1. What government is without any economic problems, and who now have to settle accounts with this government?

WITH one exception, there is no government without economic problems. Most governments are in heavy debt. The one government that is an exception is the now widely proclaimed “kingdom of the heavens.” (Matthew 25:1) There are still on earth those prospective members of that heavenly Kingdom who are in the service of that government. During this most critical period of all human history, these servants of “the kingdom of the heavens” are being called to account. They have to settle with the government as to how they have used the valuable things entrusted to them.

2. Why should we be very interested in a certain parable as told by the “Prince of Peace”?

² To illustrate this matter, the foremost representative of that “kingdom of the heavens” long ago related a parable, or an illustration. This should interest us today, for the “Prince of Peace” included it in his long-range prophecy concerning “the sign” that would mark his “presence” in the Kingdom with full authority to rule. (Matthew 24:3) We today are inextricably involved with the consequences that follow the fulfillment of the prophetic parable, since our continued existence, our very life, is involved. So here now is the way that the “Prince of Peace” told the parable to his apostles a few days before his sacrificial death on Calvary.

3. How did the slaves who received the talents from the master before his departure handle them during his absence?

³ “Keep on the watch, therefore, because you know neither the day nor the hour. For it is just as when a man, about to travel abroad, summoned slaves of his and committed to them his belongings. And to one he gave five talents,a to another two, to still another one, to each one according to his own ability, and he went abroad. Immediately the one that received the five talents went his way and did business with them and gained five more. In the same way the one that received the two gained two more. But the one that received just one went off, and dug in the ground and hid the silver money of his master.

⁶ “‘Therefore take away the talent from him and give it to him that has the ten talents. For to everyone that has, more will be given and he will have abundance; but as for him that does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. And throw the good-for-nothing slave out into the darkness outside. There is where his weeping and the gnashing of his teeth will be.’”​—Matthew 25:13-30.

9. (a) In fulfillment of the parable, who is pictured by the “man,” and how far did he travel? (b) What evidence is there to indicate his return?

⁹ Today the evidence is overwhelming that the one pictured by the “man,” who had at least eight silver talents in his possession, has returned from his travels abroad. That “man” is Christ Jesus. His traveling abroad took him into the presence of the Creator of the sun, moon, and stars of our universe. To mark his return, two wars of world proportions, accompanied now by many other wars of lesser proportions, have bloodied our earth. As predicted, these have been accompanied by famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, and by the increasing of lawlessness and the preaching of “this good news of the kingdom” in all the inhabited earth. This has fulfilled the details of what Jesus said would be “the sign of [his] presence and of the conclusion of the system of things.”​—Matthew 24:3-15.

10. (a) Why did the man travel abroad? (b) Why was it that the world of mankind did not actually see his return?

¹⁰ Although not specifically indicated in Jesus’ parable, the man traveling abroad, to be absent for a long time, really made his trip to gain “the kingdom of the heavens,” earlier referred to in Matthew 25:1. Despite the outbreak of World War I, Jehovah God, whose kingdom over Israel was overthrown in 607 B.C.E., enthroned the rightful Heir of the Kingdom in 1914 C.E., at the due time for the trampling to be halted. No, the Gentile nations did not see with their natural vision the enthronement of the One whom King David called “my Lord.” (Psalm 110:1) They could not do so because the man of the parable, Jesus Christ, had said to his disciples, before traveling abroad: “A little longer and the world will behold me no more.”​—John 14:19.