Amos 4:6-13

6 I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,

and lack of bread in all your places,

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.

7 And I also withheld the rain from you

when there were still three months to the harvest;

I would send rain on one city,

and send no rain on another city;

one field would be rained upon,

and the field on which it did not rain withered;

8 so two or three towns wandered to one town

to drink water, and were not satisfied;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.

9 I struck you with blight and mildew;

I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards;

the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.

10 I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;

I killed your young men with the sword;

I carried away your horses;

and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.

11 I overthrew some of you,

as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,

and you were like a brand snatched from the fire;

yet you did not return to me,

says the Lord.

12 Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;

because I will do this to you,

prepare to meet your God, O Israel!

13 For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind,

reveals his thoughts to mortals,

makes the morning darkness,

and treads on the heights of the earth—

the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name! (Amos 4:6-13, NRSV)

In the Book of Amos we read about a number of punishments inflicted by God. But it is important to note that the punishments are not just a series of senseless or absurd disasters. God uses them to confront his people and call them to repent and return to him. Speaking through Amos, the LORD says he has sent one disaster after another, famine {Amos 4:6), drought (vv. 7-8), destruction of crops by disease and insects (v. 9), pestilence (v. 10) and the overthrow of cities (v. 11). But this series of disasters “has failed to persuade Israel to return to its God.” So “the people will now meet that God directly” (G.M. Tucker, HarperCollins Study Bible). “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;/because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” (v. 12). The announcement of this encounter portends judgment. (Comments in this paragraph are repeated here from an E-mail sent December 3, 2003, for December 4, 2003.)

Gregory Mobley sums up this reading: “These plagues typify the curses a treaty partner brought on itself through disobedience. Israel’s covenantal documents contained such curses (Lev. 16:14-39; Deut. 28:15-68)” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., on Amos 4:6-13).

2 Peter 3:11-18

11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? 13 But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.

Final Exhortation and Doxology

14 Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:11-18, NRSV)

In yesterday’s reading Peter emphasized the fact that “the day of the Lord” will come in spite of apparent delays and the disbelief of scoffers. He described events of the last days and "the day of the Lord" when "the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed" (2 Pet. 3:10 NRSV, or "will be burned up" note y). The lesson Peter draws is that we should lead "lives of holiness and godliness" (v. 11), waiting with patience for “the coming day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire” (v. 12). Many see a rhetorical question beginning in verse 11, introduced by “what sort of persons” (potapous a term that introduces questions, for example, in Matthew 8:27, “What sort of man (potapos) is this?” but also indirect statements, e.g. Luke 1:29, “[Mary] pondered what sort of (potapos) greeting this might be.” The New International version puts the question mark in the middle of verse 11 and the next period in the middle of verse 12: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming” (vv. 11-12a, NIV). But the King James Version and the NRSV agree in translating verses 11 and 12 as one long rhetorical question (cf. ERV, 1881, and ASV, 1901). Some don’t use a question mark at all (including several editions of the Greek text, Westcott-Hort, Nestle and others). The RSV (1946) put an exclamation mark at the end of verse 12.. If there is a question here, it is surely rhetorical, that is, not a request for information, but a question stated in such a way that the expected answer is clear. Because these future events, judgment and transformation on a cosmic scale, are certain to happen, the readers must lead “lives of holiness and godliness” as the question implies.

The letter closes with a final exhortation about how to live “while you are waiting for these things,” which means to “strive to be found by him at peace without spot or blemish” (2 Pet. 3:14). The delay is good: “regard the patience of our Lord as salvation” (v. 15a). Paul is cited as an authority in support of Peter’s view (v. 15b), even though Paul writes “some things . . . hard to understand” (v. 16a). “Paul also taught that the delay of judgment is an opportunity to repent (Rom. 2:4; 9:22), even though false teachers are likely to misinterpret him” (Patrick A. Tiller, NOAB, 3^rd ed., on 2 Pet. 3:15-16). The false teachers, about whom Peter warned his readers at length in chapter 2, twist Paul’s letters “to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures” (v. 16b). The readers are not to be “carried away with the error of the lawless” (v. 17) but to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (v. 18).

Matthew 21:33-46

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants (Mk 12.1-12; Lk 20.9-19)

33 "Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.' 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" 41 They said to him, "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time."

42 Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures:

'The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord's doing,

and it is amazing in our eyes'?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet. (Matthew 21:33-46, NRSV)

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants has common features in Matthew, Mark and Luke. It is clearly meant as an indictment of the Jewish leaders, not only for bad stewardship in their responsibility of caring for God’s vineyard, that is, Israel; but also, and especially, for killing the landowner’s (God’s) son (i.e. Jesus) (Mt. 21:38-39; Mk. 12:7-8; Lk. 20:14, 15). The indictment amounts to, if not charging these leaders with open and flagrant rebellion, at least implying putsch, an attempted coup d’état, an insurrection. The irony is that they were supposedly the religious leaders, and likely felt that Jesus was promoting a religious insurrection.

But some features of the parable as presented by Matthew and Mark clearly echo Isaiah’s song “for my beloved” [namely the LORD], “my love-song concerning his vineyard” (Isa. 5:1, cf. vv. 1-7). This Song of the LORD’s Vineyard is presented in a table with a column for the song parallel to columns for the Parable of the Wicked Tenants as presented in Matthew, Mark and Luke. See the separate file Wicked Tenants. The versions of Matthew and Mark share terms used in the Song of the Vineyard, most of which are lacking in Luke, perhaps because this particular connection with the Hebrew Bible and/or Isaiah’s Song is less important to him. All use the term vineyard, of course (Isa. 5:1; Mt. 21:33; Mk. 12:1; Lk. 20:9 and frequently throughout the song/parable). But Luke has no reference to the wine vat or wine press, to the watchtower (Isa. 5:2; Mt. 21:33; Mk. 12:1), or to the hedge and wall or fence (Isa. 5:5; Mt. 33:1; Mk. 12:1). In Isaiah’s song, the LORD was looking for “grapes,” ‘ănāvîm, but found “wild grapes,” b^e’ushîm (literally, “stinking things”), not “grapes” with a modifier, “wild,” but a completely different word (Isa. 5:2). Isaiah interprets these words in verse 7. The LORD expected “justice,” mishpāt, but instead got “bloodshed,” mishpāch–spit it out, mishpāch, to get the effect of the word-play and God’s disappointment. He expected “righteousness,” ts^edāqāh, but got “a cry!” ts^e‘āqāh. Note the rhyme, but the gutteral sound (‘) which replaces the letter d makes the latter term take more effort (for me, at least) to pronounce. This “bloodshed” and “outcry” are mirrored in Jesus’ parable by the blood of killing the landowners son.

This is severe criticism of the Jewish leaders, but we should remember again, that it was only a few and only some of the leaders. In what follows, I repeat comments on this passage from an E-mail message sent December 3, 2003, for December 4, 2003:

Jesus continues his pointed criticism of Jewish leaders with the Parable of the Wicked Tenants. After the tenants kill the slaves sent by the landowner to collect the produce, a thinly veiled reference to the killing of prophets (cf. 23:29-30), they kill the son who was sent next, an anticipation of the crucifixion. For Christians, the crucifixion has become central to our faith, but we hold that in God's plan the crucifixion was brought about by and as a remedy for the sins of us all, "for all have sinned," not just of one group. There is absolutely no reason to make the actions of a few leaders at that time a basis for antisemitism or animosity toward Jews and Judaism. As Peter reminds us (above), we are all called to peace and holy living.

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

rworden@houston.rr.com