(3) ―How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
(4) Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
(5) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy
apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
(6) That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise
in Christ by the gospel:‖ (Eph 3:3-6)
Please view the Christian Foundational Teachings series for detail on this.
20:15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?―(15) Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?‖ (Matt
20:15)
We are not the ones to question YHWH:
(18) ―Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
(19) Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
(20) Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that
formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
(21) Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and
another unto dishonour? (Rom 9:18-21)
The evil eye is an idiom for "stinginess" as mentioned in our notes to Matt 6:23.
If this parallel is taken to be that of the Jews and Pagan Gentiles, then the complaint of the Jews would be
that they have been YHWH's chosen people (the people of the Torah) for far longer than the Pagan Gentiles
who came into Torah. The reply to this would be that, although the Jew has an advantage in that they have
the Torah (Rom 3:2), a great part of this advantage is in knowing that YHWH is no respector of persons; and
thus no one has an advantage toward salvation in this sense.
20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last
―So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.‖
As mentioned in the previous section, this idiom has to do with equality (as the parable shows), not reversing
the order.
Y‘shua‘s command to ―love your enemies" was revolutionary! No one before him dared to raise such a high
standard for the life of faith. Yet, few Christians today realise that Y‘shua‘s ethical charge was a breathtaking
culmination of contemporary Jewish thinking. In the difficult days of Roman occupation, the Jewish people
found it hard to see evidence of the Old Covenant notion that the righteous are rewarded and the wicked are
punished.
Instead, the idea gradually took hold that what appeared at first glance like failure on the part of YHWH to act
justly, might in fact be a sign of his profound mercy – extended to the undeserving. Or, as we hear in the
conclusion of Y‘shua‘s parable, ―Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? ... So the last will be
first, and the first last" (verses 15-16).
It is not always easy to distinguish neatly between the deserving and the undeserving in life. All are equal
and stand as recipients of YHWH's mercy. As we saw, the ethical considerations that were drawn from this
recognition that ―God sends rain upon the just and the unjust" (Matt 5:45) set the stage for Y‘shua‘s bold
challenge to love your enemy. Yet, not everyone in those difficult days saw the events as signs of YHWH's
mercy.
YHWH's Labourers
1. The Almighty's Vineyard:
This parable is about:
Salvation and the divine invitation to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is not about the employment problems of any
particular nation.
The Employer: YHWH the Almighty Elyon of Israel.
The Workers - True believers in the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.