The Husbandman

The Husbandman
Matthew 21:33-44

The Parable of the Husbandmen is
perhaps the most severe and most revealing
parable spoken by our Lord. This
parable is found in Matthew 21:33-44.
Before we read the parable itself we
shall read the two verses immediately following
the parable, verses 45 and 46:
“And when the chief priests and Pharisees
had heard his parables, they perceived
that he spake of them. But when they
sought to lay hands on him, they feared
the multitude, because they took him for a
prophet.”

Verse 33 of Matthew 21 opens this
parable, and Jesus said, “Hear another
parable: There was a certain householder,
which planted a vineyard,
and hedged it round about, and
digged a winepress in it, and built a
tower, and let it out to husbandmen,
and went into a far country.”
In order to clearly understand what
the Lord meant by the vineyard we must
be familiar with verses 1 through 7 of
Isaiah 5.
We shall read verses 3, 5 and 7 of this
chapter: “And now, O inhabitants of
25
Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge,
I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard...
And now go to; I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard: I will
take away the hedge thereof, and it
shall be eaten up; and break down the
wall thereof, and it shall be trodden
down; For the vineyard of the Lord of
hosts is the house of Israel, and the
men of Judah his pleasant plant: and
he looked for judgment, but behold
oppression; for righteousness, but
behold a cry.”

Let us note, and remember, that the
vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house
of Israel and the men of Judah His pleasant
plant. Certain men of Judah were
given special favor, care and opportunity,
but both Israel and Judah were considered
the Lord's vineyard.

This is a fact emphatically taught
throughout the Old Scripture where the
twelve tribes of Israel are set forth as
God's chosen servant race. In fact, they
were and are the only race that has
known God's religious ordinances and
God's civil and moral laws.

In Psalm 147:19,20 we read, “He
sheweth his word unto Jacob, his
statutes and his judgments unto
Israel. He hath not dealt so with any
nation: and as for his judgments, they
have not known them. Praise ye the
Lord.”

Therefore in verse 33 of Matthew 21
Jesus was merely stating what was
known as Bible history at that time.
In verse 34 we read, “And when the
time of the fruit drew near, he sent his
servants to the husbandmen, that they
might receive the fruits of it.”

The husbandmen are not the same as
the vineyard. The vineyard, as we
learned, consisted of both Israel and
Judah. Both Israel and Judah, as Bible
history shows, failed to produce kingdom
fruit; both had their hedges torn down,
and both went into captivity: Israel into
the Assyrian captivity and Judah into the
Babylonian captivity.

With these historical facts in mind we
shall consider the rest of the Parable of
the Husbandmen: "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 unto
them likewise. But last of all he sent
unto them his son, saying, They will
reverence ray 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
cometh, what will he do unto
those husbandmen? They say unto
him, He will miserably destroy those
wicked men, and will let out his vineyard
unto other husbandmen, which
shall render him the fruits in their
seasons.

"Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never
read in the scriptures, The stone
which the builders rejected, the same
is become the head of the corner: this
is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous
in our eyes? Therefore say I
unto you, The kingdom of God shall be
taken from you, and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof."

This parable is easily understood until
we get to the statement: “The kingdom
of God shall be taken from you, and
given to a nation bringing forth the
fruits thereof.”

This statement has been made difficult
and confusing by those who would make
the Lord's kingdom parables Church
parables, teaching that the Church is now
the Kingdom of God.

If that were the case then the chief
priests and Pharisees must have been in
possession of the Church prior to the
Lord's crucifixion for whatever the
Kingdom of God is, it was something they
were in possession of.

To teach that the Pharisees, who did
not believe in Christ were even in the
Church or the body of Christ is to deny
every basic doctrine of the Church.
Jesus states in Matthew 23:2-4, “The
scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses'
seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid
you observe, that observe and do; but
do not ye after their works: for they
say, and do not. For they bind heavy
burdens and grievous to be borne, and
lay them on men's shoulders; but they
themselves will not move them with
one of their fingers.”

The thing that the scribes and
Pharisees had which was taken from
them was the opportunity and responsibility
to administer the civil, moral and
social laws of God given by Moses, and
this is what is meant by the Kingdom of
God.

This "kingdom of God," according to
the words of Jesus in Matthew 21:43, was
to be given to a nation."
The Church is the body of Christ and it
is open to all people of every and any race;
it was not given to a nation.
Some people teach that the kingdom
was given to ten-tribed Israel — and in a
sense that is true — but ten-tribed Israel
has been many nations as God promised
Abraham they would be, and the Kingdom
of God was to be given to a nation bringing
forth the fruits thereof.”

Ten-tribed Israel, true Israel , has been,
as Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 48:10,
“God's witnesses” during the Church
Age of witnessing. They have
done about 90% of all Christian preaching,
teaching and missionary work, but
the Church is not the Kingdom of God for
the kingdom was to be given to “a nation”
bringing forth the fruits thereof.

When we realize that the restoration of
the Kingdom of God was to become manifest
on earth at the close of the Church
Age, and that it was to be given to “a
nation” which would bring forth kingdom
fruits, we should not have great difficulty
in finding such a nation for one nation
stands out very conspicuously among the
nations of the earth and of all history in
bringing forth much and many fruits of
the administration of God's principles in
civil, moral and social affairs.
That nation, as everyone knows, is the
United States of America.

There are those that imagine that the
Kingdom of God will be perfect from its
very first manifestation, but such is not
the case for as we have seen there are several
parables and much Old Scripture
prophecy devoted to the cleansing of the
Kingdom of God at the end of the present
age.

In the Parable of the Husbandmen we
must distinguish between the vineyard
and the husbandmen, Remember, the husbandmen
and not the vineyard were to be
miserably destroyed when “the Lord of the
vineyard cometh.”
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