The Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen (Matthew 21:33-34) , Part 4

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

The tower usually occupied a conspicuous and prominent place in the vineyard and was the highest of structures therein. The tenants mainly used the tower for a lookout to survey the entire expanse of the vineyard. The tower obviously speaks of God’s exalted position and protection in and over Israel. The ever-present yet transcendent and exalted Lord was to be supremely acknowledged in all matters of Israel’s national existence.

Though God is higher than the highest of the heavens, He condescendingly remained near at hand for the ongoing protection and benefit of His Chosen People. Psalm 138:6 captures well this evident reality. “Though the Lord is high, yet He has respect to the lowly” And again in Isaiah 49:16, God eloquently speaks of His supernal watch and care over all of Israel. “Your walls are continually before Me. Your children shall make haste; your destroyers and they that made waste shall go forth from you.”

The facilities that were installed in the vineyard by the owner qualified its useful productivity. The landowner spared no expense in thoroughly outfitting his vineyard so that it might fulfill its fruitful purpose. The hedge, the winepress, and the tower all contributed to the ongoing production of the vineyard. These faint and shadowy figures, of course, point to the heavenly cordials of provision supplied by God for the national prosperity and perpetuity of Israel, the chosen vineyard of the Lord.

The Lord promised to water, nurture, and care for Israel His vineyard—to the extent that he would flourish under His abundant care. “I will be as the dew to Israel. He shall grow as the lily, and shoot forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his fragrance as Lebanon” (Hosea 14:5-6).

After every care of the vineyard had been adequately provided for, the husbandman “leased” his vineyard out to the tenants to cultivate it during his prolonged absence. Instead of annually paying the householder with a proper sum of money, the tenants were required to pay with a certain amount of yielded grapes from the vintage per season.

The tenants were given the solemn responsibility of properly caring for the householder’s vineyard. In return for their hard work, they were allowed to live off some of the vintage produced from the vineyard. This important action of transference speaks accurately of God’s sovereign conferral of Israel into the custodial hands of her national leaders, which consisted of two ranks. In the secular rank, the nation was to be governed by the legislative judges, and later the kings of Israel.

Prior to entrance into the Holy Land, these judges were taken from the twelve tribes to administer justice throughout Israel. “Judges and officers shall you make in all the gates, which the Lord your God gives you, throughout the tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. If there be a controversy between men and they come to judgment, that the judge may judge, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked” (Deuteronomy 16:18; 25:1).

In the religious and spiritual rank, Israel was to be instructed and governed by the divine Law through the leadership and tutelage of the Priests, Scribes and Pharisees (Deuteronomy 10:8; 31:9-13; Matthew 23:2-3). The original Greek for “lease out” connotes an interesting meaning that gives additional flavor to the historical context of the parable as it relates to Israel’s privileges under God. The Greek “lease” is εξεδοτο; it means to let or lease out for one’s advantage.

The vineyard and its fruits were leased out to the tenants for the express benefit of their agricultural labors. The husbandman would reward them for their completed work. Thus in this transaction, God bestowed His divine kingdom to Israel through her leaders with its blessed entitlements “to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises” (Romans 9:4).

The vineyard is temporarily given out on a rental basis. The householder still of course retained full ownership of it. Though God allowed the Jews full access and residential rights to live in the Holy Land, He still claimed the ownership of it as their sovereign King (Leviticus 25:23).

Once the act of leasing the vineyard to the hired tenants was completed, the householder is said to have “went into a far country.” He left, no doubt, with the assured confidence that the tenants were quite capable and competent to care and watch over the chosen vineyard.

Without his continuous physical presence, we find divine withdrawal accurately confirmed by the Holy Spirit in the biblical narrative of Israel’s early history. “Truly You are a God that hides Yourself, O God of Israel, the Savior” (Isaiah 45:15). “We” (Israel speaking), “see not our signs. There is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knows how long, O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? Will the enemy blaspheme Your name forever? Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? Take it out of Your bosom and destroy them” (Psalm 74:9-11).

These verses from Holy Writ point out after Israel’s supernatural placement in the land of Canaan by the powerful hand of God, they were strictly required to walk by faith and obedience to the Law under divinely appointed leaders without the constant, visible supernatural presence of God in His resplendent glory among them. They were required to walk by faith with God, and no longer by sight as had their forefathers did in the wilderness that visibly saw God’s presence every day.

“Now when the time of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it” (verse 34). The time between the householder’s departure from the vineyard and the nearness of the vintage can be considered a period of scheduled waiting to see how the husbandmen would fare in tilling the fruits of the vineyard. Often, when God sheds the abundance of His blessings on the sons of men, there comes a time of evaluative testing to see whether or not the recipient of divine blessing continues to follow and obey the instructions of God and put Him first, instead of the fruitful gain of material increase.

Knowing the time of harvest was close at hand, the householder deploys his servants to collect the fruits of the vineyard from the tenants. The servants play a crucial part in revealing the true motive of the tenants as the parable unfolds to us later. They were sent from the householder and therefore the tenants were expected to openly respect and receive them as direct representatives of the householder himself.

The meaning of the servants, in this indicting depiction of Israel’s continual apostasy from God clothed in symbolic language, is generally agreed by most Bible commentators to be the noble retinue of the Old Testament prophets. We are in strong agreement with this sound interpretation, but not because Bible expositors are in general agreement as to the deduced meaning of the “servants” sent by the householder, but primarily because Scripture clearly reveals this to be the only true meaning of the particular identity ascribed to the servants.

The two key words in verse 34 “sent” and “servants” disclose why this is so. Our Lord stated that the servants were “sent” by the householder. The prophets were official envoys sent from God to exhort and help prepare Israel to return, obey and faithfully serve God in humble subordination. In fact, from the days of Israel’s exodus down to the time prior to the Messiah’s first advent, the Lord had continually “sent” His “servants” the prophets to the chosen nation. “Since the day that your fathers came out of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them” (Jeremiah 7:25).

The above quotation from the Scripture makes it quite obvious that the prophets were both “servants” and “sent” by God to Israel—the vineyard of the Lord (Isaiah 5:7). The Lord Jesus Christ testified of His sending the prophets to Israel when saying, “Behold, I send to you the prophets” (Matthew 23:34). God did not only send the prophets, but they were His faithful servants as well. God spoke to Israel through His faithful servants the prophets. “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7; Revelation 10:7; 11:18).

The servants of the householder, as with the holy prophets under the authority of God, occupied a higher standing and a more honored position than the husbandmen, or the kings and religious rulers of Israel. This was simply true because the servants were given authority by the householder to demand fruit from the tenants of the vineyard.

The God of Israel sent prophets like Samuel, Nathan, Amos, and Haggai, and many other prophetic servants recorded in Holy Writ to boldly declare to the kings and religious rulers of Israel what God demanded and rightly expected from them as His Chosen People. In Israel’s case, it was the repeated maltreatment and hatred they murderously exhibited toward God’s servants, the holy prophets, which eventually led the leaders of Israel to commit the most terrible crime of all history—the murder of the Son of God! And this is precisely what is meant in the latter part of verse 34.

The prophets passionately exhorted the nation of Israel to bring forth to God fruits of a spiritual nature—the fruits of repentance, righteousness, justice, obedience, mercy and humbleness. Indeed the requirements God voiced through the prophets are well summed up in the words of Micah the prophet, saying to Israel: “And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with the Lord” (Micah 6:8).

These were the holy fruits God desired from His vineyard Israel. So He sent His servants, the prophets, to demand and receive them. It is only natural to assume that the tenants of the vineyard would respectfully comply and warmly receive the princely emissaries of the absent householder.

Ah, but the exact opposite occurs! The following verses of this parable well prove the awful truth of man’s innate depravity and violent opposition toward Almighty God.