And about the 11th hour he went out and found others standing idle, and saith unto them,

Why stand ye here all the day idle? Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right,

that shall ye receive. Hey, listeners, this is Nick from Scripture Central, and today's podcast

addresses the question,

What does the parable of the laborers in the vineyard teach about God's mercy?

While on his way to Jerusalem for the last time, Jesus taught very demanding and exulting doctrines

relating to marriage in consecration. Jesus then answered

concerns related to those doctrines that some of his disciples had regarding salvation, and who would

be the greatest in heaven. Jesus tenderly crafted his corrections through a parable about day laborers

hired to work in a vineyard. Through this parable,

Jesus demonstrates how all who enter the covenant path and endure to the end in following him

will be blessed with exaltation and eternal life as the Lord has agreed. In this parable,

God is cast as a householder, which went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard.

After making a covenant with some workers to labor in his vineyard, the man ultimately returns four other times to the marketplace,

at the third, sixth, ninth, and eleventh hours, in order to hire other laborers. While, as John and

Jeannie Welch observed, this parable accurately describes the hiring practices for day workers in New

Testament times, it is unusual in the sense that an employer did not normally hire workers

by the hour or for half days. Hiring day workers late in the

day shows how great and urgent the work is that the householder needs to have done. It is likely

that the householder wants to maximize the harvest before the crop is too ripe or too late or the

weather turns bad. Similarly, God is concerned for all his children and is constantly at work to be sure that we all

have the opportunity to be gathered into his barn.

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