Rhetorical: The crowning argument in the exposition of the nature of the unprofitable servant is the obvious fact that man cannot compete with God as a purveyor of blessings. Benjamin noted that God has created us, and uses that image now to show the ultimate dependence of man upon God. Man is not even as much as the “dust of the earth” – not because we have no value, but because we cannot create even that, and God has! We must not make the mistake of thinking that Benjamin thinks man of no worth. His example is not about the absolute value of man, but rather his position as a servant in relationship to his master. We are not even “as much as the dust of the earth” because we were “created of the dust” and it is our God, our master, who created both the dust and us.