The Last Hour

By Jerry D. Ousley

            Eleven o’clock.  Time for the evening news.  To many, the conclusion of the news during this last hour of our twenty-four-hour day signals bedtime (not for me, by the way; my eleven o’clock occurs around 9 pm). 

In Bible days, the last hour of the day was at 6 o’clock pm and the first hour was at 6 o’clock am.  Of course, after the last hour of the day, the evening and night, though belonging to the next day, didn’t signal 7 o’clock as the first hour because they numbered their hours by the working day, so six in the morning was considered the first hour while the night hours were measured by night watches.  There were four three-hour periods, namely, the first watch which was from 6 pm to 9 pm.  The second watch occurred from 9 pm to midnight, the third watch was from midnight to 3 am and the fourth watch was from 3 am until 6 am.  Ok, now that I have you thoroughly confused (actually I hope not), let’s take a look at a parable Jesus told in Matthew 20.  It went something like this in my own simple paraphrase:

A landowner went to the marketplace early in the morning looking for workers to work in his vineyard.  He found a group of men at the first hour (6 am) and told them that he would pay them a fair wage (a denarius was common) to work that day.  Apparently, there was a lot of work to do and so he went out again at the third hour (9 am) and hired some more men.  He did this again at the sixth hour (noon) and at the ninth hour (3 pm).  Finally, he went out at the eleventh hour (5 pm) and found more men in need of work and he sent them to his vineyard to work for the last work hour of the day.

            Now this story breaks all labor laws of our land today because our law requires a certain hourly wage despite how many hours worked.  But not so in the days of the Bible because the landowner was privileged to set his own labor rate.  At the end of the day, he had the men who had only worked one hour called up first.  He paid them a denarius.  The Bible doesn’t mention those who had worked three hours, six hours and 9 hours but jumps straight to those who had worked a full twelve-hour shift.  He paid them the same, a denarius so I assume that those working the hours in between also received a denarius.  Despite their complaints for the supposed unfair wage, the landowner defended that it was his land, his money and his choice if he wanted to give those who had only worked one hour a full day’s wages.

            This story from Jesus was to illustrate the Kingdom of Heaven.  For you see, whether we have lived many, many years for the Lord, or have only come to Him an hour ago, when the Lord returns, we will all receive the same wage – the privilege of entering the Kingdom.  Yes, I know that the Bible speaks elsewhere of rewards but the point of this parable of Jesus was that coming to Him, whether early in life or at the eleventh hour of life offers the same salvation.

            I had the honor of leading a man to the Lord in the eleventh hour of his life.  He was on his deathbed.  He had been a hard-working man but had never given his life to the Lord.  I was called to him and warned that he didn’t have much respect for ministers but I faithfully did my duty.  But even though I was prepared to defend the Gospel I soon found out that this man was ready to surrender.  I presented the plan of salvation to him and without hesitation he agreed that he was ready to receive.  We prayed and he was saved.  He died just a few days after that.

            In contrast, I have been a believer since I was sixteen years old.  As of today, that means I have served God for fifty-three years.  But despite my loyalty to the Kingdom, that man received the same privilege of Heaven that I will receive because it isn’t measured by the faithfulness of time but by the faithfulness of accepting Christ.

            I urge you to consider your own situation.  Are you serving Christ?  If so, that’s wonderful news.  But if not, could it be that this is your eleventh hour?  None of us really know that for certain.  Any of us could be in our final hour.  If you haven’t accepted Christ as your Savior, please don’t hesitate but make it right with God today, right now.  The matter is that urgent.  We aren’t promised when our eleventh hour will arrive.  It could be many years from now and this could be the day.  The choice is yours.  But just remember, the clock is ticking.  What time is it in your life?

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.