The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen (Matthew 21:33-34), Part 5

Hear another parable: There was a certain householder who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to husbandmen and went into a far country. Now when the time of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did to them likewise. But last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘they will reverence my son.’ But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘this is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.’ And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those husbandmen? They said to Him, “He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and lease his vineyard to other husbandmen who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone shall be broken. But on whomever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder

“And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first, and they did to them likewise” (verses 35-36).

The covetous husbandmen refused to relinquish the cherished grapes harvested and picked from the vineyard. They denied the householder’s right to receive the rent paid through the vintage the vineyard produced. They abused their delegated privileges and attempted to wrest ownership of the vineyard from the householder, even when it entailed brutally beating and killing his servants who were sent to collect the fruits for him. The terrible abuse they suffered included stoning, scourging,verbal abuse, banishment, beatings, threatenings, and ultimately murder!

Verses 35 and 36 well recount the unending, bitter persecutions God’s prophetic messengers experienced under the secular and religious leaders of Israel down through the centuries. The prophets often times were used of God to expose the abuse and flagrant sins of the Jewish rulers. Rather than repenting and forsaking their cherished sins, the kings and statesmen of Israel refused to acknowledge the truthful charges made against them. So out of desperation to save face with the people and preserve their affluent standing with the nation, the prophets were put to death or severely persecuted in order to suppress them from any further exposure of the accumulated iniquities of the corrupt leaders.

The prophets did not refrain from boldly pronouncing God’s scathing rebuke and condemnation on the aristocratic and political classes of Israel who greedily prospered at the expense of vanquishing the poor of all means of sustenance and perverted justice to serve and exalt iniquity as the ruling standard.

The tenants, like the political rulers of Judah and Israel, were sternly admonished by the righteous servants of the divine Householder. The prophets of Israel warned of the judgment to come if the princes and nobles of the nation refused to give the required fruits and persisted in making flagrant consumption of the subletted vineyard Israel. Hence, God responded through His servants the prophets of coming judgment on these wicked men. “The Lord will enter into judgment with the elders of His people and the princes thereof, for you have eaten up the vineyard” (Isaiah 3:14).

The prophets came to advise and warn, when necessary, the rulers of the duties in taking proper care of God’s chosen inheritance, Israel. The civic caretakers of Israel were instructed by the Lord to “rule over men with justice, ruling in the fear of the Lord” (2 Samuel 23:3). In this spirit of administrative obedience, it was then surely expected of the husbandmen to freely remit to the householder’s servants the harvested grapes from the vineyard.

But, as Jesus strikingly indicates, they kept the fruits reserved for the householder alone, and horribly disposed of the first group of ambassadors he sent. They were systematically eliminated by murder and violence. Every kind of suitable benefaction was given by the Lord to sustain and bless Israel, and yet they openly rejected Him and went so far as to brutally slay the prophetic envoys sent to them.

All that God required in return for His provisional blessings was simple trust and obedience from Israel. In return, for every honor and blessing, they look to themselves and to the blessings instead of the great God who bestowed these things upon them. By their malignant treatment of the householder’s servants, the husbandmen turned against the householder and had no intention of rendering the fruits of the vineyard to him.

As a result of their unlawful gain, the husbandmen, like apostate Israel, repudiated God from His rightful place in their lives. The people intentionally removed the Lord from their memory as the nation founded, chosen, and blessed by Him. In their selfish departure, due in some degree to the abundant material blessings received, Israel attempted to prosper and exist without the all-sufficient care of God. “For the house of Israel, and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against Me, says the Lord. They have lied about the Lord, and said, “It is not He.”

This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God, nor receives correction. Truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. According to their pasture, they were filled. They were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten Me” Jeremiah 5:11-12; 7:28; Hosea 13:6). The Chosen People sadly proved this truth time and time again in forsaking the Lord and spitefully rejecting the prophets who were sent to them on errands of mercy in the vain attempt to bring the apostate nation back to God.

The prophets were not universally received, but were horribly rejected, terribly beaten and killed by the wicked leaders of Israel. “And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy” (2 Chronicles 36:15- 16).

Thus we find the sobering words of Moses true of rebellious Israel all throughout the historical period of the Old Testament leading up to the climatic appearing of the Messiah. “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick, you are obese! Then he forsook God who made him, and scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation” (Deuteronomy 32:15). In the sublime teaching device of the parable of the wicked husbandmen, the Lord Jesus reaffirms this prophecy as fulfilled fact in verses 35 and 36.

It is of interesting significance that after the first group had been sent by the householder, and was rejected by the evil tenants, another group of servants were sent afterwards on the same mission to the same hateful group of people. One would assume that the householder should have immediately punished the husbandmen and removed them from the vineyard. But God was ever so merciful and long suffering toward disobedient Israel for centuries.

He further pleaded with them by sending more prophets than the first who were sent. These two separate groups of servants accurately correspond with the two different periods of Israel’s history where God sent His prophets to the chosen nation. The first messengers sent to gather the fruits from the vineyard stand for all the prophets who were sent from the time of Moses until the Babylonian captivity in 586 B.C., when Israel fell into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar and were carried away into captivity for seventy years of exile. They were known as the pre-exilic prophets.

The pre-exilic period, extending from the time of Moses to the time of the Babylonian captivity, lasted for almost 1,500 years. During this prolonged time period, God had repeatedly sent the prophets to exhort the nation to abide by the righteous rule of the Lord according to the written statutes of the divine law.

The second group of messengers stands for all the prophets during and after the Babylonian captivity up until the last of the Old Testament prophets that were sent to Israel. The last Old Testament prophet sent by God to Israel was John the Baptist. The second distinguished group of prophets is the post-exilic prophets.

The post-exilic period lasted from the time of the Jews’ return to the Promised Land from Babylon to the first coming of Jesus the Messiah. The post-exilic period lasted for about 570 years. Thus the total number of years wherein both groups were continually sent adds up to 2,070 years. This is but a general reckoning based upon the estimated calculations of biblical chronology.

Nevertheless, this sum of many, many years and centuries undoubtedly proves that God was tremendously longsuffering toward a persistently murderous, stiffnecked unrepentant and selfish people. Yet in all this abounding evil, God, the loving Householder, still had compassion on Israel. Truly, beloved, the long sufferance of God is far beyond human understanding.

The Levites’ confession of Israel’s perpetual sinfulness in the book of Nehemiah in the light of God’s continued mercy describes well the entire Old Testament period wherein God mercifully spared disobedient Israel despite their cruel treatment of His prophets that were sent. “Yet many years You had patience with them, and testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets. Yet they would not listen. Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; for You are gracious and merciful” (Nehemiah 9:30-31).