10 Servants and 100 Coins
10 Servants and 100 Coins
So first what is a mina? First, it is a standard unit of weight equivalent to approximately 1.25 pounds (0.57 kg), which was divided into 60 shekels (copied from Wikipedia).
The writer of 1 Kings used it to tell us how much gold went into each of Solomon’s shields
”He made 300 shields of beaten gold, using three minas of gold on each shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.“
1 Kings 10:17 NASB1995
HCSB did the conversion for us, 3.75 pounds is about four pounds.
”He made 300 small shields of hammered gold; about four pounds of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.“
In Ezekiel, God sent a standard of 1 Mina as 60 shekels.
”You must have honest scales, an honest dry measure, and an honest liquid measure. The dry measure and the liquid measure will be uniform, with the liquid measure containing 5 1/2 gallons and the dry measure holding half a bushel. Their measurement will be a tenth of the standard larger capacity measure. The shekel will weigh 20 gerahs. Your mina will equal 60 shekels.“
Ezekiel 45:10-12 HCSB
As we learned in “The double-drachma tax” post, a shekel is about $12. So a Mina is 60 times 12 or $1,245.60 to be specific. So the nobleman gave out $12,456 to each of his 10 servants totaling $124,560.
When was the last time your employer gave you $12,456? What would you do with it if you knew you had to give it back in a year? Would you be able to keep it safe and give it back exactly as you received it? Would you be able to make it work and earn more with it? Could you earn it back double in a year? I don’t think I could! I would be able to keep it and return it to them as $12,456. I know a man from college who could put it in the stock market and it would earn double or more in that year. So I would be the evil slave if I were given my 10 Minas.
”He told him, ‘I will judge you by what you have said, you evil slave! If you knew I was a tough man, collecting what I didn’t deposit and reaping what I didn’t sow,“
What about with God? Has God given us our 10 Minas? Are we also able to give back to God 20 Mina’s? How about 15? What would happen if we only gave God back the 10 he gave us? Would He not call us evil slaves too, as my employer would?
”As they were listening to this, He went on to tell a parable because He was near Jerusalem, and they thought the kingdom of God was going to appear right away.“
Luke tells us Jesus told this parable because the disciples thought God’s kingdom was coming soon. Are we adding to God’s kingdom by learning, growing, and investing our resources, time, and money? Or are we so terribly afraid of God that we are hiding what He has given to us and not learning or earning more for Him?
”But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit.“
Galatians 5:22-25 HCSB
There are nine fruits of the spirit plus our resources that make 10 things God has given us. Let us return to God Love x 2, joy x 2, peace x 2, patience x 2, kindness x 2, etc. and our resources.
”Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.“
”See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.“
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