A Nobleman’s Journey and a King’s Return — Part 2
Authored by Smitha Basil George under the complete direction and guidance of God, the Holy Spirit, dated March 6, 2024.
The Return — A Recap
“The return of a person whom we love and long for, is a great reason for celebration. The days leading up to the person’s return will be very exciting for those who are waiting. During these days, those who are waiting will be thoroughly engaged, making sure that things are ready and at the disposal of the person when they need it, and making all arrangements to provide them with a warm and loving welcome. On the other hand, if the person returning is not someone whom we don’t want to associate with, or whom we know that we are sure to displease by our conduct and preferences, then that person’s return would be an uncomfortable event. If the one who returns has received power and authority, that will accentuate the waiting person’s degree of joy and preparations, or on the other hand the fear of return. When the returning person is the King of the universe Himself, for those who are longing for His return, there is every reason to be exultant, and for the ones who are against Him, every reason to be terrified.”
This is a two part article series, walking through the journey of a Nobleman as told by Lord Jesus Christ, and as depicted in Luke 19: 11–27 of the Holy Bible [1]. The first part covered the journey of the Nobleman to a far away country to receive a Kingdom for Himself, and He, redeeming and transforming a Bride to reign with Himself. This article, which is the second part, covers the waiting process of the servants for His return, and the latter rewards and the positioning of His servants and citizens that He bestows upon them, after His return as their King, according to the love and faithfulness that they exercised till then, towards Him.
Scriptures for detailed study [1]:
- Genesis 6; 7; 11: 1–9; 19
- Ezekiel 28: 1–19; 45: 12
- Daniel 8; 9; 11; 12
- Matthew 5; 6; 7; 22: 36–40; 28: 18–20
- Luke 19: 11–27
- John 1; 3; 14; 15; 16
- 1 Corinthians 3: 9–15
- Philippians 2: 8–11
- 1 Thessalonians 4: 16–5: 11
- Hebrews 11; 12
- The Book of Revelation
The Allegory — Phase of Active Waiting
In Luke 19: 11–27, we see what was happening with the nobleman’s servants and the citizens of the land, while he was away on his journey. Before he left, he called 10 of his servants and gave one mina each to them. A mina, according to Babylonian practice, could be 60 shekels as mentioned in Ezekiel 45:12, and as per ancient Hebrew practice, it could be 50 shekels (1 shekel = approximately 11.4 grams in weight — [2] Rudd, Steve). He instructed each of them to do business with the given mina until he came back. One of them raised 10 minas with the mina they got, and another one raised 5 minas with theirs. These servants were faithful in being submissive to their master, followed his instructions, worked with and produced an increase to what was given to them in observable measures. Another servant did nothing with the mina, and gave it back to him on his return. There also were citizens of the land in which they were living, who hated this nobleman so much that they sent a delegation after him saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” — Luke 19: 14.
Referring to the first part, we can see that Lord Jesus was using the parable to allegorize the nobleman as Himself and that the journey indeed involved a great deal of effort including His own great sacrifice on the cross, to receive the Kingdom, and what He, as a High Priest, had been doing till this moment in representing the ones who belonged to Him, before God the Father, and transforming them to overcome their sinful nature through a step-by-step sanctification process with the help of His written Word and the Holy Spirit.
Continuing in the path of symbolic representations, we can see that the mina He gave to His servants is the representation of a key to a future with Him, the depth and layers to which the key opens, depends on up to which level of depth the servants would walk for and with Him. It includes the very first step of putting their trust upon Him for getting their sins erased by handing those over to Him, and then leading a life in and according to the Way that He made for them (Matthew 5–7; John 3, 14–16). The instructions for doing business with the mina could be summarized under the ‘Great Commandments’ (Matthew 22: 37–40) and the ‘Great Commission’ (Matthew 28: 18–20) — provided under Table 1. The servants who faithfully worked with the mina are those who surrendered to His plan of salvation and are submitted in their way of transformation with Him, and are executing with diligence the commandments and commission as much as they can with the help of the Holy Spirit, being part of His Bride.
The unfaithful servant, the one who received the mina, but chose to do nothing with it includes those who hear the Good News of God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, but choose to remain passive about it, and thus fail to unlock a relationship with Him and what that could yield in their lives. The citizens who hated him, and sent a delegation after the nobleman, are those who openly rebel against Lord Jesus and do not want to be under His authority or the Way that He established for their salvation from sinfulness, but to live according to their own standards. This category is under the direct influence of Satan and his demonic armies, since those are open adversaries against God and His creations (Revelation 12: 9).
The Kingdom is the perfectly righteous domain of Lord Jesus Christ on this earth upon His Second Coming, enjoying dominion over all powers and principalities of the whole universe (Philippians 2: 8–11), and as outlined and explained in the article ‘The Rapture and Beyond’. Summarizing the representations in tabular form below in Table 1:
{{ Great Commandments — Matthew 22: 37–40:
“37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Great Commission — Matthew 28: 18–20:
“18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.” }}
The Allegory — Phase of Rewards on Return
The allegory continues as the nobleman finally returns from the long journey. He returned as the king of the land, who has every authority given to him, and no one would be able to stop him from executing any decision that he makes or any command that he orders. This indicates the return of Lord Jesus Christ as the King of the whole universe. He first deals with the faithful servants, the Bride of Christ. This happens after the catching away or rapture of the Bride to the heavenly home that He has prepared for her (John 14: 1–3; 1 Thessalonians 4: 16–5: 11; Revelation 3: 7–13; ‘The Rapture and Beyond’ — the dead in Christ will resurrect and the living in Christ will be transformed into glorious bodies, and caught up with Christ when He comes in mid-air for His Bride). As we saw in the first part, no one can enter into a relationship with God through any works, but by accepting the atonement that Jesus Christ provided for their sins, and thus by receiving salvation from their own sinful nature and separation from God.
The faithful servants are those who made that decision and then with the help of the Holy Spirit, unlocked deeper levels of relationship with God and thus were enabled to execute the commandments of loving God and loving others, and the Great Commission of spreading the Good News of Salvation through Jesus Christ. The first servant could earn 10 minas which shows his/her level of relationship with God and the enablement that he/she could achieve by unlocking and understanding more and more insights. That person was given authority over 10 cities, since he/she learned and achieved enough capability to oversee 10 cities. These 10 cities are assignments that the person would be performing in the Kingdom which would be established by Lord Jesus Christ on earth. The next person earned 5 minas, and that was how many cities he/she was given authority to. Once a relationship with God is established, every action performed according to His commandments yield appropriate rewards in the Kingdom of Jesus. Apostle Paul mentioned this in his 1st letter to Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 3: 9–15:
“9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. 10 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. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 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. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
The unfaithful servant, who chose to keep the mina in a handkerchief and did nothing with it, dropped a great chance to enter into a relationship with God. They had their mina taken away and given to the one who learned the skills to oversee 10 cities / greater assignments. Their argument of not wanting to work with what the nobleman offered, as because of their understanding of the nobleman’s nature (as a supposed austere man collecting from where he didn’t deposit or reaping what he didn’t sow) did not stand a chance. They could already see the loyalty, preparations, eager anticipation and diligence displayed by the faithful servants, and they had a considerable amount of time at their disposal. Those who reject Jesus’ offer of atonement for their sins, by providing their incorrect understanding of God’s nature as the reason for their rejection, are called here to have another look into the great deal of love exhibited by God in taking their punishment upon Himself and providing them a Way back to Him (Jesus the Christ, the Atonement for Human Sin). In addition, we can see a cloud of witnesses, in the Word of God (Eg: Hebrews 11), in history, and in many living examples of faithful servants who understood, received and are having surrendered lives to the transformative work of His Word and His Holy Spirit.
The citizens of the nobleman’s / the returned King’s dominion, who openly rebelled against him, by sending delegations against him saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us.”, established themselves as his enemies very plainly. We can see examples of such sections of human kind during Noah’s time (Genesis 6, 7), Nimrod’s time (Tower of Babel — Genesis 11: 1–9), Lot’s time (Genesis 19), all of which ended up in destruction. We can also see dictatorships and empires (many times tyrannical) throughout history, where the leaders tried to establish themselves as God — Egyptian Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezzar (Babylonian), Alexander the Great (Greek), Antiochus IV Epiphanes (Greek Seleucid) etc, where all of them eventually met with humbling and / or destruction. These individuals are heavily influenced by the ancient adversary, Satan, who wanted himself to be worshiped and exalted as the Most High God. In Ezekiel 28: 1–19, the prophet Ezekiel describes the behavior, rebellion, desire to be worshiped and the eventual destruction of the king of Tyre, and the force behind him, who was Satan himself.
It will be the same fate for the enemies of God, who are powered by Satanic forces, openly declaring that there is no God, or that they themselves are gods, or that they can become immortal & invincible by their own powers & means that they develop. Daniel described such a system and personality (Daniel 9: 27) in his ‘Seventy Weeks of Daniel’ prophecy. As explained in ‘The Rapture and Beyond’, this period will take place after the rapture of the Bride of Christ. Apostle John described this coming beast system in Revelation 13 under the leadership of the very same personality that Daniel prophesied, the Antichrist indwelt by Satan and supported by a false prophet, who will confirm a 7 year covenant with many as part of a new world system, under the pretense of peace, but will demand to be worshiped as God at the midpoint of the 7 year time period. God, on the other hand, uses this 7 year period of Tribulation (the Day of the Lord / Daniel’s 70th Week) to identify and purge unrepented sinfulness of mankind (the book of Revelation) and eventually destroys all His enemies — Revelation 19: 11–21; 20: 1–15.
At the end of this 7 year period of Tribulation, Lord Jesus Christ will return in person to the earth as the King of the universe, along with His Bride and will slay every living rebelling individual. The Antichrist and his false prophet will be thrown into the lake of fire (hell / eternal separation from God) and Satan will be bound for 1000 years. Then those who accepted Jesus Christ, but died during the Tribulation period as martyrs will come to life, and Jesus will establish His perfectly righteous millennial reign (1000 year reign) upon the earth, where all His saints will reign with Him — in accordance with their assignments. At the end of 1000 years, Satan will be loosened for a while to deceive and gather anyone else who would not accept Jesus wholeheartedly and would eventually develop rebellion during the 1000 year reign, whom God will then destroy with fire from heaven. Satan will then be thrown to the lake of fire. The final judgment of everyone who died in their sinful nature at different periods of time, those who never accepted Jesus’ atonement for their sins, and thus their sins being shown evidently and could never enter into a relationship with God happens at the Great White Throne Judgment, where they eventually need to be going to the lake of fire itself because of their own choice and sinfulness (Revelation 20: 11–15).
The allegory ends there in Luke 19: 27. The manifest wisdom of God captured in these 17 verses — Luke 19: 11–27 is so deep as we just saw in this two part series. It is an open invitation for every one, provided by Lord Jesus Christ to take part in His coming glorious and perfect Kingdom, to reign by His side, as His Bride. Let us take the chance while it stands!
Hebrews 12: 1–2:
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
References
- The Holy Bible, https://www.biblegateway.com/ , New King James Version
- Rudd, Steve, History of Bible coins and the Hebrew money weight system, as retrieved on 29th February, 2024 from https://www.bible.ca/coins/bible-coins-history-money-weight-system.htm
