What is a husbandman in the Bible?

Further, he is like the husbandman, the farmer. This, man's earliest occupation, is one that entails the maximum amount of real hard physical work. It means downright labour. So it is for the servant of the Lord. He must be prepared for real hard work, yet when the autumn fruits are garnered he has rightly enough the very first claim upon them. We make a great mistake if we favoured British folk in this luxurious twentieth century imagine it is our special privilege to be exceptions to this rule and to be carried to heaven on downy beds of ease.

Cain was by occupation a tiller of the ground. Abel was a shepherd. Cain was a husbandman, — a farmer, if you like, — and his heart was much engrossed with the ground that he was busy tilling. "In process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord" (Gen. 4:3). He began to think he must draw near to God. It was a good thought. What man would dare to say that it was not a good thing to draw near to God?

Secondly, the law against the removal of landmarks comes in here, no doubt, as generally seen, because the land was their life, as sustaining it. They were to be a nation of husbandmen, each for himself cultivating the soil of that good land, — a much-needed lesson of what God would have His people to be spiritually now. Here is our wealth and sustenance indeed; and "much food" — would that we did believe it! — "in the tillage of the poor."

In the matter of Israel as the unfruitful vine, the branches had to furnish the fruit to the vine, and not the vine to the branches, for Israel was put under the law, which demanded a response, but furnished no power to satisfy its claims. In the case of the true vine, it is the blessed Lord, who furnishes the sap and strength and vitality that are needed. Not only so, but the Father is the Husbandman, or Cultivator. This brings out the teaching that the “purging” of the branches, in other words the hand of the Father in wise and loving discipline, is to the end that the branch, the believer, might bear more fruit. We read,

The truth of the vineyard planted by a man is clearly explained in Isaiah 5:1-7: "the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the whole house of Israel" (v.7). The hedge speaks of her separation from the nations; the place for the winefat telling of the provision God had made for Israel's rendering to Him some return for His great goodness; the tower indicating watchfulness against the intrusion of evil. The husbandmen are of course the elders of the people who were given responsibility to care for the nation on behalf of God, who left Israel without His direct intervention for centuries.

The first verse speaks of "parables," and Matthew's Gospel shows us that at this point He uttered three. Mark only records the middle one of the three — the one that foretold what these Jewish leaders were going to do, and what the results would be for them. In this parable the "husbandmen" represented the responsible leaders of Israel, and a summary is furnished of the way in which through the centuries they had refused all God's demands.

In speaking of a vineyard the Lord Jesus was continuing a figure which had been used in the Old Testament — Psalm 80; Isaiah 5; and elsewhere. In the Psalm the vine is clearly identified with Israel, and out of it is to come a "Branch" who is, "the Son of Man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself." In Isaiah it is very manifest that God was not getting out of His vineyard what He was entitled to expect. Now we find the story carried a good deal forward. The owner of the vineyard had done his part in providing all that was needful and the responsibility as to the fruit lay with the husbandmen to whom the vineyard was entrusted. They failed in their responsibility, and then proceeded to deny the rights of the owner and maltreat his representatives. Last of all they were tested by the advent of the owner's son. So the leaders of Israel had maltreated the prophets, and slain some of them. And now the Son had appeared, who is the Branch of whom the Psalm speaks. This was the supreme test.

*This thunder in harvest is noticed here as something remarkable; and so it was. Jehovah was the husbandman of the land of Israel (Deut 11), and had Israel been in simple allegiance to Him, everything would have witnessed the care and skill of the divine husbandman, and the blessing of that people that had the Lord for their God. There would have been nothing out of season: the early and the latter rain would have fallen only in their appointed months. Thunder in harvest would not have been known, or known only in judgment, as it is here.

How perfectly beautiful! Only think of God watering the ridges, and settling the furrows! Think of His stooping down to do the work of a husbandman for His people! Yes, and delighting to do it! It was the joy of His heart to pour His sunbeams and His refreshing showers upon the "hills and valleys" of His beloved people. It was refreshing to His spirit, as it was to the praise of His Name to see the vine, the fig-tree and the olive flourishing, the valleys covered with the golden grain, and the rich pastures covered with flocks of sheep.

Another character in which the believer is found is that of husbandman. Farming requires hard work, tilling the ground, planting, cultivating, while patiently waiting for the fruit to eventually mature. One cannot expect immediate results. What a lesson to quiet our own natural restlessness and impatience as to looking for results as quickly as possible! Let us labor on, steadily, consistently, according to the Word, and results will certainly come in due time. Patient, plodding continuance in well-doing will prove vastly more fruitful than great public campaigns that so impress crowds for the time being.

Yet beginning with verse 7 we see the proper attitude of the believer in regard to these evils. If he is oppressed, he is not to fight or make what he considers righteous demands. He is to be patient. For how long? Until the coming of the Lord! This is the only real hope of the child of God. It is vain to hope that men will willingly cease from oppression unless they are truly brought to God. But a Christian may learn to bear oppression in proportion as he rejoices in hope of the glory of God.

The farmer expects no crop until the seed has time to sprout and gradually grows and God designs this long waiting time as a picture of the long patience He has in dealing with us, so as to bring forth eventually the fruit that He seeks. And we too are to have the same patient character. It is God who sends the rain, whether early or latter, at the time of proper need, to bring it fruition the work of His grace. We cannot either hasten or delay it, so it is our wisdom to act in both faith and patience. It is this that leads to a true stablishing of the heart in sound, dependable characters and we are exhorted to this, for the coming of the Lord has drawn near.