The Lord told the Parable of the Ten Pounds to let His followers know that, contrary to the expectations of some of them, His promised earthly kingdom was not to be established at the time of His First Coming. More importantly, He wanted them to know that they had a definite part to play in securing their place in it (see Luke 19:11-27).
In the parable, He told of a noble man who was to embark on a journey to a far country to receive a kingdom for himself. Before leaving, the noble man called his ten servants and gave to each a pound, with the instruction, “Occupy till I come” (verse 13). On his return, he regathered the servants to determine what each had accomplished with the money given to him. There was one who had made ten more pounds from the one pound that he received. To him the master said, “Well, thou good servant: because thou has been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities” (verse 17). There was another who had from his pound made five more; to him the master gave authority over five cities.
The noble man that the Lord spoke of in parable was, of course, Himself. The long journey that He embarked upon was to Heaven to receive the crown and title deed of His promised kingdom, the Millennial Kingdom (Matthew 19:28,29, Revelation 2:26,27, 20:4). The servants entrusted with the noble man’s money and instructed to invest and make profit with it until he returns are symbolic of Christian believers.
We know, however, that the Lord did not hand out literal pounds to His disciples at His Ascension. But what He had, He gave unto us. He said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
It is this Holy Ghost power that believers have received that the apostle Paul expounded upon: “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another diverse kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues” (I Corinthians 12:7-10).
These and our other divinely given abilities and resources (see verses 27 & 28 and Romans 12:4-8) are the spiritual pounds or spiritual gifts that the Lord has divided among His followers, with the command to invest and make profit with them until He returns. As the parable teaches, what we each achieve with our gifts will determine our status in the promised Millennial Kingdom of our Lord.
Although the noble man rewarded the servant who had made ten-fold profit with authority over ten cities, and the one who had made five-old profit with authority over five cities, we must realize that this was only a parable being used to convey a message. In other words, just as the “pounds” that we received from the Lord were not literal, so also would our kingdom rewards for stewardship with the same not necessarily be authority over literal cities. That should be obvious to anyone who compares the figures of the parable with the number of believers who have been redeemed through time from each city of the world.
An in-depth biblical investigation of the promise, such as is undertaken in my coming book The Global Destiny People, will reveal that the reality of the rewards is in the level at which each faithful believer will operate in the framework of the diverse establishments and organisations—governmental and otherwise—that will constitute the Millennial Kingdom of our Lord. It is in the rank that each of us will hold in the Armies of Heaven (see Revelation 19:11-16) that will take over and dominate the global society of that time! As I bear out in the coming book, the expression Armies of Heaven is largely allegorical.
In closing, we will note that the parable also speaks of the slothful servant who could not put his pound to productive use. Despite his self-righteous defense, he was rejected. Sorry, he failed the selection examination of the Armies of Heaven. When we deeply consider it, we would realize that this is actually what the present life is ultimately about: an opportunity given to everyone of us to prove ourselves worthy of a place in the coming kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, which will usher in eternity.
God bless you always.
