Q. In Luke 16.9 it says “make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails they may receive you into the etern

A. This verse is part of a parable that was addressed to the scribes and the Pharisee’s (v14). To get the basic idea let’s go through the verses. Yeshua starts out talking about a steward (scribes/Pharisees) who worked for a certain rich man (Lord). The rich man calls the steward to account for himself about why he was squandering his possessions. God repeatedly did this through the prophets, John and Yeshua. They had corrupted the Word, committed acts of theft and covetessness. The devoured widows houses (Matt. 23.14), tried to obtain land and worldly things and squandered God’s possessions. Fearing that his stewardship was going to be taken away (v3) he began to forgive some the debt owed to his master to try and secure their favor so that he had a place to go once he was relieved of his duties. Finally (v8) the master praised the steward for his shrewdness saying the sons of this world are more shrewd in securing a worldy place to live than the sons of light are about their heavenly home. They are wiser in temporal things than believers are in spiritual things is the point. So now we come to v 9 and the basic meaning is this. We should turn money to our “spiritual” advantage by showing mercy to the poor, helping the orphans and the widows, giving to those in need. Then, as a result, in life and death those that were relieved and helped will rise as a witness on your behalf at the Judgement on the Last Day. In other words, with the same wisdom, energy and creativeness we invest in earthly things, lay up our treasures in heaven which will have eternal benefits not just temporary ones. The scribes and the Pharisees were interested in securing a place of honor in this world and exploited the Word of God, the Temple and the land for personal gain using some in-genius interpretations and machinations to secure a place of honor in this world. Yeshua was saying that they should’ve used the same wisdom in securing a heavenly inheritance. He is clearly aiming this parable at them because in v14 it says that the Pharisees were lovers of money and were listening to this parable began to scoff at Yeshua. They knew he was talking about them, but the meaning carries over to today. The scribes and the Pharisees are alive and well today but this parable and it’s teaching has practical application to all of us.