<p>19:24 <i>And he said to those that stood by: Take away from him the mina and give it to him that has the ten minas</i>- &quot;Them that stood by&quot; must surely be a conscious reference by the Lord to Zechariah's prophecy of the Angels as &quot;these that stand by&quot; Christ (Zech. 3:4,7); note that he too speaks in a judgment/reward context. If our Lord is referring to the Angels, then we have a fascinating picture of them taking away the opportunities given to the unworthy and granting them to the accepted. Their query of the amount of reward being given fits in with what we know about their limited knowledge, and the fact that our reward will be far greater than their present status (Heb. 1,2). Hence their reverent questioning of the extent of reward being given (:25) suggests that &quot;them that stood by&quot; somehow questioned the Lord's judgment; their sense of equality was not that of their Lord. They felt that the gloriously strong brother with his wonderful reward didn't need it to be made even more wonderful. &quot;Them that stood by&quot; could refer to the Angels, or to the way in which the judgment will in some sense take place in the presence of all the believers. The fact is, even with God's nature, it will be difficult to appreciate the principles of judgment which the Lord uses; and so how much more difficult is it today</p><p>The man 'having' ten talents as his ownis in sharp contrast with the way the one talent man speaks of how the talent is not his but the Lord&rsquo;s: &ldquo;Here You have what is Yours&rdquo;. The Lord is making the point that the faithful will now personally own the talents they were first given, plus they will be allowed to keep for their personal, eternal possession what talents they made during the trading of this life. The progress achieved in this life will be kept eternally. The Lord&rsquo;s teaching here must be given its due weight.</p>