Is God harsh? This is what the third servant in the Parable of the Three Servants accused the gift-giver of being. Matthew 25: 24 “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’[1]
In this parable, the master gives three servants varying amounts of money. The first two double their money, but the third seems afraid and buries it. The third servant accuses the master of exploiting others, but is this an excuse to take the focus off his laziness? This seems to be the case. Matthew 25: 26 “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, 27 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’ [2]
How Should We Serve God?
Bruce Barton explains this part of the parable well: “The servant made excuses instead of realizing that, from the start, his responsibility was to serve his master to the best of his ability. To refuse to serve reveals a lack of love and little desire to accomplish anything for the master. We must not make excuses to avoid doing what God calls us to do. God truly is our Master, so we must obey him. Our time, abilities, and money aren’t really ours; we are caretakers, not owners. When we ignore, squander, or abuse what we have been given, we are rebellious and deserve to be punished.”[3]
Who We Think God Is Affects Our Actions
If we think God is harsh and unfair, we will not trust Him and try to avoid Him. As we look at the stories in the Bible, we find that God loves us and has a plan to restore our relationship with Him through Jesus.
Psalm 145: 9 The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation. 10 All of your works will thank you, Lord, and your faithful followers will praise you.[4] When we understand that God is good, loves us, and desires the best for us, we want to respond by serving Him. The best way to understand the character of God is to spend time in His Word. There, we see He is a loving but just God.
Is God harsh? To find out more, listen here:
https://podpoint.com/light-of-christ-church-podcast/parable-of-the-three-servants
[1,2,4] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers.
[3] Barton, B. B. (1996). Matthew (pp. 492–493). Tyndale House Publishers.