<p>25:18&nbsp;<em>But he that received the one went away and dug in the earth and hid his lord's money</em>-&nbsp; The tragedy is that the Gospel is hid from the majority anyway (s.w. 11:25; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:26). It is treasure hid in a field which must be found (13:44). And it is hid now by one to whom it was revealed in order to share with others, put back in the earth from which the Lord Jesus had extracted it. By hiding it, the man effectively was placing himself in the same position as the unbelieving world. The allusion is clearly to Achan, hiding God&rsquo;s talents in the earth, for himself. In this connection we perhaps have an insight into the man&rsquo;s mentality. Can we infer that the man reasoned that the Lord might in fact never return, and therefore, his Lord&rsquo;s talents would become his? His excuses about the Lord being unreasonably demanding and &ldquo;therefore&rdquo; he did nothing with the talent all seem rather illogical, as if he was just saying it for the sake of mumbling at least something. His real motivation, surely, was to keep the talent for himself- on the basis that his Lord would not return. And this is the context of the parable. The fact we know that Christ will return, even if we do not know when exactly, will guard us against such an assumption- that we can take what is His as ours.</p><p>The fact it was not his (&quot;his Lord's money&rdquo;) meant that he had no right to simply not use it. The fact we have been given so much by the Lord is undeniable; and we are to use it for Him and not hide it. Because it&rsquo;s not ours to do that with.</p>