THE LOVE OF GOD OVERCOMES ALL

What will God do to those who have continually rejected him?

I have often thought ‘how can I explain to people that God is relevant now, that He is not an old fashioned idea, but a living God who is here and now.

In Matthew 21:43, Jesus is talking to the chief priests in the temple. These are the people God has left in charge of the Israel whom he loves because, of all the people on earth, they chose to follow Him.

When I read this parable some time ago, I thought how would this translate in todays world? And this is how I can explain it.

A man owned a plot of land and decided to build a factory on it.

He cleared the land, put in good strong foundations and built the best, most efficient factory anyone could imagine. He made the factory a wonderful place for his employees – looking after their every need. Then one day he goes away, so he appoints stewards to look after the factory till he returns.

After a while he sends two of his loyal workers to collect the profits from his factory, but they decided they could do better and would keep the profits for themselves, so they beat one and killed the other.

Because he is a good person, he doesn’t immediately come down and take back what is rightfully his by force. Instead, he sends more good workers to try and convince the stewards to return what belongs to him. But they treat those servants as they did the first ones.

Last of all, he sent his only Son to them, saying, ‘they will respect my son.’

But when the stewards saw the son they said to each other, ‘This is the heir to this brilliant factory, if we kill him we can take everything for ourselves. So, they took him and killed him.

Now, the owner has no choice but to come and take back what belongs to him, and give the factory to other workers who appreciate him.

The owner does this through his Son. He does not leave his Son in the grave, but sends his Spirit to bring him back to life. He then gives the Son authority over everything that belongs to him. When, at last, everything is back under the Sons control, the Son hands it back to his Father and he destroys all those who refuse to acknowledge him. (I can't remember where I've read this, but I'm sure I've seen it somewhere) 

And you know, even though his loss is great, the owner is still good enough to overlook the errors of any of those wicked workers if they believe in him and the one he sent – that is his Son.

The rest will be thrown onto the fire, like the chaff after the wheat is cut.

See also Psalm 2

This is how I understand my God. Read for yourself, see what you think.

Notes

The owner is The Father, the workers are Israelites, the other workers are the Gentiles - (non Jews), the profits are, I think, faith and love of God.