This parable in Luke 16:1-13 has for centuries caused confusion and consternation for Biblical commentators. The steward has been wasting his master’s goods, and under threat of being fired goes scrambling around settling debts on the cheap. His motivation is rotten – he does it to ingratiate himself with the debtors so they will take him in after he loses his job. And for this he gets praised!

Jesus then proceeds to say that worldly men are wiser than enlightened, angelic ones, and advises us to embrace ill-gotten wealth – and then, in a seeming contradiction, tells us we cannot serve both God and mammon. Huh? Didn’t he just tell us to serve mammon?

Understood on an internal level – through the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg – the story makes much more sense.

Let’s say your church decides to start a Sunday night Bible study. The pastor notes that this is part of the Sabbath, and there should be no excuses. He also encourages participants to buy a study guide which he wrote and the church is selling.

You find this troubling. You and your wife read and study the Bible together; you’ve taken part in some other Bible studies, but don’t like feeling coerced. What’s more, Sunday is the one day all your children are home, and you have a tradition of Sunday dinners that tend to evolve into long, rich conversations. You and your wife talk about it, and decide to keep your family tradition instead.

This leads to some pressure. The pastor keeps calling to remind you of the study nights, and you keep catching snide remarks from other members. Finally you tell the pastor that the reaction is hurtful and unwarranted, and you might decide to seek another church.

You tell this to a friend, and his reaction is unexpected. “I hear what you’re saying,” he says, “and I might be right with you someday. But for me, I’d never gone to a Bible study before. I always figured that I knew all the stories, and I was busy, I was tired, all that stuff. But I really couldn’t argue with the fact that it is the Sabbath. So I went, and you know, I’m seeing things in the Bible I never saw before. I mean, I knew all the stories, but now I’m seeing ways I can apply it to my life.”

That, in essence, is the parable of the unjust steward. In this example, “you” are the rich man, with a wealth of spiritual knowledge which you’ve confirmed in your life. The church is the steward, who represents external ideas about religion, based in truth but not necessarily filled with a desire for good. You can see that he is wasting your goods – the church’s ideas are hampering your ability to live the best life you can.

Your friend, meanwhile, is a debtor – someone with a collection of knowledge from others, but not confirmed as part of life. Pressured into the Bible study, he starts confirming some of the knowledge he has and applying it to life – akin to the debtors “writing” down lesser amounts, which represents confirming themselves in intermediate spiritual states.

The explains, then, why the steward was praised. Despite his limits, he found a way to be useful – and in doing so made a move toward improving his spiritual state.

That brings us to the mysterious line, “the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” This means that if we are in external states (“this generation”) – which the steward was, and the debtors were – the most effective tool for us is going to be external thought and knowledge (“sons of this world”). That’s what the steward got from the debtors, and what the debtors got from steward. They shared external things, to the benefit of both.

And what of “making friends with unrighteous mammon”? “Unrighteous mammon” is truth and knowledge possessed by evil people. To “make friends” with it is making a connection to the truth and knowledge without embracing the evil. Which, again, is something the steward and the debtors did for each other.

So the Lord here is telling us that if we are in a worldly state and want to become more spiritual, we need to collect true ideas from the world around us – even an evil world – and make use of them.

But we do have to be careful. When we’re seeking truth that is infused with evil, it’s easy to embrace both instead of separating them. So we need to be aware of which master we’re really serving – do we love the truth and feel an aversion to the evil? Or do we justify the evil and regard the truth as unimportant? That will tell us whether we’re serving God or mammon.

Here are some references:

Arcana Coelestia 3875[3],

Arcana Coelestia 9093, 9210[3];

Divine Providence 250;

The Apocalypse Explained 847[3];

True Christian Religion 437)

6827. And Moses was feeding the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. That this signifies that the law from the Divine was instructing those who were in the truth of simple good; and that “the priest of Midian” is the good of the church where such are, is evident from the representation of Moses, as being the Lord as to the law Divine (see n. 6752); and in the beginning as to the truth which is of the law from the Divine (n. 6771); but here as to the law from the Divine. So may we name the degrees of progression in the Lord, before, as to the Human, He was made the very law Divine. In the whole Word, in its inmost or supreme sense, the Lord alone and the glorification of His Human are treated of; but as the inmost or supreme sense transcends human understanding, it is allowable to unfold the Word as to its internal sense, in which are treated of the Lord’s kingdom and the church, and the setting up of the latter, and also the regeneration of the man of the church by the Lord. That these subjects are treated of in the internal sense, is because the regeneration of man is a representative image of the glorification of the the Lord, (n. 3138, 3212, 3245, 3246, 3296, 3490, 4402, 5688).

[2] From the signification of “to feed,” as being to instruct (n. 3795, 5201); from the signification of a “flock,” as being one who learns and is led by means of truth to the good of charity (n. 343), thus the “flock” in the general sense is the church (n. 3767, 3768), here the church where are those who are in the truth of simple good, who are signified by “Midian” (n. 3242, 4756); from the signification of “father-in-law,” as being the good from which, as from a father, comes forth that good which has been conjoined with truth, here with the truth which is of the law from the Divine, which is represented by Moses (see n. 6793), the quality of this good is “Jethro;” and from the signification of the “priest of Midian,” as being the good of the church where are they who are in the truth of simple good (n. 6775). From all this it is evident that by “Moses was feeding the flock of his father-in-law, the priest of Midian,” is signified that the law from the Divine was instructing those who were in the truth of simple good; and that the “priest of Midian” is the good of the church where such are.

3242. And the sons of Midian: Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. That this signifies the derivations from the third class, can be seen from the representation of Midian, as being those who are in the truth of faith (concerning which below); and as those who are in the truth of faith are “Midian,” it follows that his “sons” are the derivations therefrom. With those who are in the truth of faith the case is this: No one is admitted into the Lord’s kingdom unless he is in the good of faith, for the good of faith is of the life, and the life of faith remains, but not the doctrine of faith, except insofar as it makes one with the life; nevertheless they who are in the truth of faith (that is, who profess faith and call it essential, because they have so learned) and yet are in the good of life (that is, who are Christians in heart and not in profession only), are in the Lord’s spiritual kingdom. For anyone may easily be persuaded that faith is the essential when he has been so taught by his instructors and has imbibed this opinion in his childhood, and because they who are reputed most learned and the heads of the church say so, some of whom are afraid to speak of the good of life because their life condemns them; moreover the things that belong to faith flow in perceptibly, but not so those which belong to charity.

[2] They therefore who are in the truth of faith and yet in the good of life, are they who are called Midian;” and the truths according to which they live are the “sons of Midian;” and as those who are in the truth of faith conjoined with its good are “Midian,” so also in the opposite sense are those who are in falsity from not having the good of life, as can be seen from the following passages.

In Isaiah:

The abundance of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah, all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and frankincense, and they shall proclaim the praises of Jehovah (Isaiah 60:6); where the Lord’s spiritual kingdom is treated of. The “dromedaries of Midian and Ephah” denote doctrinal things; doctrinal things of good are “gold;” those of truth are “frankincense;” both are the “praises of Jehovah;” hence also it is manifest what “Ephah” signifies. (That by the “Midianites” who drew Joseph out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites, and into Egypt to Potiphar, Genesis 37:28, 36, are signified those who are in the truth of simple good, will be seen, of the Lord’s Divine mercy, in the explication of these verses hereafter.)

[3] That by “Midian” are also signified those who are in falsity because they have not the goods of life, can be seen from what is said concerning Midian in Moses:

The elders of Moab and the elders of Midian, with the rewards of divination in their hand, went to Balaam, and spake to him the words of Balak (Numbers 22:4, 7, etc.).

In a good sense “Moab” denotes those who are in natural good and suffer themselves to be easily led astray; but in the opposite sense, those who adulterate goods (n. 2468). In a good sense “Midian” denotes those who are in the truth of simple good, as before said, and who thus allow themselves to be easily persuaded; in the opposite sense, as here, those who falsify truths. The falsifications are signified by “the rewards of divination in their hand;” and the deeds from these falsities, by their sending to Balaam in hostility to the sons of Israel, who denote the goods and derivative truths of faith.

[4] The like was signified by the whoredoms of the sons of Israel with the women of the Midianites, resulting in a plague, which was stayed by Phinehas thrusting his spear through the Midianitish woman and the man of Israel in the brothel (Numbers 25:6-8); for by whoredoms were represented the falsifications of truth (n. 2466, 2729). And because falsifications of truth are what in the internal sense are signified by whoredoms, therefore by command twelve thousand of the sons of Israel smote the Midianites, slew their kings, and every male, and the women whom they had led captive that had known a man, and divided the spoil among themselves (Numbers 25:16-17; 31:1-54 the end). The reason why there were twelve thousand, was that “twelve” signified all things of faith (n. 577, 2089, 2129, 2130), by which falsities are destroyed; the “kings” whom they killed are falsities, and so is “every male;” the “women that had known a man” are the affections of falsity; the “spoil” (as gold, silver, cattle) are the truths that were falsified; from all which it is evident that each and all of the things there mentioned are representative of the punishment and destruction of what is false by means of truths.

[5] It is similar in regard to what is said of the Midianites in the book of Judges, namely, that the sons of Israel, because they did evil in the eyes of Jehovah, were given into the hand of Midian seven years; and that the sons of Israel, by reason of Midian, made for themselves caves in the mountains, and also dens, and fortified places; and when Israel had sown, that Midian and Amalek and the sons of the east came up and ravaged the produce of their land; and afterwards that they were delivered by Gideon with three hundred men who lapped water with the tongue like a dog, and that those were sent home who bowed upon the knees and drank, besides other particulars (chapters 6, 7, 8). Here also the things mentioned each and all are representative of the falsification of truth, and of punishment on this account, even to their being destroyed by such things as are signified by lapping water with the tongue like a dog; but what each particular signifies in the internal sense it would be too tedious to unfold here; yet of the Lord’s Divine mercy it shall be told in its place.

In Habakkuk:

He beheld, and dispersed the nations; and the eternal mountains ¹ were scattered, the everlasting hills did bow. I saw the tents of Cushan under Aven, the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble (Hab. 3:6-7); where the advent of the Lord is treated of. The “tents of Cushan” denote a religiosity from evil; the “curtains of the land of Midian,” one from falsity.

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