What is a "tiehacker"?

"Tiehacker" is a term originating in the Ozark hills of southern Missouri. It referred to a class of people from WAY back in the hills that made a living cutting trees into ties for the railroad. I first heard the term from my wife shortly after we married. I had been working outside all day and was dirty and stinky. When I came inside, she told me I looked like a "tiehacker" and had to get cleaned up. She had learned the word from her father, and thought it just meant "a bum". Never having heard it before, I looked it up. Although I am not really a bum, I thought it was interesting, and I do have a life-long love affair going with the Ozark hills, so ... there you have it!

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Journaling in 2019; Gospel of Luke Chapter 20 in the Bible

free image from pixabay.com

Well, you all may have noticed -- or maybe not considering the low number of followers that I have -- that I haven't written anything in almost a year. I hope to change that.

I have often tried journaling, but diabetic neuropathy has given my hands such a chronic tremor that my handwriting has become unreadable, even to me much less anyone else. 

I'd really like to get this new year off to a fresh start, and maybe I can accomplish here most of what I'd want to do in a journal. 

We'll start off with the Bible passage that the Debster and I read together last night. We've been working our way through the Gospel of Luke, and last night we read the first part of Luke 20: 

One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him, "Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority." 
He answered them, "I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?" 
And they discussed it with one another, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Why did you not believe him?' But if we say, 'From man,' all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet." 
So they answered that they did not know where it came from. 
And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things." 
The Debster and I saw that the priests and scribes and elders were more concerned about how the masses would react to their answer than what the true answer should be. They also realized that no matter how they answered, they would be in trouble.
We continued on in chapter 20:
And he began to tell the people this parable: 
"A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. 
Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.' But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, 'This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.' And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 
What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others." 
When they heard this, they said, "Surely not!" 
But he looked directly at them and said, "What then is this that is written: 
'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone'? 
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him."  The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people.
So, after his conversation with the priests, Jesus then proceeds to tell a parable to the people that had been listening. 

In the Old Testament, a vineyard and its owner are often used as an illustration of Israel and the LORD. The people knew this quite well, so when Jesus began speaking to the people about a vineyard, they would have immediately recognized what he was talking about.

The vineyard obviously represents the nation of Israel, and the owner of the vineyard was the LORD. So who were the "tenants"? In an actual vineyard, they would be the people appointed by the owner to tend the vineyard for him. They would keep the soil fertilized and keep the vines pruned to produce maximum fruit, which they would then harvest and give to the owner. 

So, the "tenants" represented the priests, scribes, and elders whose God-given role was to lead the people spiritually. And the "servants" sent by the owner represented the prophets that had been sent periodically to the nation to speak to them on the LORD's behalf. Prophets that were often ignored, mistreated, beaten, and sometimes murdered.

The "beloved son" then obviously represents Jesus, the "beloved Son, with you I [God] am well pleased" [Luke ch. 3]

The Son being killed is an obvious reference to the death on a cross that Jesus was going to undergo in just a few days, the Son killed by the Roman tools of the priests and scribes.

The destruction of the tenants and the redistribution of the vineyard would then seem to be a prophecy of the coming destruction of the Temple by the Romans in A.D. 70. With no temple, the entire system of sacrifices and temple rituals would crumble, effectively ending the rule of the priests. 

The vineyard being given to "others" would seem to prophecy the coming church, founded and initially led by the apostles. This would soon encompass much of the Gentile people as much as the Jews, the two being melded into one unified group. [Ephesians 2 explains this quite well.]

An interesting passage, indeed. The Debster and I were quite blessed to have looked into it.

May God richly bless you all as well!