Servants of the Kingdom

SERVANTS OF THE KINGDOM

12-16-2018

The Parable of Vineyard Laborers

Matthew 20:1-16 NET Laborers In The Vineyard:  "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. (2) And after agreeing with the workers for the standard wage, he sent them into his vineyard. (3) When it was about nine o'clock in the morning, he went out again and saw others standing around in the marketplace without work. (4) He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.' (5) So they went. When he went out again about noon and three o'clock that afternoon, he did the same thing. (6) And about five o'clock that afternoon he went out and found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why are you standing here all day without work?' (7) They said to him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You go and work in the vineyard too.' (8) When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, 'Call the workers and give the pay starting with the last hired until the first.' (9) When those hired about five o'clock came, each received a full day's pay. (10) And when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each one also received the standard wage. (11) When they received it, they began to complain against the landowner, (12) saying, 'These last fellows worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us who bore the hardship and burning heat of the day.' (13) And the landowner replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am not treating you unfairly. Didn't you agree with me to work for the standard wage? (14) Take what is yours and go. I want to give to this last man the same as I gave to you. (15) Am I not permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?' (16) So the last will be first, and the first last."

All of the parables included in the gospels distinguish various aspects of the Kingdom of God.  Note that the gospel of Matthew employs the phrase, “The Kingdom of Heaven”.  It is claimed by some that Matthew wrote his narrative specifically for the Judeans (Jews) and they expected the kingdom to come from heaven.  This does not give evidence that people will be raptured away to live in heaven, but rather that the glorification of heaven will be presented on the earth by God.  Luke employs the phrase, “The Kingdom of God” because Jesus Christ returning from heaven will rule the earth as King and this (the earth) will be His kingdom.

The first verse makes it clear this parable is about the Kingdom of Heaven (or God).  The first or beginning workers who symbolically agreed to be kingdom workers would literally be the apostles and several others around Judea.   The next group would be the crowd who spoke several different languages as Peter and other apostles preached after receiving an anointing of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit allowed Peter to speak to speak to the crowd and all understood him in their native language.  This is the true meaning of “speaking in tongues”.  The modern babbling instances border on heresy.  About 3000 believers accepted the message concerning the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and were baptized into the faith.

Acts 2:41 NET So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added.

As the apostles, including Paul, and other believers spread the word other sincere believers came forward and repeated the actions of the apostles.  This process of preaching and explaining the gospel message of Jesus Christ has continued down to the present time.  All true believers (i.e. Kingdom workers) regardless of the length of their service prior to death will be paid (rewarded) the same.  Length of service is not an issue but the quality of service, as will be explained in the next parable, is very important.

There are many claiming to be believers of the gospel message but are all believers actually kingdom workers?  Does salvation automatically merit you a glorified body in the first resurrection?  Unfortunately it does not.  Salvation will allow you to receive little or no punishment at the second resurrection but it will not necessarily grant you access to the first resurrection.  Only the sincere, completely forgiving kingdom workers with the mind of Christ (and other things to be discussed later) will partake of the first resurrection to be appointed preachers, teachers, and Melchizedek priests under the leadership of Jesus Christ.

The Parable of Ten Minas

In the parable of the minas given to slaves (i.e. servants), verse 19:15 claims that the King (Jesus) had returned to his land (earth) after receiving the kingdom.

Luke 19:15-21 NET The Parable of the Ten Minas:  When he returned after receiving the kingdom, he summoned these slaves to whom he had given the money. He wanted to know how much they had earned by trading. (16) So the first one came before him and said, 'Sir, your mina has made ten minas more.' (17) And the king said to him, 'Well done, good slave! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you will have authority over ten cities.' (18) Then the second one came and said, 'Sir, your mina has made five minas.' (19) So the king said to him, 'And you are to be over five cities.' (20) Then another slave came and said, 'Sir, here is your mina that I put away for safekeeping in a piece of cloth. (21) For I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You withdraw what you did not deposit and reap what you did not sow.'

Mina:  An ancient weight or denomination of money, of varying value.  A weight containing 50 shekels, according to Hebrew usage.

The King had given each servant a certain amount of minas which is symbolic of the express authority and ability to transmit the gospel message.  Each servant had been given equal amounts of ten minas.  The first subject doubled the amount of minas.  The second subject only earned five minas.  The third reported subject buried his mina and did not attempt to earn anything.

The first who doubled his amount was awarded authority over ten cities, the second was awarded five cities, and the third reported servant had his minas taken away and given to another.  The first and second will be a part of the first resurrection and the first will receive more authority than the second one due to his kingdom work ethic. 

The third will have to wait for the second resurrection.  Although at that time, he will receive a glorified body (i.e. abode or mansion in the KJV) with little or no punishment (i.e. the fire of God) he will not be given any authority.

It is generally believed by many that all unbelievers are punished in “hell,” while all believers receive “eternal life.” There appears to envision a type of divine democracy, where all individuals 00are treated equally, depending only on whether or not they believe in Jesus Christ.  However, there are two resurrections; and all the elect of the first resurrection will not receive the same reward or authority.

The Parable of the Talents

Matthew 25:13-40 This parable is similar in content to the parable of the minas.  However, this version uses talents as a value of currency rather than minas.

Talent:  If the talent was silver it would be equivalent to 3,000 shekels, 6,000 denarii,

or 94 3/7 pounds of silver.

This parable features a man going on a journey rather than a King receiving a Kingdom which could be a parallel feature or issue.  Also each of three servants were given differing amounts:  5 talents; 2 talents; and one talent.  Each servant was told to invest their talents and earn even more.  The 5 talents earned 5; the two talents earned two; and the third servant with one talent buried it in the ground and earned nothing.

Verse 25:14 is the key verse which says, “To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to his ability”.  This implies that if a person can manage well at his/her level of ability he/she can be trusted to manage even more.  The first two mentioned servants were both put in charge “of many things”.

Robertson’s Word Studies:  According to his own ability. Each had all that he was capable of handling. The use that one makes of his opportunities is the measure of his capacity for more.

Fire; Hell; Judgment

The source of the fire in the “lake of fire” which most believe is “hell” is the throne itself. Thrones symbolize authority and law, or more specifically, the administration of the law by one in authority. To be seated upon a throne signified that the king was issuing decrees or judgments in an official capacity according to the laws of the nation or in this case, the laws of God in the Kingdom of God.

Man punishes; God judges.  Burning people alive in hell is not justice, it is punishment. True justice is never fully accomplished until all the victims of injustice have been recompensed and the sinner restored to grace. This cannot happen in a human devised prison system, nor could it happen by torturing sinners forever, nor could it even happen by annihilating all sinners in fire. All of these alternative methods represent punishment, not divine justice.

The Elect, Chosen, Saint, Overcomer

The Jubilee year was called every fifty years and was a time for forgiveness.  It stood as a reminder of God's providence and mercy.  The dedication of a year for this emphasis provided the community with a time to come back into right relationship with one another and with God. 

The Jubilee was a season of total forgiveness and the complete evisceration of all debts:  legal, monetary, and criminal.  All land was restored to its rightful owner; all slaves and indentured servants due to unpaid debt were set free with no recurring penalties for that particular debt. 

A better word that is easily understood is “forgiver”.  An overcomer is essentially a person who forgives or lives by the principles and standards of the Jubilee as written above.  It is a person who is living or growing up into the Kingdom of God which is the laws and standards of Jesus Christ.  It is one who is coming into a state of maturity in Him. An Overcomer is putting on His Father’s mind and is coming to agree with what God does in the earth and how He accomplishes those goals. He is learning to say “Amen” to all that God does, bearing witness to Him in all things, and not disagreeing with Him. An Overcomer is one who is coming to understand the Father and His ways.

Revelation 3:21 KJV  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Revelation 3:21 YLT He who is overcoming--I will give to him to sit with me in my throne, as I also did overcome and did sit down with my Father in His throne.

The Parable of the Wedding Feast

Matthew 22:1-14 NET Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: (2) "The kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. (3) He sent his slaves to summon those who had been invited to the banquet, but they would not come. (4) Again he sent other slaves, saying, ….”Come to the wedding banquet."  (5) But they were indifferent and went away, …..(6) The rest seized his slaves, insolently mistreated them, and killed them. (7) The king was furious! He sent his soldiers, and they put those murderers to death and set their city on fire. (8) Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but the ones who had been invited were not worthy. (9) So go into the main streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' (10) And those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all they found, both bad and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. (11) But when the king came in ….. he saw a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. (12) And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' But he had nothing to say. (13) Then the king said to his attendants, 'Tie him up hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!' (14) For many are called, but few are chosen."

The Kingdom was first offered to the Judeans (Jews).  The kingdom was described as a wedding banquet (i.e. the true Church will be the metaphoric “bride of Christ”).  Jesus and his disciples spread the gospel of the Kingdom and Jesus taught many lessons and performed many miracles, but the religious leaders and many of the population did not respond. 

The religious leaders declared war on the believers and proceeded to beat, imprison, and kill many of them throughout Judea and further north as they delivered the gospel word.

In 70 AD the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem and set the remainder on fire.  Most of the Christians in the area, heeded the words of Jesus found in Matthew 24 and fled the city to a northern location.  The believing group then traveled to various places.  One apostle went to India, another to Egypt and other apostles and believers spread out into the Roman world of Turkey, Greece, and other European areas.  They garnered many believers throughout the land and the majority were descendants of the northern ten tribes of Israel who had been forced to leave the Canaan area and later migrated to European areas.

Verse 14, “For many are called, but few are chosen" refers to the above discussed “Elect, Chosen, Saint, Overcomer” group and not to everyone who claims to have made a statement of faith.  One person is indicated who did not receive the first resurrection and he was to be 'Tied up and thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!'

The “weeping and gnashing of teeth” is not literal pain but rather it symbolically represents regret, dismay, remorse, and anguish which again is not literal.  The dead souls do not think or express emotion, but the verse serves to imagine their thoughts.

The True Origins of Professing Jews

THE TRUE ORIGINS OF PROFESSING JEWS

The word “Jew” is a shortened form of Judean or Judahite.  The term can be found in the KJV of the Bible in 2 Kings 16:6.  This passage clearly demonstrates that Israel and Judah are not the same nation.  After the death of King Solomon, ten of the tribes, excluding the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, revolted against the new king and his excessive tax plan and launched a separate northern nation which they called Israel.  The name Israel, for their new nation, was legitimate because they contained the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh which were the sons of Jacob who was renamed Israel by God.  The southern nation did not have the legitimacy of the name “Israel” and called themselves Judah. 

The northern nation of the ten tribes called Israel were conquered and deported by Assyria between 745 and 721 BC.  The majority were taken to northeastern Assyria and they never returned.  Whenever the prophets write concerning the House of Israel and their ultimate restoration they were speaking of the ten tribes of northern Israel and not the nation of Judah.  This will include the major prophets, Ezekiel and Jeremiah as well as others. 

It is important that Bible readers and students make this distinction.  Many of today’s Christians and others have been told that Jews are Israel but this is totally untrue.  The prophecies speaking of the restoration of “Israel” are not being fulfilled by the people calling themselves Jews in the modern state of Israel.  Actually, the current nation of Israel has no legitimate right to call themselves Israel.

Although Judah was a son a Jacob and a tribe of the united Israel under the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon, it because a national name when the united kingdom divided into two nations.  This division broadened the term “Judah” and the prophets used the broadened name accordingly.

The House of Judah or national Judah was conquered by Babylon between the years of 604 through 586 BC.  Many were killed and some were deported to Babylon.  Due to the destruction of the nation of Judah it could no longer be specifically used as a national name or term.  In the book of Esther we find the term “Jew” employed rather than Judah or Judahite. 

Esther 8:17 KJV  And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.

Persian Jews

Also notice in the last sentence that “many of the people of the land became Jews”.  Through fear of possibly being hung, many of the Persians became Jews in a religious sense, not in a genealogical manner.  This accounts for the so-called Persian Jews that invaded the land of Canaan as prophesied in Ezekiel 38-39.

Ezekiel 38:5 KJV  Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:

These Persians or Persian subjects were not former citizens of the nation of Judah, but rather were converts who had never lived in the land of Canaan.  At the return of a portion of the Jews back to the land of Canaan after the 70 years of punishment had been fulfilled, it is certain the Persian Jews did not accompany them.

Edomite Jews

The First Book of Maccabees appears to regard the Maccabean revolt as a rising of pious Jews against the Seleucid king who had tried to eradicate their religion and against the Jews who supported him. The Second Book of Maccabees presented the conflict as a struggle between "Judaism" and "Hellenism".  Most modern scholars argue that the king was reacting to a civil war between traditionalist Jews in the countryside and Hellenized Jews in Jerusalem, though the king's response of persecuting the religious traditionalists was unusual, and was the immediate cause for the revolt.  

Some modern scholarship considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppression than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish population and by the persecution of people who observed the Torah by having their children circumcised and refusing to eat pork.

Whatever the actual reason, the Maccabeans conquered their neighbors and forced them to either convert to Judaism or to be exiled.  Most of the conquered people chose conversion, particularly the Edomites, and all became Jews, with no distinction between them.  Remember that Esau, the founder of the Edomites, was a brother of Jacob thus they were all related to some degree.

The Jewish historian, Josephus, recorded this event in his Antiquities of the Jews.  He was a descendant of the Maccabees and initially fought against the Romans during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. 

“Hyrcanus took also Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea, and subdued all the Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that country, if they would be circumcised, and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submitted to the use of circumcision and the rest of the Jews’ ways of living; at which time therefore, this befell them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews.”

This proclamation of Josephus is corroborated by the 1903 Jewish Encyclopedia.

“Judas Maccabeus conquered their territory for a time (B.C. 163; Ant. Xii, 8 par. 1, 2). They were again subdued by John Hyrcanus (c. 125 B.C.) by whom they were forced to observe Jewish rites and laws (ib. 9, par. 1; xiv. 4, par. 4). They were then incorporated with the Jewish nation, and their country was called by the Greeks and Romans ‘Idumea’.

“From this time the Idumeans ceased to be a separate people, though the name ‘Idumea’ still existed (in) the time of Jerome.”

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia states:

“The Edomites were conquered by John Hyrcanus who forcibly converted them to Judaism, and from then on they constituted a part of the Jewish people, Herod being one of their descendants.”

The above three references all agree that Edom (the Edomites) were absorbed and integrated into the Jewish or Judahite people group.

It has been said the Edomite Jews were the most violent and radical people of Judea and prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome most of the Zealot group were of Edomite origin.  The actions of the Zealots supposedly precipitated the Romans to destroy Jerusalem.

In later years, the Jews began to call Rome and Christian Europe by the name of “Edom”. They obviously did not use the term literally, but symbolically for an oppressive government.  Even so, they seem to have done this in order to explain the many prophecies in the Old Testament about Edom in the latter days.

The prophets considered Edom as being a latter-day enemy. Since the rabbis could not submit to the idea that their own nation might one day have to fulfill those prophecies, they spiritualized them and applied them to other people they considered “enemies”.  Of course, it has been verified by many (including me) that many of the modern Jews are in reality, Edomites or partial Edomites.

Esau and Isaac believed that Esau was entitled to the birthright and scepter kingship promises.  Esau sold the scepter promise for a bowl of soup.  Jacob received the birthright promise by tricking Isaac into thinking he was Esau.  God desired that Jacob receive the birthright but Rebekah and Jacob did not have the faith to allow God to do His miracle work.  As a result, Esau begged for a blessing from Isaac.  Jacob gave him a blessing but it was a prophecy from God.

Genesis 27:39-40 KJV  And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above;  (40)  And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.

It appears that God has given the birthright back to the ancestors of Esau for a short time prior to the return of Jesus to fulfill His prophecy.  The bad figs of Jeremiah 24 as applied to the Judeans not accepting Jesus as their Messiah were disinherited from the birthright and Judah-ship promises of God.  Their only recourse is to accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah and King of the Kingdom of God.

The Khazarian Jews

During the Middle Ages, a kingdom known as Khazaria existed in southern Russia around the Caspian Sea area.  The faux-Jew Khazar kingdom was conquered by the Rus and many or most of the Khazarian people were scattered.  Most of the Khazars were incorporated into the Russian area and later migrated into Eastern Europe, integrated with other Jewish people (possibly Sephardim) and became known as Ashkenazi.

The Jewish Encyclopedia:  “A people of Turkish origin whose life and history are interwoven with the very beginnings of the history of the Jews of Russia. The kingdom of the Chazars was firmly established in most of South Russia long before the foundation of the Russian monarchy by the Varangians (855). Jews have lived on the shores of the Black and Caspian seas since the first centuries of the common era. Historical evidence points to the region of the Ural as the home of the Chazars. Among the classical writers of the Middle Ages they were known as the ‘Chozars,’ ‘Khazirs,’ ‘Akatzirs,’ and ‘Akatirs,’ and in the Russian chronicles as ‘Khwalisses’ and ‘Ugry Byelyye’.”

Togarmah is a group of imposter-Jew Khazarians who integrated into parts of Russia, such as Moscow and Tubolsk, and eastern European countries.  The seventh son of Togarmah was Khazar, from which the nation of converted-Jews acquired their name.  Togarmah and Ashkenaz were brothers according to Genesis 10.  The Khazar Jewish line became known as the Ashkenazi.