Most men will proclaim each his own goodness,

But who can find a faithful man?

In their own eyes they flatter themselves

    too much to detect or hate their sin.

Proverbs 20:6   Psalm 36:2

It was February 2016.  I had a short encounter with my brother Dennis today.  His tone was one I’ve heard on many occasions.  As in times past, his distain would leave me feeling confused and perplexed.  His comment went something like this, ‘no one owes you anything!’   ‘I worked hard for my place!’

I’ve heard him speak like this before about his hard work on his place.  And as in the past I wanted to say, ‘Well of course that’s your home, ‘No one is begrudging you your home.’  I don’t deny you have labored for it.’   I didn’t understand this display of contempt of his.  As I drove off that day from the farm I inquired of the Lord, “What was that about Lord?”   The Lord replied, ‘Laborers in the Vineyard.’

I had received this same passage from the Lord two years prior about Dennis.  So, I went and researched this passage in order to get the full meaning of what God was saying.

Laborers in the Vineyard

Matthew 20:1-16

For the Kingdom of Heaven is like the landowner who went out early one morning to hire workers for his vineyard.  He agreed to pay the normal daily wage and sent them out to work.

At nine o’clock in the morning he was passing through the marketplace and saw some people standing around doing nothing.  So he hired them, telling them he would pay them whatever was right at the end of the day.  So they went to work in the vineyard.  At noon and again at three o’clock he did the same thing.

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?’ “They replied, ‘Because no one hired us.’   The landowner told them, ‘Then go out and join the others in my vineyard.’

“That evening he told the foreman to call the workers in and pay them, beginning with the last workers first.  When those hired at five o’clock were paid, each received a full day’s wage.  When those hired first came to get their pay, they assumed they would receive more.  But they, too, were paid a day’s wage.  When they received their pay, they protested to the owner, ‘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.’

He answered one of them, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair!  Didn’t you agree to work all day for the usual wage?  Take your money and go.  I wanted to pay this last worker the same as you.  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?’

“So those who are last now will be first,

and those who are first will be last.”

We have two issues in this parable; the agreement with the laborers, and the account with them.   Here is the agreement made with the laborers, and here it will be asked, as usual;

[1] Who hires them?  A man that is a householder –

God is the great Householder, whose we are, and whom we serve; as a householder, he has work that needs to be done, and servants that he needs to be doing it; he has a great family in heaven and earth, which is named from Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:15), which he is Owner and Ruler of.  God hires laborers, not because he needs them or their services (for, if we be righteous, what do we unto him?), but as some charitable generous householders keep poor men to work, in kindness to them, to save them from idleness and poverty, and pay them for working for themselves.

Such a one was my mom; the householder of the farm.  She loved the Lord, and was His servant.  She had committed the farm to Him in the 1970’s.  She honored God, and in return He provided for her so that she would not lose the farm after my dad died.  Like any household owner she had work that needed to be done and servants that need to be doing it.  Both myself and my brothers would all, at some point, come back to the farm to live, and it would be my brother Dennis who would carry certain responsibilities on the farm according to his skills.

Note:  My brothers were not faithful men.  Though Dennis worked the farm, he did so only for himself.  He would take liberties, and in a short time, believed he earned what he had, as if it was his farm, forgetting the generosity of our mother and the true householder of the land, the Lord Himself.

[2] From what place are the laborers hired? 

Out of the market-place, where, till they are hired into God’s service, they stand idle, all the day idle (Matt 20:3, 6). 

The soul of man stands ready to be hired into some service or other; it was (as all creatures were) created to work, and is either a servant to iniquity, or a servant to righteousness,  Rom. 6:19.

I then understood what the Lord was saying regarding my brother.   Our mother, the land owner and servant to righteousness, gave Dennis the barn to which he could labor and make a home for himself.  He had the freedom to use any of the land to do with as he wished.  There was 10 acres for him to use freely.  Dennis felt he earned his place, thus, he believed I had to take the condition of my now acquired inherited home, as damaged as it was, and to finance it on my own.  No one owed me anything, as he said.

First of all, Dennis was a young man when he returned to the farm and took up residence here.  I was 64 years old at the time of this encounter with my brother Dennis, and had just taken over my inherited home which had been completely destroyed due to my brother Jim’s management of the place.  A home he had no right to be managing.

Jim had forcefully taken control of my inherited home, and for 10 years he denied me any say as to how the home could be managed.  He committed years of fraud during that time.   He made sure that the home had been destroyed to the point that it would not be livable when it was time for me to take it over.   And instead of using the money collected from the rent to go toward the extensive repairs needed on the home, Jim would pocket the money for himself, making it impossible for me to ever live in it under those circumstances.

I would have to wait 3 more long years while work was being done by two different carpenters in exchange for them living there ‘rent free’ during that time.  Thus, the situation was far more complicated than Dennis was willing to own up to.  There was a breach between my brothers and myself.  Ten years of ill-treatment and wrong done to me, my children, and my mom by Dennis and Jim.  

It had been made very clear to every member of the Fife family, including, Jim’s son Peter Fife, and my daughter Deanne, by my mother’s attorney, Roy Johnson, that our mother did NOT want Jim as Trustee on her Living Trust.  She believed that he would cause trouble and not deal fairly.  The first time Jim heard that from our mothers attorney he would set his course to change our mother’s Trust.

Jim would go as far as to remove me as Trustee of my mother’s Trust in order to gain control of all of my mother’s financial affairs, the farm, and my entire inheritance, including, my inherited home.

From this point on there would be a gross mismanagement of our mothers financial affairs by both Jim and Dennis.  In the final four years of my mothers life, the boys would keep my mother a prisoner in her own home, denying her visits from her loved ones; me and her beloved grandchildren.  Their actions is best described in Ezekiel 22:29, the people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat them, denying them justice.

So, why would Dennis be angry with me for wanting Jim to take responsibility for the repairs to my inherited home?  A home that Jim had forcefully took over while purposely excluding me from any decision making?  If my home had been turned over to me, as it should have been when Dennis and Debbie moved out of it, it would NOT be in the condition that it was found in.

Also, The home legally became mine when mom was diagnosed with dementia which was around spring of 2009.  From that point in time my inherited home should have been turned over to me to manage, dispersing the rent collected from Mom’s rental by whatever way I deemed necessary according to our mother’s needs and wishes, i.e. her care, and any repairs needed for the home.  Instead, Jim purposely excluded me entirely by not informing me whenever the home had become vacant.  His actions were a breech of our mothers first and second Amendments which would place the Trustees, Dennis and myself in charge of mom’s affairs.  In 2010 Jim would have Amendments 3 & 4 added which basically replaced me as Trustee, giving Jim all the power; the very thing my mother did not want.

I did nothing to Dennis for him to be angry with me.  I didn’t destroy his home the way Jim purposely and with malice intent destroyed mine.  Jim’s displaced anger had cost me great hardship being that I was not able to live in my home at that time due to the severity of the damages done to it. 

Our mother wanted everything to be equal.  We each received one of the three homes that sat on a 10 acre parcel, but both my brothers had acquired a second and even third dwelling during this time in question, including, multiple structures.  That is where we find the issue God has with both my brothers concerning the parable of the Laborers of the Vineyard.’  Back to the two issues in this parable;

1. the agreement with the laborers, and  
2. the account with them

The Agreement

God hires laborers, not because He needs them or their services (for, if we be righteous, what do we unto Him?), but as some charitable generous householders keep poor men to work, in kindness to them, to save them from idleness and poverty, and pay them for working for themselves.

In Dennis case, he was given a structure to make into a home for himself and land to work for himself.  He labored and worked to turn the barn into a home and he also worked the land, but to what purpose?  Did he work those 30 years to glorify God?  No, he worked it for himself.

It is important to note that scripture is very clear; 

         The soul of man stands ready to be hired into some service or other;                    we are created to work; and we are either a servant to iniquity,                                                       or a servant to righteousness.                                        Romans 6:19

The Account

Until we are hired into the service of God, we are standing all the day idle.  A state of drudgery to Satan may really be called a state of idleness; sinners are doing nothing to the purpose, nothing of the great work they were sent into the world about, nothing that will pass well in the account.  Thus, according to God, my brother Dennis has actually been idle all these years.  His work has been a state of drudgery, obviously one in which he has reaped great resentment.  Resentment that he has worked hard, and thus, feels a sense of entitlement that what he has actually worked is in fact his.  He also has resentment for Jim who received the same and much, much, more without working for any of it, but forcefully takes what does not rightly belong to him.

As for me, Jim would make it his goal in life that whatever was due me of my inheritance, i.e. the rental home, my mothers personal belongings; such as, my mothers Greek Cross and my mother’s simple gold wedding band (being I was the only girl in the family), or the painting of my Dad’s shed.  Anything that was of a fond memory for me, Jim would deny me or destroy it.  My mother had over sixty years of possessions belonging to her in her home, and I was not allowed to have one item, not one.  Jim would succeed in his mission in making good his threat to me- that I never receive anything, not even my home.  I have suffered much at the hands of my brother Jim, and for Dennis to speak such contempt by saying, ‘no one owe’s me anything,’ was callous and uncaring, a character flaw which stems from a stoney-heart.

Next, Dennis was offended with the distribution made by mom in her Trust that everything be equally divided amongst her three children.  The general scope of the parable of the Laborers is plain; the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

1. The offense taken (Matt. 20:11, 12);

Dennis murmured at the goodness of our mother.  There may be, and often are, discontent and murmuring concerning heavenly things while one be in this world.  This signifies the jealousy which Dennis was provoked to by the admission of his siblings receiving what he worked for by the sweat of his brow, doing so in the heat of the day while I received the same, yet, worked little in regards to the farm. In the parable of the prodigal son, the older brother’s discontentment at the reception of his younger sibling, complained of his father’s generosity to him; so Dennis quarrels with and finds fault with me, not because he had not enough, so much as, because others were made equal with him. 

Dennis boasts of his good services, as the prodigal’s elder brother did; I have borne the burden and heat of the day.  Now these last (my sister) has worked but one hour, and yet she’s been made equal with me.  How very apt we are to undervalue others, and to overvalue ourselves.

We must not ignore or deny all that my mother intended which is found in Amendments 1 & 2.   Amendments which were made by her when she was of  ‘sound mind.’  Contrary,  Amendments 3 & 4 were drawn up when my mothers mental capacity was significantly diminished and drawn up by a law firm sought out by Jim in order to replace our mothers Trusted Christian attorney.   Again, the soul of man stands ready to be hired into some service or other; we are either a servant to iniquity, or a servant to righteousness.

We are all called upon to be laborers in God’s vineyard.  The work of religion is vineyard-work, pruning, dressing, digging, gathering, fencing, weeding.  We have each of us our own vineyard to keep, our own soul; and it is God’s, to be kept and dressed for Him.  In this work we must not be slothful, standing around idly without any purpose, but laborers, working, and working out our own salvation.  Work for God will not admit of trifling.  A man may go idle to hell; but he that will go to heaven, must be busy working in His vineyard.

God by His gospel is hiring laborers into His vineyard, to dress it, and keep it; paradise-work. The devil, by his temptations is hiring laborers, also.  His field is to feed swine.  This brings us to another sign of warning to the those living on Mary Fife’s farm.

The Harbinger,  A Warning Sign

A Harbinger is a sign, a foreshadow of something that is yet to come.  Usually, a Harbinger is something that you take warning in.  One example of the Harbinger to America was 911.  911 was a warning to our nation, but it was to save the nation.  It was a sign to say that America is in a very dangerous period and in need of repenting in order to avoid further judgement.  There were nine Harbingers that occurred during the time of 911.

As 911 was a warning to America, one of the first warnings to my family was the fire that took my brother Dennis home in 2009.  It was a sign to those in the Fife family who had done evil in the sight of God, and to those who wronged other members in the family, that they are in a very dangerous period and in need of repenting in order to avoid further judgement.  Instead of repenting of their sin, my brothers would become more defiant in their rebellion after that fire, and their practice of extortion increased.  They committed repeated acts of robbery, oppressing the poor and needy, mistreating mom and myself, denying both of us from seeing each other in mom’s final years, along with denying me my rights as an heir. 

Jim had become too dangerous in the final years of my mom’s life and had made it difficult for my daughter and I to come to the farm.  It was extremely grievous not to be able to see my mom, and it was the same for my mom not being able to see us.  It would break the spirit of both myself and my mom.  It didn’t help to know she was being abused by Jim, but because Jim can be very cunning and calculating he would get away with it.  

Upon receiving my inherited home in July 2015, after all those many years of being away,  I would go to the farm and find out that Jim had rented out the back field for the use of feeding swine.  I would be amazed when I studied about the Laborers of the Vineyard in which it refers to the feeding of swine as the devils field; thus, another sign and the sixth Harbinger that I would receive concerning the sins of the Fife brothers.

During these many long years I would have to endure their persistent lies and contempt toward me, their mocking, Jim’s beatings, and when I came peacefully to visit my mom, Jim would have me thrown into jail for no apparent reason other then like Saul with David, God rejected Saul but loved David.  There would be thousands of dollars worth of damages done to my property by both brothers.  Whether the damages were to my home, my vehicle, my shed, etc, all of it was oppressive.

All that my mom intended for me, my brothers either had taken, or, destroyed so that I would receive nothing.  One leader in my church would say after seeing the condition that Jim left my inherited home in, that it was “only fit for barn animals to live in.”  Not one item of my mom’s personals that had sentimental value did I receive; they took it all. 

Ezekiel 22:29-31, says, The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat them, denying them justice. “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.  So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.”

Always remember, that the devil, by his temptations is hiring laborers, also.

We are put to our choice; for hire we must be; 

Choose you this day whom you will serve.

Joshua 23:15