Intentional: Living as a force for good

It’s that time of year here in the Midwest. It comes every November.

No, not the time of family gatherings, stuffed turkeys, and thankful thoughts. It’s the time of camouflage coverings, early mornings, and deer stand hangouts.

I’m not a deer hunter. I’ve never tried it, have no desire to try it, and probably never will. But I’ve been happily married to a deer hunter for two decades. Over those years, I’ve come to appreciate his hobby, the happiness it brings him, and the food it provides for our family.

However, a group of us deer widows was talking at church the other day. And well, here’s the story…

We came across these verses while studying the actions of evil in Psalm 37, “Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for Him; do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way, by the man who carries out evil plans. … The wicked person schemes against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him.” (Psalm 37:7, 12).

We started discussing the two actions of evil listed in these verses.

• Men carry out evil plans.
• The wicked scheme against the righteous.

They plan and scheme against us who follow Jesus. The forces of evil plan how to bring down the righteous. They actually take the time to think about it and come up with ways to plot evil intent. Evil is highly intentional about causing destruction in our lives (Hebrew: zamam).

My husband is a good man – a true, dedicated, and devoted follower of Christ. But I’m going to compare him to the forces of evil for just a minute. Sorry, honey.

Because here’s the deal that the other deer widows and I started to discuss…

My husband has been planning his deer hunt for weeks. He scouts early in the season for scrapes from the deer antlers. He hangs a motion sensor camera in the woods so he can find when and where the deer are traveling. He applies the deer scent stuff that I think stinks but I guess smells alluring to a buck. He layers on the camo clothing so nothing will see him perched in the tree. He practices making the right noises so he sounds like a deer grunting or antlers rattling. He invests money in a tag, ammunition, gadgetry, and specialized clothing. This year, he even downloaded an app that utilizes Google satellite images of the region where he hunts. On the image, he marked where his tree is, the trees of the men with whom he hunts, any deer markings they found while scouting, and probably more stuff I don’t know about. The app even tells him the direction and speed of the wind.

Alright…you get the point. He’s very INTENTIONAL about his deer hunt. He doesn’t wake up some morning, decide to grab his rifle, and hike off into the woods. He plans, schemes, and invests to make his hunt successful. He covers his body, his scent, and his noise in order to DECEIVE all the senses the deer uses in self-protection.

Based on Psalm 37:7, 12, Satan and the forces of evil are doing the same thing to us. Psalm 83:3-5 says it this way, “They devise clever schemes against Your people; they conspire against Your treasured ones. They say, ‘Come, let us wipe them out as a nation so that Israel’s name will no longer be remembered.’ For they have conspired with one mind; they form an alliance against You.”

Satan is out to get you, friend and fellow follower of Christ. He’s planning and scheming to bring you down. He doesn’t decide on a whim to kind of trip you up a little bit. He is investing in every tool, opportunity, and gadget at his disposal to make his hunt successful.

What are we going to do?

We have to be just as intentional. We can’t wake up one morning and decide, “Oh, I think I’ll do something good today. Maybe I’ll go to church or read a Bible chapter.”

I’m not knocking church attendance or scripture reading, but we’re going to have to be more intentional than that.

Bible reading

The Word of God is the power to transform your life. The Word reveals truth in a world that is so messed up we have Muslims worshiping in a Christian cathedral, schools raising children instead of parents, and babies that aren’t safe in their own mother’s wombs.

Casually perusing a verse or two a day won’t do much for you though – kind of like eating a bite or two of food in a day won’t do much to sustain you. Intentional Bible reading studies it, learns what it says, and applies it to life. Intentional Bible reading figures out the hard parts – not skims over them.

Prayer

You can talk to God – right here, right now. The One who created the universe waits to hear what’s on your mind. The Savior of all mankind wants to know what’s bothering you. Yahweh who knows everything wants to know how your day went.

But He’s not an overpaid psychiatrist or a priest in confessional who can’t really do too much in response to your pleas. He can summon the angels and dispel the demons. He can provide from infinite riches and protect beyond imagination.

Intentional prayer goes beyond meal time thankfulness or casual conversations during mundane tasks. Those are good times to pray but intentional prayer takes it up a notch. It carves out part of the day and declares it as time to prayerfully enter God’s holy presence for a time of praise, thanksgiving, and intercession. Intentional prayer makes that time regular and frequent.

Invest in others

I know you’re hurting right now – so is the person next to you at work, at church, or in the grocery store line. It’s easy to invest in your best friend, spouse, or children but can we invest in those who think differently than us? Or look different? Intentional investment steps outside what’s convenient and easy. Intentional investment extends a word of encouragement, offers some help, or serves another when it’s hard to do so and maybe even dangerous.

That’s all I got – maybe you can think of more ways we can live intentionally as a force for good. If so, please share in the comments.

The forces of evil intentionally fight to bring you down – to destroy your story. We must counterattack with intentional living for Christ as a force for good. Remember, “You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Living Life between the Cross and the Coming

Passover and Easter are over. What’s next?

My focus this Passover / Easter season has been Jesus’ fulfillment of prophecy through His death and resurrection. I shared many of those thoughts on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

But now Passover and Easter are over. Jesus fulfilled those prophecies; the resurrection has happened. What’s next?

Here’s what – more prophecy fulfillment. Jesus still has a few more things to do.

He has to retrieve His bride, the church.

“Go, my people, enter your rooms and close your doors behind you. Hide for a little while until the wrath has passed” (Isaiah 26:20).

He has to return to earth; He has to come a second time. 

“On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. The Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, forming a huge valley, so that half the mountain will move to the north and half to the south” (Zechariah 14:4).

He has to judge the nations and establish His kingdom on Earth. 

“He will strike the land with discipline from His mouth, and He will kill the wicked with a command from His lips. … On that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek Him, and His resting place will be glorious” (Isaiah 11:4, 10).

He has to defeat Satan once and for all. 

“I will put hostility between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15).

He has to judge those who never chose to follow Him. 

“As they leave, they will see the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never go out, and they will be a horror to all mankind” (Isaiah 66:24).

He has to reward those who did choose to follow Him. 

“Look, the LORD has proclaimed to the ends of the earth, ‘Say to Daughter Zion: Look, your salvation is coming, His reward is with Him, and His gifts accompany Him.’ And they will be called the Holy People, the LORD’s Redeemed; and you will be called Cared For, A City Not Deserted” (Isaiah 62:11-12).

As you can see, Jesus has more to do – the fulfillment of prophecy isn’t over.

But what about now?

We’re living in the time period between the first and second coming. And in all honesty, we’re closer to that second coming than we are to the first. But how should we live during this time?

Awake & Serious

“For you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. So then, we must not sleep, like the rest, but we must stay awake and be serious” (1 Thessalonians 5:5-6).

I don’t have room to get into all of the day/night and wake/sleep imagery used here but let me boil it down… Live like the life Christ died to give you means something to you. Don’t spend your time and resources on your own satisfaction. God gave His life for you – spend your time and resources living your life for Him. Again I repeat, live like the life Christ died to give you means something to you.

Ready for action, Serious, & Hopeful

“Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be serious and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13).

Get ready! Ready to fight, ready to serve, ready to love, ready to obey, ready to do whatever God calls you to do. You won’t ever be ready if you aren’t spending time now getting to know Him and know His Word.

Be Hopeful! This world is not the end game. We have more to come after this life – more than we can ever imagine. That’s the end game. That’s the goal. That’s the purpose. Yes, life here is hard but hold fast to the hope of what’s to come.

Be Serious, Pray, Love, & Play Nice

“Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer. Above all, maintain an intense love for each other, since love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining.” (1 Peter 4:7-9).

This is a different Greek word for serious than in the previous passages. This one means to stay in your right mind, exercise a little self control, and curb your passions. Life’s not all about making yourself feel good.

Pray through the hard stuff…and through the easy stuff. Pray through all of it. Do you really have a relationship with someone if you aren’t talking to them regularly? Go to God just like you would a friend – when someone makes you mad, when something great happens, when you don’t know what to do, when you need someone to listen.

Love each other even as we remember that biblical love is all about sacrifice. Biblical love doesn’t focus on how good the loved one makes us feel; biblical love focuses on how we can give ourselves to help them feel good. Kind of like Jesus did in the ultimate expression of love – His death on the cross.

Help others out whenever you can – with a kind word, a meal, a listening ear, a little extra cash. Don’t complain or pat yourself on the back later.

So there you have it – some good ideas for how to live in this time after the resurrection of Jesus as we wait for His second coming. I’m sure there’s more but this is a good amount to get us started.

Invest...The Parable of the Talents

We’ve reached the last of the kingdom parables; they’ve given us much to consider.

A parable is a story. Jesus used them in the everyday world of first-century Israel to teach spiritual lessons. Every element in a parable represents a part of the spiritual lesson.

I wrote about the first seven from Matthew 13 in my new book “Everything We Need: God's Path to Know Him Better.” Today, we’re wrapping up a look at the last five scattered throughout the rest of Matthew’s gospel.

Forgiveness…The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

Grace…The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

Choice…The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

Be Ready…The Parable of the Ten Virgins

That brings us to the final one – the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14-30. And here we go…

Like many of the previous ones, this final kingdom parable begins with a man performing an action. The past stories have taught us the man is God. In this story, the man is getting ready for a journey. Based on the word used, the journey will be extensive. The man isn’t going to the lake for the weekend; he’s traveling abroad for a long period of time.

Like the parable of the ten virgins, this parable uses the future tense. Matthew 24-25 set a time context of the period right before Jesus’ second coming. This still future, seven year time period is the tribulation or Daniel’s 70^th Week. This parable will teach us something that will be different then than it is now, even if its lesson is good advice for us now as well.

What’s a Talent?

A biblical talent was a unit of weight or, as in this case, a unit of money. It wasn’t a gift or ability as we use the word today. We talked about them in the parable of the unmerciful servant. The talents in that parable represented an insurmountable debt; the king forgave the debt because of grace.

The talents here don’t represent a debt but rather an opportunity to invest. Accountants record income and expenses, debts and investments. If the parable of the unmerciful servant taught us about the debt, this parable teaches us about the investment.

God gave us grace; we need to invest it in others.

Why the Different Amounts?

The man in the parable gave varying amounts of talents to his servants; God gave to each man “according to his ability.” Does that mean God gives each person a different amount of grace? The point isn’t that God gave them different amounts but rather He gave them what they needed. He gave according to what their ability required.

Even the man who received only one talent received a considerable amount of money. Again, comparisons are hard across millennia and cultures, but the amount was pretty close to sixteen years worth of salary for a common worker. I don’t know about you, but my husband earns a pretty common salary and we’ve never given anyone sixteen years worth! We couldn’t begin to give such a gift; to us, it would be impossible. Yet, God’s supply of grace is limitless.

What do we do with grace?

The first two servants doubled the talents given to them. For our spiritual application, they put grace to work by investing it. They found that when they invested the grace given to them into the lives of others, it returned doubled. But the third servant didn’t share the grace he had been given. He hid it in the ground. Perhaps he was afraid of losing it or afraid of someone taking it. Perhaps he was afraid that if he gave it away then there wouldn’t be enough for him as well. But remember, God’s grace is a limitless supply. It’s ok to give it away and invest it in others because God ALWAYS has more.

Why didn’t he share?

The third servant justified his action by saying, “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you” (Matthew 25:24-25).

To understand this response, we have to look back at the parable of the tares in Matthew 13. This is one I wrote about extensively in “Everything We Need.” In short, God and Satan both planted seed in the world; God planted good seed who grew into sons of the kingdom whereas Satan planted weeds (tares, specifically) who “are the sons of the evil one” (Matthew 13:38). Only two options – we’re either one or the other. But I follow that path in the book so I’ll leave it alone here. Regardless of who planted the seed, God sends his angels to harvest all of them in the end. In other words, God will harvest where He didn’t plant seed. Their outcome isn't good.

What’s the outcome?

God gives the third servant’s unused talent to the first servant. The first servant had the ability to understand and multiply the value of the gift of grace. Perhaps his gift of grace had already forgiven much in his own life. Regardless of the reason, “everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.” For the third servant, though, “whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him” (Matthew 25:29). God gave him grace but he never invested it. So God gave it someone else.

In the parable of the tares, the two different plants have two different outcomes. The good plants enter into the kingdom of God but the harvesters burn the tares. Pretty easy to figure out the symbolism there, isn’t it?

Same thing happens here. The first two servants recognize what God gave them and invest it for a greater return in the kingdom. The third servant, however, doesn’t even deposit the grace. The result is the same weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell that we’ve seen in many of these parables.

How is this different during the tribulation?

This is a hard one because I can’t predict the future. Right now, though, when you accept Jesus’ gift of salvation – once God’s grace pours out in your life – nothing can change it. Salvation is sealed. 

For these two tribulation parables, however, the characters start with something but lose it. In the parable of the ten virgins, the unprepared bridesmaids started with oil – symbolic of the Holy Spirit – but they ran out and couldn’t enter the wedding banquet. Likewise, in this parable, God gives grace to the servant but because he does nothing with it, God takes it away again. As I explained earlier, I believe this is at least part of why God gave us the seventy weeks of Daniel – to show that the last week will link to the first 69. It will be a different time than the era of the church in which we now live.

But you know what – we don’t have to wait until the tribulation to invest grace in the lives of those around us. We need to do it now. Extend the grace God gave you into the lives of others before all hell breaks loose on planet Earth.

So ends the kingdom parables. And you know, I didn’t plan this, but “Everything We Need” ends with this same message. God gave us grace; our natural response must be to extend it to others.

Click here for a free, downloadable study on more parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Be Ready...The Parable of the Ten Virgins

We are part of the kingdom of heaven but do we really know anything about it? Jesus taught frequently about the kingdom but He did so through encoded parables. He did this for some “because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand.” The eyes of others, however, “are blessed because they do see, and [their] ears because they do hear” (Matthew 13:13, 16). I want to be one of the blessed who sees and hears the messages of His parables!

Some of Jesus’ many parables are referred to as kingdom parables. They begin with either the phrase kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God, depending on which gospel you read. I wrote extensively about seven of them from Matthew 13 in the book “Everything We Need: God's Path to Know Him Better.” However, space didn’t permit me to examine all of them. So, here we are – considering them on the Grow Barefoot blog! 

We’ve already looked at the parables of the unmerciful servant, the workers in the vineyard, and the wedding banquet. If you haven’t read the article on the parable of the wedding banquet yet, I encourage you to do so before finishing this article. The imagery in this parable of the ten virgins is the same as the parable of the wedding banquet.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

Matthew records this story in Matthew 25:1-13. Just prior, throughout Matthew 24, Jesus described the events of the end times in detail. That context is important to remember as we read the first line of this parable. “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom” (Matthew 25:1). All of the kingdom parables begin with wording similar to this. With this parable, though, the verb tense shifts from present tense to future tense. This shift is also seen in the opening “At that time” as it says in the New International Version. At that time – the time of the tribulation that Jesus just spoke about – the kingdom of heaven will be like… Like what?

Some aspect of this parable is going to reveal something about the kingdom of heaven that will be different at that time than it is now.

Set the Stage

Some translations use the word bridesmaids instead of virgins; either way, they are a group of women who wait with the bride until her groom comes and then walk in the processional from the bride’s home to the wedding banquet. They carried lamps – although a better understanding would be torches – to help light the way for the procession.

In Jesus’ story, the bridegroom came so late during the night that the bridesmaids fell asleep. When they awoke, their torches had burned out. Five of them were prepared with more oil to relight their torch but five were unprepared. The prepared women didn’t have enough to also share with those who were unprepared so the unprepared women had to go find more oil. By the time they had done so, it was too late. The groom had already come for his bride, the procession to the wedding banquet was finished, and the banquet door locked.

Who are the ten virgins?

This is when I’m hoping you’ve already read my thoughts on the parable of the wedding banquet. Just like there, this wedding-themed parable doesn’t mention the bride. Like we also saw there, the unmentioned bride is symbolic of the church. The bridegroom, of course, is Jesus Himself. The bridesmaids have to symbolize a group of people who are invited to the wedding of the Lamb but aren’t the bride or the bridegroom. Again, just as in the parable of the wedding banquet, this would have to apply to believers outside the timeline of the church – either before or after.

John the Baptist referred to himself as the friend – the attendant, if you will – of the bridegroom in John 3:29. He is one, like our bridesmaids, who listened for the voice of the coming groom and rejoiced upon hearing it. The bridesmaids of our parable perform that same job and, like John the Baptist, are believers from outside the church era.

If you’re a number person like me, you may wonder why Jesus specified ten bridesmaids. Why not three, seven, or eleven? I’ve found that when a number is specifically included in Scripture, it’s significant. Otherwise, Jesus could have just said, “the kingdom of heaven will be like virgins who took their lamps.” The number ten in the Bible signifies a portion that represents a whole. For example, the Ten Commandments are a portion of the law but used to represent the whole law. We give a tithe (tenth) as an offering to represent a portion of our whole possessions used to serve God. In this parable, the ten virgins are a portion representing the whole group of believers who come to Christ during the tribulation.

What’s the deal with the oil?

Oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit throughout Scripture. All ten bridesmaids began with oil; unfortunately, some ran out. If the Holy Spirit seals us at the time of salvation – He can’t leave us once we’ve placed faith in Christ as our Savior – then how did some of the women run out? Here’s where we have to remember that this parable began with the future tense.

The Holy Spirit seals members of the church – the bride of Christ. Scripture doesn’t make that promise to believers outside of the timeline of the church. For example, the Spirit came upon King Saul in the Old Testament but He also left again (1 Samuel 16). If you’re familiar with Daniel’s 70 Weeks (Daniel 9:24-27), you know the last week hasn’t yet occurred. God reserved it for a future time also known as the tribulation – a seven year period immediately prior to the Second Coming of Christ. I believe one reason God gave Daniel the prophecy of the seventy weeks was to link the way things worked in the Old Testament and the way they will work during the Tribulation. The time of the church divides the two time periods.

So, in other words, the Spirit may no longer permanently seal believers who accept Christ during the tribulation. A person may have the Spirit at one point – they have oil in their lamp – but then later, they may not – they run out of oil.

So What’s the Point?

Jesus sums up the point at the end of His parable. “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour” (Matthew 25:13). Be ready because when the Bridegroom comes, it’s too late. This parable may speak directly to believers at that time – the time of the tribulation – but we can learn from it as well.

Even though those who accept Christ now rest in the security of their salvation, time will eventually run out for the church as well. We also don’t know when the rapture will occur and the tribulation will start. We can’t know how long we can safely put off accepting Christ as our Savior before it’s too late. Prepare now; be ready now. Don’t wait and also find out that you put it off too long. Click here to read more about what it means to accept Christ.

Click here for a free, downloadable study on more of the parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Choice...The Parable of the Wedding Banquet

Oh my goodness, these kingdom parables wear me out! That’s part of the point though; Jesus wanted us to take time to consider them – meditate on them – before applying them in our lives. When it comes to parables, a quick, flippant interpretation usually misses the intricacy and depth of Jesus’ intended message.

Matthew 13 records seven parables regarding the kingdom of heaven; I wrote about each one in my newest book, “Everything We Need: God's Path to Know Him Better.” However, space in the book didn’t permit me to include five more kingdom parables that Matthew scattered throughout the remaining chapters of his gospel. So, I’m currently working through them in a more condensed format here on the Grow Barefoot blog. We’ve already covered “Forgiveness…The Unmerciful Servant” and “Grace…The Workers in the Vineyard.” Now we’re ready for the parable of the wedding banquet found in Matthew 22:1-14.

The Wedding Banquet

“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son” (Matthew 22:2).

If you’ve been following along in this series, you probably already know that parables are physical stories used by Jesus to illustrate spiritual truths. As such, each physical element within the story represents a certain aspect of the spiritual lesson. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we discern the correlations and then assess the overall lesson of the story in order to understand the parables.

Almost all of the kingdom parables begin with a man performing an action – each time the referenced man represents God the Father. In this parable, Jesus calls Him the King; seems appropriate. The King prepared a wedding banquet for his son so it’s pretty easy to figure out that the son represents Jesus, the only Son of God.

The King sent His servants to announce to the invitees that the banquet was ready. Guzik quotes William Barclay as he explains that the ancient custom was to invite guests to a significant event, such as a wedding, but to not include the date or time of the event. Then, when all of the preparations were complete, the host would announce that the time for the event had come.

Who are the servants and guests?

The servants appear in many of Jesus’ parables; they refer to the Old Testament prophets. We probably see this symbolism most easily in the parable just previous to this one, the parable of the tenants in Matthew 21:33-46. The prophets served God by proclaiming His truth to the people – whether they wanted to hear it or not.

The invitees are the Jewish people. The Old Testament is full of stories of God calling to His people through the prophets. Repeatedly, they rejected Him. The previous parable of the tenants – which refers to God as a landowner – reveals that God even sent His Son to the people but they killed Him. Here in this parable, though, the Son is alive and celebrating His marriage to His bride. Since the invitees ignored both of the King’s calls, the King became enraged, had the people destroyed, and burned their city. Similar to some of the kingdom parables in Matthew 13, this parable includes some future prophecy hidden in its details. This is the first such detail as the Roman leader Titus – the army used by God to bring about His plan – burned the city of Jerusalem, including the Holy Temple.

After the burning of the city – so sometime after 70 AD – God sent out His servants once again. Or, should I say, will send out His servants once again.

Who are the new guests?

Let me begin by saying who they’re not; the new guests aren’t the church. Some people think the church replaced the Jewish believers because they rejected Jesus. I don’t agree with this. God still has the same plan for the Jews that He’s had since the beginning. He also has always had a plan for the church, even during the days of the Old Testament before the church came to be. God doesn’t change His covenants.

This parable doesn’t mention an important participant in this marriage banquet…the bride. What’s a wedding without a bride? Maybe it omits her because Scripture hasn’t really revealed her yet; maybe it leaves her out because this time it’s not all about her. But I’m sure she was there! Or, will be there. Future tense. The church is the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-33); that’s a second reason the new guests can’t be the church.

Revelation 19:7-9 confirms that a group is invited to the wedding supper of Christ other than His bride. “‘Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’ (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, ‘Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’’” Notice all three mentions; the Lamb (Jesus), the bride (church), and the invitees (believers from outside the church era).

So who are these last minute invitees? We’ve already determined the invitees are the Jewish people from outside the time of the church; I don’t see any reason to change that here. However, this must be a future group of Jewish people since the King invites them after the burning of the city. Also, according to Kelley, the King has already chosen the bride. As it turns out, Daniel prophesied a still future specific seven-year period for the Jewish people. Sometimes referred to as Daniel’s 70^th week, it will serve to bring righteousness to the people, fulfill all prophecy, and some other key criteria. During the seven years, many Jewish people will recognize Jesus was their prophesied Messiah. Those future believers are our last minute guests.

What about the man with the wrong clothes?

New clothing symbolizes salvation throughout the pages of Scripture. We are helpless to clothe ourselves on our own, leaving us painfully aware of our nakedness. (Remember Adam and Eve?) Yet God provides a covering of righteousness for us, “he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).

Salvation came for the people of the Old Testament because of faith in God and His promised redemptive work through His Son. The same will hold true during this future seven-year period. The man in the parable was invited but he still didn’t put his faith in God. Sadly, hell awaits him.

The Overall Point

“For many are invited, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). The invitation goes out to all; only a few come. It’s all a matter of choice.

Click here for a free, downloadable study on more parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Grace...The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard

I wrote about the first seven kingdom parables in the book “Everything We Need: God's Path to Know Him Better.” I enjoyed studying them so much that I decided to write about the remaining five here on the blog. Last week we considered the parable of the unmerciful servant from Matthew 18:21-35. The next one in Matthew’s gospel is the parable of the workers in the vineyard. It’s found in Matthew 20:1-16.

The Story

Jesus began, “the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.” Similar to last week and several of the parables I discuss in the book, this parable begins with a key male character performing an action. These key male characters represent God in all of the kingdom parables. God is looking for workers for His vineyard – His kingdom within the world.

He found some workers at the beginning of the day. He added to His workforce four more times throughout the day – 9:00am, noon, 3:00pm, and 5:00pm. By the end of the day, He had five different groups of workers who had all performed different amounts of work.

The workday wrapped up at 6:00pm. The landowner told his manager to give each man their wages. He had agreed to pay a denarius to each of the workers from the beginning of the day. The other four groups had only agreed to work; they hadn’t made a financial agreement at the time the landowner called them. The manager paid the latest workers first and worked his way backwards through the day until he paid the earliest workers last. Imagine the disdain the earliest workers felt as the manager paid each man the same amount regardless of the time of day they began working.

The earliest workers began complaining, “These men who were hired last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day” (Matthew 20:12).

The landowner points out to the grumbling workers that he is free to pay any worker any amount he chooses. Should they really complain that he chooses to be generous?

In a biblical parable, each detail of the story is significant. Each element symbolizes an aspect of the greater message Christ was teaching. For example, as I began, the landowner represents God and the vineyard represents His kingdom within the world.

What’s a Wage?

In the parable, the landowner and workers agree to a wage of one denarius for a day’s work. This was a fair, normal amount. Here’s the significant part…the word for wages isn’t only a paycheck. Throughout Scripture, it also includes the idea of a reward. A reward awaits those whom God calls to work in His kingdom. Its first use in the Old Testament even tells us exactly what our reward is – and it’s not streets of gold, a mansion, or even eternal life. “The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.’” Fellow worker in God’s kingdom, God is our reward - our very great reward.

What Work?

Required work may seem out of place for entry into the kingdom. After all, the gift of salvation is free. Nothing we can do earns us a spot in the kingdom; it is only by God’s grace. So, why did the men work?

I could say something about the intrinsic value of a job well done. Or, the landowner found the men being idle while Scripture contains a lot of verses about working hard. Something else is the greater point here, though.

All men received the same reward regardless of the amount of work they did. In essence, they received the reward for answering the call when the landowner came to them. They were willing to follow Him; He granted them the agreed upon wage. Jesus said in another place, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29). That’s all God requires – our belief in Jesus as His Son whom He sent to pay our sin debt through His death.

What’s a Day?

The landowner called workers to the vineyard at five different times throughout the day. Some people see this as symbolic of people who come to Christ at different ages. Some accept Him as young children, some in their teens, some as adults, and some even in the last few moments of their life. Regardless of the age you accept Christ as your Savior, your reward is the same – eternity in His presence. This could be; it’s true and it’s consistent with the rest of Scripture. I have another idea, though.

The day may be symbolic of the whole age of humanity – from the time of Adam until the end of Christ’s future millennial reign. If so, each time the landowner called more workers would have to represent a different period of time in which God reached out to us. As it turns out, five different time periods happen to exist.

1. Adam and Eve in the garden, prior to their initial sin. They walked in open relationship with God as sin didn’t yet separate them from His presence. (Adam and Eve are the only examples.)
2. From Adam and Eve’s fall until the time of Moses. Immediately after the first sin, God made the first promise to send a Savior. (Examples – Seth, Noah, Abraham, Jacob)
3. From Moses until the time of Christ. God gave us the Law to reveal sin and our inadequacy in living a sinless life on our own. (Examples – David, Isaiah, Solomon)
4. From Christ’s first coming until His second coming. God revealed Himself through the Son who was the Word made flesh. (Examples – disciples, Paul, Martin Luther, you, me)
5. From Christ’s second coming until the end of His millennial reign. Jesus will dwell on earth with us as He rules over His kingdom for 1,000 years. (Examples – people yet to be born during that time period)

One common thing saves believers during each time period. Salvation comes by believing God and what He has revealed as of that point in time. For Adam, Abraham, David, Paul, you, me, and believers still yet to be born, the reward is eternity in the presence of God. That’s not something to grumble about!

Overall point

Whereas last week’s parable focused on forgiveness, this parable is all about grace. Grace given at five times during the day as men are given opportunity to work; grace given during five time periods as we are given opportunity to enter relationship with Him.

“So the last will be first, and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16). God doesn’t reward as man might expect. In His grace, He gives generously to all who follow Him. “This is the essence of God’s grace, when He rewards and blesses man according to His will and pleasure, not necessarily according to what men deserve. … God deals with us according to who He is, not according to who we are” (Guzik).

Click here for a free, downloadable study on more parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Forgiveness...The Unmerciful Servant Part 2

If you haven’t read part one yet, I encourage you to do so before proceeding.

Forgiveness

It’s not hard to see that the parable of the unmerciful servant teaches the kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of forgiveness. God forgives an insurmountable sin debt in our lives; our natural response should be to forgive the more minor – even if still significant – sin debts people owe us. But more intrigue hides in the details.

Why two different penalties?

The king at first demanded all the servant’s possessions and family members be sold to pay the insurmountable debt. The servant imprisoned the second servant until he could pay the minor debt. Possessions sold or imprisonment – why use two different penalties in the story?

The King’s demand to sell the possessions and family members shows us that no matter how much we give, work, sell, or sacrifice, we will never be able to pay the debt we owe. Although the King gives the chance for repayment, it will never be enough. We can never pay the price.

The servant’s imprisonment of the second servant shows the extent of his hard heart – an extent we don’t want in our own life. The servant didn’t even provide an opportunity to sell items in order to pay the debt. The amount was manageable; perhaps the second servant could have sold enough belongings to pay it. But the first servant jumped straight to condemnation. Those of us whom God has forgiven much must offer opportunity for reconciliation to those who wrong us. We don’t really grasp how much God forgives in our own lives if we can’t extend even a little of it to others.

Why did the servant choke the second servant?

Did you note that little detail? The servant encountered the second servant and began to choke him before he even expressed his demand for repayment. Again, this shows the servant’s heart – no compassion, no forgiveness. I think there’s more here, though.

When formulating this story, Jesus could have used any method of attack yet He chose choking. Jesus used choking as an example in one other place in the New Testament and it happens to be another kingdom parable – the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. My complete take on that parable is in the book, “Everything We Need: God's Path to Know Him Better.” But for here, “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke [the good seed] making it unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22). That gives us a clue as to the concerns of the servant. He was worried about life and deceived by wealth so he attacked the second servant to get more. He didn’t realize worry keeps us from trusting God and money deceives us so we trust it instead of God.

Why did the King allow the servant to be tortured?

This next part blew my mind a little. A commenter asked me after reading part one of this series, “If God were the King why would he have the man tortured?” I admitted that I struggled with this as well, especially since he had already forgiven the servant’s debt.

The servant imprisoned the second servant while the King turned the servant over to the jailers. We may think this is the same thing but I found a significant difference when I looked at the original words. The imprisonment imposed on the second servant meant that he was under guard. He was watched. However, the king permitted the jailers to torture the servant after his lack of forgiveness to his fellow servant. The torturers (Greek: basanistēs) were “those who elicit the truth by the use of the rack.” Ouch. This servant had the truth in him; but he had to stretch on the rack to have that truth pulled out of him.

Yes, God does allow us to struggle sometimes. He allows persecution, problems, and pain – He allows torture. But one reason He does so is to pull the truth out of us; He wants to make it real in our life. I don’t want Him to have to use those methods for my life, though. My truth is that the King has forgiven much in my life – an insurmountable debt that I could have never paid. How much easier to let that truth flow out of me as I forgive those who wrong me than to have to be stretched until I painfully admit to it?

What debt did the servant owe?

The king allowed the torture until the servant “should pay back all he owed” (Matthew 18:34). Here’s my question – what did he owe? What did he have to pay back? The king forgave the debt; he cancelled it. Friend, when God forgives our sin debt, it’s gone. Nothing’s going to bring it back. (There’s a whole chapter on that in the book as well.) The king even says, “I canceled all that debt…” The details of the Greek verb tense here indicate the cancellation was a done fact without regard to time frame.

Yet, Jesus ended the story by saying the servant had to pay back all he owed. So what did he owe? I don’t think this debt had anything to do with talents or denarii. It’s the same debt I owe today, as do you if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ. I owe Him my life – a life defined by His truth willingly poured out to those around me. A life defined by my extension of His compassion in acknowledged gratefulness for the sacrifice He made on my behalf.

Click here for a free, downloadable study on more parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Forgiveness...The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant Part 1

One of my favorite topics covered in “Everything We Need: God's Path to Know Him Better” is the kingdom of heaven. It was also the hardest topic to write…by far. Words like struggled and wrestled don’t begin to describe the days spent writing the two chapters dedicated to the kingdom of heaven.

But you see, John the Baptist and Jesus Christ both began their preaching ministries with the same words, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 3:2 and Matthew 4:17, respectively). They both began that way…seems significant, doesn’t it?

Jesus also said in Matthew 13:11 that “the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” “Given to you” – His followers; “but not to them” – those who don’t follow Him. He gave the knowledge in parables in order to make this happen.

I’m His follower. I want to know Him better. I want to know His kingdom. Despite how hard it might have been, I struggled through the seven parables given in Matthew 13 and wrote about them in the book.

Those seven parables took a lot of book space – two whole chapters. The problem was that five more parables are scattered throughout the remaining pages of Matthew. Did I dare dedicate a third chapter to this already extensive section? I decided no, that would be too much. It would outweigh the scope of the book.

Those five remaining parables have been nagging at me though. Now that the book is done and available to you, I find myself going back to them. What treasures of truth hide in their words? I want to KNOW. So for the next five weeks, that’s where we’re going to go.

Parable of the Unmerciful Servant – Matthew 18:21-35

How many times do we have to forgive someone who has wronged or offended us? Not seven, but seventy times seven (490) times. That’s a lot of forgiveness; that’s the context that begins this kingdom parable.

Nine of the twelve kingdom parables begin with a man performing some action. In all of them, the man symbolizes God. He is the one performing the action. This parable depicts Him as the king. Fitting, isn’t it?

The king intends to settle accounts with His servants. One servant owes Him 10,000 talents. A talent was a unit of money, not a gift or ability as we use the word today. It’s really hard to know exactly how much money this amount represents in today’s culture and standards. As close as I can figure, based on the average wages for a common worker, this amount is about 160,000 years worth of salary. Yeah, go back and read that again because I did type it correctly. Even if I’m off a little bit in my calculations, it’s easy to see this was an insurmountable debt. The servant was never going to be able to pay it. The king decreed that not only would He sell the man’s possessions to pay the debt, but He would even sell the man, his wife, and his children. I’m going to make an assumption here and guess that even if all items and family members brought the highest price possible, the total still wouldn’t come close to the amount owed. 160,000 years worth of salary is a debt no servant will ever be able to pay. The servant begged forgiveness of the debt. Compassion moved the king; He forgave the debt at His own sacrifice.

The insurmountable debt forgiven, the servant left the presence of the king and met up with a fellow servant. This new guy owed the servant a hundred denarii. A denarii is a much smaller amount of money. Using our same conversion system as earlier, one denarii was about one day’s wages for a common worker. One hundred denarii equaled about fourteen weeks’ worth of pay – not a small amount, but not insurmountable either.

Even though a smaller debt, the second servant still couldn’t repay the first servant. He likewise begged for time to pay the debt. Compassion didn’t move the servant like it did the king. The servant ordered the second servant thrown into prison.

When the king heard about the servant’s hard heart, compassion no longer moved Him. Anger did. The king turned the servant over to the jailers to torture him until he could pay back all he owed.

Forgiveness

It’s not hard to see that this parable teaches the kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of forgiveness. God forgives an insurmountable sin debt in our lives; our natural response should be to forgive the more minor – even if still significant – sin debts people owe us. But more intrigue hides in the details.

I thought this parable was going to be pretty straightforward but, I tell you, some of these details rocked my world. Would you rather be tortured than forgive someone? Click here to read the rest of the story. 

Click here for a free, downloadable Bible study on several of the Kingdom parables.