Should We Be Jealous?
Orion the Hunter-Western horizon- November 2025
3 “At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing. 4 So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day. 5 So they went to work in the vineyard. At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing. 6 “At five o’clock that afternoon he was in town again and saw some more people standing around. He asked them, ‘Why haven’t you been working today?’
7 “They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’ “The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’ 8 “That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first. 9 When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage. 10 When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more. But they, too, were paid a day’s wage. 11 When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, 12 ‘Those people worked only one hour, and yet you’ve paid them just as much as you paid us who worked all day in the scorching heat.’
13 “He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair! Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage? 14 Take your money and go. I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you. 15 Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my money? Should you be jealous because I am kind to others?’
Matthew 20:3-15 (NLT)
(*Remember: This is about THE KING.)
It’s about eternity.
Yes, there is.
About love that never ends, never stops.
Perfect love.
The landowner?
Eternal God.
Workday? Your life.
About something we cannot see but desperately need.
God’s undeserved favor.
The vineyard.
Need one word for it?
Grace.
Sinners don’t deserve God’s favor.
Yet He gives it freely.
God continually searches for those who need His forgiveness.
Those who repent, who say yes to work in His “vineyard.”
He will take you into His “employ” at any time in your life…young, old, in-between.
No jealousy.
Say yes to His call.
His pay? It’s equal for all…
…eternal life.
(*This may be hard for us. Why? Because we hear from many voices that WE control our destinies. It’s not true. God controls our destinies. HE is over all. God may give eternal life to all HE chooses…even at the last hour of life. Two verses below add insight. First, we are not in charge. Second even the sinner, the thief on the cross was admitted to heaven when he called out to Jesus!)