Servants in the Vineyard
Isaiah's Servant and the laborers of the last days
Zenos's allegory closes with the Servant gathering other servants to prune the vineyard a final time before the end. This is the eleventh-hour calling already in force for covenant-aware disciples today.
When the Lord of the vineyard finally returns to labor 'this last time,' who exactly does He bring with Him — and would you be counted among them?
- 1The Servant Who Gathers Servants7 min
The allegory ends with one figure and then a company. The Lord 'sent his servant; and the servant went and did as the Lord had commanded him, and brought other servants; and they were few' Jacob 5:70. Notice the order: the primary Servant is sent first, then he goes and gathers laborers around himself. This is the Davidic Servant of Isaiah — the Root of Jesse 'unto whom rightly belongs the priesthood and the keys' D&C 113:6 — and the servants are the company he assembles. 'Few' is not ten people; it is few against eight billion. The laborers are not credentialed by men. They are 'the lawful heirs... who have been hid' (D&C 86:8-9), drawn out for the harvest.
- 2This Is the Last Time7 min
The urgency is total: 'this is the last time that I shall nourish my vineyard; for the end is nigh at hand' Jacob 5:71. Jacob makes the application — the day the Lord sets His hand 'the second time to recover his people' is 'the day, yea, even the last time, that the servants of the Lord shall go forth in his power, to nourish and prune' Jacob 6:2. What changes this final cycle? The Lord stays. Before, He worked and departed; now 'the Lord of the vineyard labored also with them' Jacob 5:72. That is constant revelation and real-time correction beside His laborers.
- 3Take Up the Role Now6 min
The charge is present-tense. 'Go to, and labor in the vineyard, with your might' Jacob 5:71. Activation is internal and gated by sanctification — not by office. The seeker who lives righteousness becomes a servant in the vineyard; later recognition by the Servant only confirms what the soul already is. The promise: 'ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto myself' Jacob 5:71. Wake up and say: I will labor with all my might.
- 1Jacob 5:70
“And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard sent his servant; and the servant went and did as the Lord had commanded him, and brought other servants; and they were few.”
Teaching noteDraw out the two-stage pattern: one Servant sent, then he gathers the company. Ask who the 'other servants' are — the hidden heirs, not the institutionally appointed. - 2Jacob 5:71
“And the Lord of the vineyard said unto them: Go to, and labor in the vineyard, with your might. For behold, this is the last time that I shall nourish my vineyard; for the end is nigh at hand, and the season speedily cometh; and if ye labor with your might with me ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto myself against the time which will soon come.”
Teaching noteThe present-tense commission. Press the class: the call is now, the labor is 'with your might,' and the joy is conditioned on laboring alongside Him. - 3Jacob 6:2
“And the day that he shall set his hand again the second time to recover his people, is the day, yea, even the last time, that the servants of the Lord shall go forth in his power, to nourish and prune his vineyard; and after that the end soon cometh.”
Teaching noteJacob's own interpretation of the allegory — anchor the servants' labor to the latter-day gathering and tie it to Isaiah 11's second recovery.
Another way to look at this: the gentle pruning Servant of Jacob 5 is only one face. The Book of the Servant unseals a second — 'who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?' (Isaiah 63:1), the Servant who treads the winepress alone and comes with fire and a sword. The same gathering work that nourishes the natural fruit also casts the wild branches into the fire — mercy and judgment are one harvest.
- 1What is the exact sequence in Jacob 5:70 — what does the Servant do before any other servants appear?
- 2Why does the Lord 'labor also with them' this final time when in earlier cycles He departed? What does His staying change about how His servants are led?
- 3If activation as a servant is internal and gated by sanctification rather than by office, what in your own walk would the Lord need to prune before you could labor 'with your might'?
This week, choose one concrete labor in the vineyard — a name to teach, a wound to bind, a desolation to rebuild — and offer it to the Lord, asking Him to labor beside you in it.
- ▸Isaiah 11:1, 10 — Names the Rod and the Root of Jesse as distinct latter-day servants beside the Stem who is Christ.
- ▸D&C 86:8-11 — Identifies the laborers as 'lawful heirs... hid from the world,' foreordained as priests and saviors of men.
- ▸D&C 24:19 — A literal commission to 'prune my vineyard with a mighty pruning, even for the last time' according to the same pattern.
- ▸Isaiah 61:1-3 — The anointed Servant's commission, naming the remnant 'trees of righteousness' and 'Priests of Jehovah.'
- ▸D&C 101:43-60 — The parable of the nobleman, watchman, and tower — the Lord's strange act of redeeming the vineyard through His servants.
Prepared by ABEL, SEER's Restoration-scholar research assistant. Generate your own lesson on any topic or Come, Follow Me week — free to start.
