Jesus spoke many times in parables to draw a word picture of the condition of Israel’s heart and to reveal the heart of Father God. A recurring theme was that of gardener either sowing seeds, pruning his grapevines or of the landowner overseeing His crops quality.
In Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus describes the landowner who pays His servants the way He wishes and doesn’t do according to what the servants think is “fair.” Sometimes life just isn’t “fair.” Almighty God owns and watches over His creation and blesses as He chooses.
Matthew 20:15-16 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”
Isaiah 41:4 Who has performed and done it, Calling the generations from the beginning?
‘I, the Lord, am the first; And with the last I am He.’ ”
Jesus Is The Aleph & The Tav, The Alpha & The Omega, The First & The Last
א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω א ת Jesus Α Ω
Continuing into Matthew chapter 21, Jesus paints the canvas with Father God’s viewpoint of another vineyard.
Matthew 21:33-46 “Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country. 34 Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. 35 And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them. 37 Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40“Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?”
41 They said to Him, “He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. 44 And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”
45Now when the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables, they perceived that He was speaking of them. 46 But when they sought to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitudes, because they took Him for a prophet.
The priests and Pharisees saw clearly the “word picture” Jesus draw in their mind’s eye. I imagine that the scriptures of Isaiah came to mind,
Isaiah 5:1-2, 5-7
Now I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard on a rich and fertile hill.
2 He plowed the land, cleared its stones, and planted it with the best vines.
In the middle he built a watchtower and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks.
Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes, but the grapes that grew were bitter.
5 Now let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard:
I will tear down its hedges and let it be destroyed.
I will break down its walls and let the animals trample it.
6 I will make it a wild place where the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed,
a place overgrown with briers and thorns. I will command the clouds to drop no rain on it.
7 The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
The people of Judah are his pleasant garden.
He expected a crop of justice,
but instead he found oppression.
He expected to find righteousness,
but instead he heard cries of violence.
What Isaiah didn’t write about while under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was the part Jesus spoke of in His parable, “34 Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. 35 And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.“
The priests and Pharisees would have known from accounts written in the Talmud and other accounts that the prophet Isaiah had been sawed in two by king Manasseh.
That point brings me to today’s scripture of the day in my Tecarta Bible app, a scripture often quoted by Christians feeling they are under attack of some kind.
Isaiah 54:17 KJV
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
https://tbibl.es/9JWM
This verse can not be just lifted off the page without understanding the context of why it is written to understand its weight.
Isaiah 54:5-9 For your Maker is your husband, The Lord of hosts is His name;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.
6 For the Lord has called you Like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit,
Like a youthful wife when you were refused,” Says your God.
7 “For a mere moment I have forsaken you, But with great mercies I will gather you.
8 With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,” Says the Lord, your Redeemer.
9 “For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; For as I have sworn That the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, So have I sworn That I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.
In Isaiah 40 God told Israel he paid them doubt for their sins but says, “Comfort, Comfort” to them letting them know the chastisement was from a heart of love. God tells Israel that at some time it will look like He will utterly wipe them out, bring a “full end” to them but it won’t be. He reminds them of the covenant He made with Noah. For 2,000 years, not “a full end,” God put Israel in a time out while He turned His eyes on the establishment of the Church, Jesus’ Church.
Jeremiah the prophet had warned Israel not to trust in the lying prophets and priests who thought that God would not allow Solomon’s Temple to be destroyed by an invading nation. He reminded them of what had happened to the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle at Shiloh,
Jeremiah 7:3-4, 8-12 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’
8 “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.
12 “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.
Israel didn’t listen to Jeremiah who spoke not about God but for God. They too chose to listen to the prosperity preachers. Even when the invaders came and they fell captive, the religious crowd enticed king Zedekiah to believe it would only last 2 years and to not submit to Babylon’s rule over them for the 70 years as God spoke through Jeremiah. Zedekiah and Israel paid a high price for listening to the lying prophets and for thinking God wouldn’t bring destruction on a physical temple that they treated like a good luck charm. That’s the same mistake Israel made when the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines in the Shiloh event told in 1 Samuel chapter 4.
That just so happens to be the chapter of today’s devotional reading in MyDailyBible app, DailyPlan : one-year-tract : 2020-08-14 #Bible https://www.mydailybible.org/dp/esv/one-year-tract/2020-08-14.htm
In the Bible verse no one ever quotes preceding the famous, “no weapon formed against me shall prosper,” God says this,
Isaiah 54:16 “Behold, I have created the blacksmith
Who blows the coals in the fire,
Who brings forth an instrument for his work;
Barnes’ Notes on the Bible – Isaiah 54:16
Behold, I have created the smith – The sense of this verse is, ‘Everything that can effect your welfare is under my control. The smith who manufactures the instruments of war or of torture is under me. His life, his strength, his skill, are all in my hands, and he can do nothing which I shall not deem it best to permit him to do. So with the enemy of the church himself – the waster who destroys. I bare made him, and he is wholly under my control and at my disposal.’ The smith who bloweth the coals, denotes the man who is engaged in forging instruments for war, or for any other purpose. Here it refers to him who should be engaged in forging instruments of battle to attack the church; and why should it not refer also to him who should be engaged in making instruments of torture – such as are used in times of persecution?
That bringeth forth an instrument for his work – Lowth, ‘According to his work.’ Noyes, ‘By his labor.’ The idea is, that he produces an instrument as the result of his work.
I have created the waster to destroy – I have formed every man who is engaged in spreading desolation by wars, and I have every such man under my control (see the notes at Isaiah 10:5-7; Isaiah 37:26-27; Isaiah 46:1-6). The sense here is, that as God had all such conquerors under his control, they could accomplish no more than he permitted them to do.
As Barnes notes, God uses what and whom He chooses to discipline His people and “that as God had all such conquerors under his control, they could accomplish no more than he permitted them to do,” as with the case of Job.
If God is Almighty God which He IS, there is absolutely NOTHING that happens that He is not aware of or has allowed to happen. We sing about how God knows if a single hair falls from our head. Isn’t He aware and in control of ALL Things? Isn’t that what Him being a Sovereign God really means? Isn’t that where we get comfort in knowing He Is Sovereign Over Us?
Israel didn’t get the message in 1 Samuel, from Jeremiah or from Jesus. The Tabernacle and the two temples were destroyed because of the religious leaders not believing the handful of prophets who didn’t go along with the “Prosperity Prophets” lies.
Jesus warned Israel of the coming judgment, the destruction of Herod’s temple and the scattering of the nation. The parables of the vineyards were parts of those warnings. Jesus, being God in the flesh knew what was coming and it grieved Him that they had not heed His warnings.
After Jesus pronounces all the “Woes” against the lying scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23 He says this,
Matthew 23:37-39 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God is “Just” as in justice. How much justice do you see on the news night after night. Our law enforcement is called evil because of a few bad apples. Rioting, looting destruction and every other crime is OK. Some elected officials sworn to uphold justice say, “they need to vent, just let them get it out of their system.”
What’s Next??? God forbid but if you look at the repeated history of Israel in the Book of Judges and throughout the Bible the word picture is clear, invasion. I think we are already witnessing an invasion from within. Don’t let “American Pride” rule out an invasion for without as Israel did on many occasions.
Will Anyone Ever Learn From the Parable of The Vineyards???
In The Word 