There is a story in the Talmud of a king who had a vineyard where he engaged many labourers, one of whom was especially skilful. What did the king do? He took the labourer from his work and walked through the garden conversing with him. When the labourers came for their hire in the evening, the skilful labourer also appeared among them and received a full day’s wages from the king. The other labourers were angry at this and said,
“We have toiled the whole day, while this man has only worked two hours; why does the king give him the full hire?”
The king said to them,
“Why are you angry? Through his skill, he has done more in the two hours than you have all day.”
The Sages used the above story to illustrate something of great importance. A short life fully consecrated to God is more meritorious than a long life lived to oneself.
There are people who, when reflecting upon their lives, lament how much of it was wasted and wish how if they could turn the clock back and start afresh they would do things so much differently. Although they may believe it is too late to change, the Bible reveals that God can reverse things to ‘redeem the time of the locusts’ as described in Joel 2:25. The prophet used an example of a locust invasion as an illustration of God’s judgment upon a people who had squandered their spiritual inheritance. Yet, He also promised to redeem the wasted years by restoring them to a level of blessing greater than before if they would return to Him. It never need be too late… Spiritual impoverishment produces scarcity and famine, but those who embrace the love of God and choose to walk in His ways will be restored to a place far exceeding anything that the ‘locusts’ have devoured.
There is also a second point arising from the story of the King in the Vineyard: about rightly discerning the signs of the times. Such people are likened to the ‘skilled’ labourer who communed with the King in His garden.
When the religious authorities demanded a sign from Jesus which authenticated His claim as the Messiah, He responded with an illustration which no-one could make any sense of:
“For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:40)
Even Jesus’ closest disciples fundamentally missed it and failed to grasp how the Messiah had to be the ‘Suffering Servant’ in addition to the ‘Conquering King.’ But more remarkably, Satan himself failed to comprehend this point, as we read in Scripture:
“None of the (demonic) rulers of this age recognised and understood this wisdom; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1Corinthians 2:8)
So, we may well ask whether it will not be similar when Messiah returns? Certainly, the Church contains many conflicting opinions regarding timings and sequences of events, but could it be that God has purposefully kept certain pieces of the jigsaw
puzzle hidden even as He did in His first advent?
And yet, everything pertaining to His return is there in the Scriptures for those with eyes to see, and the wisdom of the sons of Issachar who discerned the times and knew what to do, as it says in 1Chronicles 12:32:
“Of the tribe of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, two hundred chiefs; and all their relatives were at their command;”
God is raising up a people likened to the sons of Issachar. Although they did not possess every fine detail of knowledge or information, they knew ‘what Israel should do,’ (i.e., how to live life in a manner pleasing to God – every breath sanctified to Him, every thought focused on the King of Kings and every action consecrated for His glory).
This small remnant were only two hundred out of 145,600 people from this particular tribe (c.f., I Chronicles 7: 1-5). Yet, each person who loves the Lord and walks in His ways can consider themselves as being cast in the same mould as the sons of Issachar!
We eagerly await His return and believe that time is short. But, whether this is weeks, months or a few more years, it really makes no great difference when we live our lives communing in the garden of the King.
