Zephaniah pronounces judgment against God's people,
particularly the leaders of the people although it seems no one escapes his
withering prophecy. There is no justice,
they will hear no voice, accept no correction.
There is nothing but unrighteousness and rebellion and they refuse to
hear anything to the contrary. Judgment
is coming and when it does there will be nothing left of those unrighteous
ones. This judgment, however, isn't just
against the nation itself but against all nations. The result of this judgment will be not only
a remnant, a faithful group of Jews, but a new thing. "For at that time I will change the
speech of the peoples to a pure speech, that all of them may call upon
the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord." This refers back to Genesis 11 when God
changed the speech of the peoples and divided them because they sought to make
the name of man great in the heavens as it was becoming great on earth. They were then serving themselves with one
accord. All this will be reversed at
some time says the Lord. Sounds like
Pentecost to me.
The story Jesus uses here as a parable is one that is tailor
made for his Jewish audience. He speaks
of a master who goes out to hire laborers for the day and finds some early in
the morning, some later in the day and some just before quitting time. At the time to settle up, the end of the work
day, he begins to dole out the wages on a last in-first out basis. Those hired late in the day receive what was
promised to those who were hired first, a regular daily wage. Surely the ones who worked all day were
thrilled initially at the generosity of the man in expectation that they would
receive more than they expected and more than they bargained for. They were surprised and indignant that they
got no more than those who worked only an hour.
The master said, you got what you agreed to in the first place, why
should you be upset? As we know from the
life and ministry of both Jesus and Paul there was great resentment towards
those Gentiles who were given grace and favor equally with the Jews. We can sometimes have the same sense of
entitlement with respect to our own long service when another comes and is
favored by God. It is all grace that we
were chosen for the kingdom, beginning to end.
What reward did Jesus get for a life lived in obedience to
God's law? On earth he got the
"reward" of the cross. The
world, even God's own people, had no value for His life. We should recognize that we will receive no
hero's reward in this life for obedience.
It will cost us to live according to God's way. We were called to take up our cross and follow,
as plain as that. We are to be witnesses
to the truth, that we have an inheritance stored up for us that is secure and
that we serve others as a service to the one who has redeemed us and showed us
the way. He submitted Himself to earthly
authority by going to the cross willingly when He had a choice. He had the power to say no, to take matters
into His own hands and stop the proceeding and did not. He was the first born of all creation and
therefore His claim to greater reward is clear.
He chose to share it all with us.
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