Piercing the Soul
I recently had some blatant conviction while reading a passage in the Bible and thought, “This will probably make a good post for the website.” So here we are. Let’s relive my embarrassment together.
Here’s what happened. I was reading in the book of Matthew. Specifically, Matthew 20:1-16.
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went.
He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Matthew 20:1-16 (NIV)
Now that we’ve refreshed on that section … let’s talk about what happened.
When I was originally going through this passage, the part that really stuck out to me was when the workers began to grumble about the people who worked less, receiving the same amount of compensation. I totally understood the logic and empathized. In fact, I had a moment of conviction because it started to feel like I was empathizing with the “villain” in this story.
Here’s some backstory. I had been deeply frustrated with my work environment - feeling like I was fed up with circumstances that had been slowly grinding away at my sanity. After reading this passage I was immediately made aware of the fact that I had, at one point, prayed to God for a better job opportunity than the one I was in prior to my current position.
I prayed.
He provided.
Now I complained and toiled at what God gave me.
This was the application I felt the Holy Spirit was pointing to and saying, “Hey - do the complaining workers remind you of anyone? They agreed to a thing. They were provided a thing. Then they complained about that thing.”
My conviction felt obvious and frankly, embarrassing.
The funny part to me is when I came back to this chapter at a later date (I needed to remind myself of the lessons learned), I realized that I hadn’t even taken into account the original intent of the passage.
That first sentence - when it says, “For the kingdom of heaven is like … " was setting up the context. Then at the very end we have the verse that says, “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
As I sat there looking things over, I realized I completely missed the point of the passage. The standards of Heaven and Earth can be vastly different in some ways, and in this case, the passage has Jesus saying that those who are “first” in this world will be “last” in Heaven. There’s a clear indication of a different kind of hierarchy.
So, why am I pointing all of this out?
There are two reasons:
We are told in Hebrews 4:12 (ESV) that “… the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” I’d say this whole incident of mine is a pretty solid example of Scripture being used to do some soul piercing. Reading our Bible is a great way to let the Holy Spirit speak to you and offer conviction, confirmation, comfort, and more.
God’s Word never goes out of style. No matter how many times you read a passage in the Bible, there’s something new to learn or apply. You just read how I didn’t even see the original context of the passage since I was caught up in a different application. Now I do want to be careful and state that we should be mindful to not take things out of context - but in this case - it was like I found a bonus application because of my emotional state at the time of reading my Bible. Each time you read scripture, you are bringing a new set of circumstances with you - more knowledge - a new mindset - a different attitude (good or bad) - and that can alter how the Bible is able to pierce our soul and provide clarity.
What about you? Have you had similar moments while reading God’s Word when something was clarified, and it felt totally unexpected?
