What is the meaning of Mark 12:5? He sent still another God’s relentless love shines through this simple phrase. In the parable, the owner (representing the Lord) does not give up after the servants are mistreated; He keeps reaching out. Scripture repeatedly shows the Lord sending prophet after prophet to call His people back. • 2 Chronicles 24:19 says, “Nevertheless, the LORD sent prophets to bring the people back to Him and to testify against them; but they would not listen.” • Jeremiah 7:25 echoes the same patience: “From the day your fathers came out of Egypt until today, I also sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again.” The pattern is clear—God graciously provides yet another opportunity for repentance. …and this one they killed The servants’ escalating violence mirrors Israel’s tragic history of rejecting God’s messengers. Zechariah son of Jehoiada was stoned “in the courtyard of the house of the LORD” (2 Chronicles 24:21). Later, Jesus laments, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you” (Matthew 23:37). The murder of the servant in the parable is a sober reminder that sin, left unchecked, hardens hearts to the point of destroying God’s witnesses. He sent many others The owner’s generosity turns into a steady stream of emissaries—“many others.” This tells us the Lord’s mercy is not a single act but a continuing posture. • Jeremiah 25:4 notes, “The LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened.” • Jesus later declares, “I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes” (Matthew 23:34). The plural “many” stresses both the abundance of God’s warnings and the mounting responsibility of those who hear them. Some they beat Not every prophet was killed outright; some were abused and released, illustrating partial rejection that is still rebellion. • Jeremiah was “beaten and put in the stocks” (Jeremiah 20:2). • Micaiah was struck on the cheek for speaking truth (1 Kings 22:24). Physical assault without death might appear less severe, yet it reveals the same hardened resistance to God’s word. Others they killed The climax of hostility arrives when the tenants shed blood repeatedly. Hebrews 11:37 summarizes, “They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to the sword.” Elijah cried out, “They have killed Your prophets with the sword” (1 Kings 19:10). Each martyrdom underscores the depth of human sin and foreshadows the ultimate rejection of God’s Son, soon to be narrated in the parable. summary Mark 12:5 shows a holy pattern: God persistently sends His servants, yet human hearts, bent on autonomy, respond with escalating violence—from beating to murder. The verse exposes sin’s grim progression, magnifies divine patience, and prepares us to grasp the costliest mission of all—when the Father sends His beloved Son. |
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