each of His disciples to develop their spiritual gifts, talents and abilities by reaching out to others with God’s love so that they can also be saved and receive spiritual gifts.
Then, as they grow in their faith, these new converts are meant to go out and initiate a spiritual chain-reaction of lives saved because of their own personal witness and sharing of spiritual gifts. Later, each servant that has sowed a saving faith in Christ in others will reap a spiritual harvest through their right actions and deeds. The following section of the Parable of the Talents illustrates this principle:
“After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant…’” - Matthew 25:19-23 (NKJ)
Each of Adonai Yahshua’s servants in the preceding
passages of this parable reaped a spiritual harvest by investing their talents
in helping others. They thereby increased the value of their own gifts and
blessed those that they helped to save with spiritual gifts that they did not
have before being born-again. Note also that this parable clearly teaches that
each person who utilizes their gifts wisely by reaching others with the Gospel
will receive a great reward. This reward will be to become an immortal ruler
over both the saved and unsaved, mortal populations of the Earth that will
surround the
However, Yahshua also used this parable to teach that there are severe consequences for those who call themselves servants of God but have done little to show for it. If the gifts we are given by Yahshua through His Spirit are not utilized, it means we have essentially lived a carnal, sinful and worldly lifestyle. Being hedonistic is the opposite of being holy (i.e. set apart for God’s service) in every respect, and people who unrepentantly engage in sin and hide their faith in Yahshua and their knowledge of the Gospel in this life will pay dearly for it. Their reckoning will happen before the judgment seat of Christ when He comes again, for those who claim Yahshua as their Savior but lived carnally until the end will not be resurrected into eternal life and will also receive their punishment then. This is clearly taught in the following portion of the parable:
“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. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest.’” - Matthew 25:24-27 (NKJ)
By saying that Yahshua is “a hard man,” this section of the parable tells us that our Messiah expects us to go out to the unsaved people of the Earth where the Gospel message has not yet been preached and risk our freedom and our lives if necessary to save the lost by sharing the truth of the Kingdom of God. This means that God’s servants must reach people with the message that only born-again disciples of Yahshua will be raised to everlasting life at the onset of His Millennial Kingdom and allowed to live within that Kingdom’s hallowed walls and serve the King of kings as lesser lords over His domain.
Since the wicked servant in the above section of the Parable of the Talents is addressing Yahshua personally, it is obvious that Yahshua is speaking to someone who had once established a relationship with God by claiming Yahshua as their Messiah. However, from this servant’s actions, we are clearly being told that they did not take their salvation to heart and endeavor to change their sinful behavior by calling on Yahshua’s Spirit to help them. Instead, they sinned grievously by not even utilizing the limited spiritual gifts that they were given. Since they refused to fully repent of their sins and engaged in lifestyles that destroyed God’s ability to bless them, they inevitably led other unrepentant sinners astray too. As a result, the following conclusion of this parable tells us that these barely saved, lazy and wicked servants of God will be forced to live outside of the holy city of Jerusalem and the coming Kingdom of God in Earth that will be established where modern Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are now located:
“Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness (where) there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” - Matthew 25:28-30 (NKJ)
This parable suggests that those who are
technically saved but unrepentant sinners will have to wait before they
actually receive the promise of everlasting life. In fact, it implies that they
may be forced to remain in their mortal bodies and live outside of the literal
This interpretation makes sense of the repeated
stance that I have given in my books that there will be many apostate
Christians and Messianics on the Earth during the seven-year Tribulation
period. An apostate is someone who pays lip-service to God and Christ without
experiencing a literal change of heart and displaying a positive change in
behavior. These wicked or apostate servants of God that are alive when the
Rapture occurs will be left behind. Thereafter, these sinners will have to suffer
through terrible persecution in the Great Tribulation and will have to repent
fully of their sins before they will be given everlasting life and a permanent
place in the presence of God during the
Since Yahshua is teaching us about the
But, outside of the kingdom, there will be other nations and peoples that are mixed with saved and unsaved individuals conglomerating together in groups. In the outer badlands where the unrighteous dwell, there will be droughts if the people do not repent of their wickedness and choose to keep the Feast of Sukkot or Tabernacles:
“And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of
all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to
worship the King, the LORD of hosts (Yahweh Tsavout), and to keep the Feast of
Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not
come up to
This passage suggests that mortal people who are saved after Yahshua’s Kingdom is set up on the Earth but that are not truly repentant and living a righteous lifestyle based on God’s Law will be cast out of the Kingdom where totally unrepentant sinners will be forced to dwell until they repent. In other words, we all have to pay for our sins in some way if we refuse to act righteously. If we fail to repent and ask Yahshua for the full forgiveness of our sins even while acting mercifully toward others without hatred or prejudice, we will be seen as Covenant breakers, and make no mistake! The rite of Communion with Christ is a Blood Covenant with blessings as well as curses associated with it - just as every other Blood Covenant in the Bible had. As Yahshua said:
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” - Matthew 6:14-15 (NKJ)
Some might argue that this only applies to Jews who have not yet accepted Yahshua’s salvation, but Yahshua put no such qualifier on this statement. Therefore, it applies to everyone! Shedding additional light on this matter, the Apostle Paul said:
“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him… do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” - 1 Corinthians 6:17-20 (NKJ)
“Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself… For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.” - 1 Corinthians 11:27-31 (NKJ)
Though apostates can choose to ignore Yahweh’s moral Law by being filled with hate, bitterness, and anger, and they can refuse to honor three of His holiest feasts (i.e. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread which is roughly equivalent to the Christian celebration of Easter, Shavuot or Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot, which is roughly equivalent to a combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas), we will pay a price for it. Though apostates won’t lose their salvation and will eventually achieve the resurrection into everlasting life, they will likely have to wait for it to be given to them until the Last Judgment, just as unsaved Jews who wait to accept Yahshua until the end of the Great Tribulation (more on this in a moment).
The three aforementioned feasts will likely be kept
in the Millennial Kingdom by all saved people because Passover Week marks
Yahshua’s ministry as our Savior and Redeemer, Shavuot or Pentecost marks our
spiritual regeneration through Yahshua and His place as our spiritual Counselor
via His Spirit, and Tabernacles or Sukkot marks Yahshua’s role as our King of
kings, perfect Judge, great High Priest, and loving Guardian. That is why these
three feasts were singled out as ultra important by Yahweh Himself when He
sealed His initial Blood Covenant with the people of
If people refuse to repent of their sins and do not
wish to change their sinful behavior, they cannot receive God’s gift of Grace!
Therefore, Yahshua will judge these sinners and - based on their deeds and
choices - He will either give them a lesser place in His Kingdom or cast them
out of it altogether for a time. In this way, the Parable of the Talents
suggests that there will be a type of Purgatory where still mortal sinners will
have to suffer for their sins on Earth in the badlands outside of Yahshua’s
Kingdom until they are truly repentant and deemed ready to receive everlasting
life. Furthermore, it implies that those who die as unrepentant, apostate
Christians and Messianics that asked Yahshua to be their Savior but never had a
change of heart will have to wait until the Great White Throne Judgment at the
end of the Millennial Rule of Yahshua to receive everlasting life! In this way,
they will sadly miss participating in the Marriage Feast that will usher in
Yahshua’s
Though this is a hard teaching and many may reject it altogether in favor of clinging to their watered-down interpretation of the gift of Grace and the process of Salvation in Christ by His shed blood, the Brit Chadasha or New Testament Scriptures clearly teach that - though they cannot lose their salvation - apostate Christians and Messianics can lose a portion of their earthly rewards:
“For we are God's fellow workers… According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (i.e. Yahshua Ha Mashiach)…” “Each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” - 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 13-15 (NKJ)
The meaning of this Scripture is further enhanced by the following verses:
“It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” - Hebrews 6:4-6 (NIV)
The second preceding Scripture has often been
misinterpreted in an effort to justify the idea that anyone who believes in
Yahshua as Savior can lose their salvation. However, this passage does not say that
apostates can or will lose their salvation, but that they cannot be brought
back to repentance. In other words, apostates will stubbornly and
hard-heartedly continue to resist the call to repentance until it is too late
and they are either left behind in the Rapture or simply lose their reward of
everlasting life at the onset of Yahshua’s
Those among them who finally repent upon seeing the risen and glorified Yahshua in the flesh will be given the Holy Spirit. At this time, their spiritual eyes will be opened and they will realize what they have lost and they will mourn their great loss:
“And I will pour on the house of David and on the
inhabitants of
As this essay has shown, the Parable of the Talents
has a very powerful message for the
In closing, then, it would be prudent if all of us who profess to love Yahshua and His Father in Heaven did our best to heed Yahshua’s marching orders to His disciples:
“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.’” - Mark 16:15-16 (NKJ)
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NOTE: This ministry teaching may be distributed free of charge provided that it is not sold or altered and author Helena Lehman and her Pillar of Enoch Ministry web site at http://pillar-of-enoch.com are cited when this article is quoted from or published in whole or in part in any electronic or digital publication.