SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/4/2023 11:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Participants in Kingdom
Equality”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
19:30-20:7
Message of the verses: “30 “But many who
are first will be last; and the last, first.
1
"For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the
morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 “When he had agreed with the
laborers for a denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 “And he
went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place;
4 and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I
will give you.’ And so they went. 5 “Again he went out about the sixth
and the ninth hour, and did the same thing. 6 “And about the eleventh hour
he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here
idle all day long?’ 7 “They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said
to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’”
We want to begin with the highlighted portion of verse
six this afternoon by stating that “standing idle” does not actually signify
that these people were lazy or indolence, but merely points up the fact that
they are unemployed at that particular time.
These men were entirely dependent on someone’s hiring them, and the fact
that they were in the market place shows us that they were looking for
work.
Unlike the first ones that the owner hired and had told them
that they would give them a denarius for their day’s work he said to the rest
who were hired later ‘You also go into the vineyard,
and whatever is right I will give you.’
The truth is that these who were hired later on and were given this
promise from the owner means that they would have known and trusted him
to do right. They all lived in a small environment
and knew each other thus they trusted the owner to do what was right.
We can see from this story that the owner
continued to go back to the market place and continued to hire more
laborers. Now near the end of the day
which would have been 5:00 PM he goes and hires more men for working and let me
quote again the highlighted part of verse six ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ The truth is that we don’t know why they
would have been standing around looking for work, perhaps they were in another
part of the market place, at any rate they were there and were hired to work
for the land owner. MacArthur adds “The
point is that, even at that later hour, there were men still looking for work, because,
as they explained no one hired us.
“This last group had worked only one hour (v. 12) when
evening had come, which was the twelfth hour, or six o’clock. Following the Mosaic requirement to pay such
workers at the end of each day, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call
the laborers and pay them their wages.’’ That is what every conscientious
Jewish employer did in obedience to Old Testament law.”
Now
the next instructions that Jesus gives were rather unusual. The men were to be paid beginning with the
last group first. I think that this is a
very, very important point here and that point that Jesus is giving to us here
is about what people think of fairness.
As we go on looking at this parable it will be clear that Jesus was able
to demonstrate men’s self-serving ideas of fairness, and where this parable
begins to interest with the proverb what we saw in 19:30 “30 “But many who are first will be last; and the
last, first.” I tried to explain the meaning of this in our first SD on this section
of verses.
I
will conclude with MacArthur’s last paragraph in this section. “The primary idea of the parable, and of
Jesus’ application of the proverb, is not a simple reversal of payment
order. Although that procedure was
certainly not customary, it would not in itself have caused much concern. The radical action of the landowner, which
reflects the parable’s main point, is that those hired about the eleventh hour…each…received
a denarius, a whole day’s wage, as their day.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have to say that when it comes to God being
fair I believe that because God is perfect, and can never do anything wrong, I
trust Him and His Word as God’s ways are always better than man’s.
My Steps of Faith for Today: As this church age that we are all in is rapidly
winding down it is my desire to do the things that the Lord has called me to do
in order to bring glory to my Lord Jesus Christ.
4/4/2023 12:35 PM
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