Question: The "Weeds among Good Plants" or the "parable of the tares of the field" is a parable that Jesus explained to reveal the true nature of the Kingdom of God. Could you please explain how does the Kingdom of Heaven work in this world of evil?
Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name!
Here are the contextual Scriptures:
(i) Matt 13:24-30 — "24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”".
As I have always told parables of Jesus are earthly stories told by Jesus to reveal the heavenly realities of the invisible world of the Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, humans cannot understand something that they have not seen, and so the purpose for which Jesus told parables was to sow the seeds of faith in the heart of disciples in order to make them grow spiritually, and to veil the true spiritual depth of treasures hidden in order to check and filter those who just want to hear a good story and have a nice time and go away with just intellectual stimulation through having a good time. In fact, the seeds of the words of God look insignificant to the natural eyes and ears of humans. But when they hear it through the parable stories of Jesus which he utters through his mouth in to our ears of our spirit, the seeds of faith that fall in to their heart begin to increase and increase until the secrets of the Kingdom realities of God kept hidden from the foundation of the world to humans, get revealed to bless their soul to make it become heaven on earth and help them live now itself within the realities and atmosphere of heaven through faith.
Many people in today's world ask the question, 'Why should evil exist in this world? Is God concerned for all the evil that continues causing damage, destruction and injustice to increase in all the world? Does God care for humans, animals and all His creations?' God has answered through Jesus so clearly in this parable and have given a call to faith and patience till his time of judgment comes to take vengeance upon all the evil doers and wicked people.
To read this parable plainly makes us understand nothing, but the regular farming activities, which happens day in and day out. I think the disciples of Jesus were also like us were not able to understand anything significant about heaven through hearing the parable of Jesus. To humbly ask Jesus that our wisdom means nothing before the true heavenly glory of God in Jesus Christ our Lord, moves him to reveal the secrets of the Kingdom of God personally to us. With this information we have discussed, let us move on to really understand the true spiritual meaning behind the story of farming that Jesus told that He himself explained to his disciples who were eager to understand about the workings of heaven on earth.
(ii) Matt 13:36-43 — "36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” 37 He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. 40 Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!".
The multitude of people who casually want to hear the stories of Jesus were sent away, to go to fulfill their own will in their own way, but those disciples of Jesus who were eagerly following Jesus to fulfill God's will for their lives and others around them asked Jesus to reveal to them secrets of the Kingdom of God behind the stories they have heard from him previously. The disciples of Jesus were humble enough to acknowledge their homelessness, helplessness and hopelessness in this dark world which is working under Satan its prince. Just as Jesus had entered in to the house immediately after that to fellowship with his disciples, after a brief time with all people. He will also now enter the house of God the Church where his disciples are gathered together thirsting and seeking after Him, to reveal heaven to our heart and further reveal the secrets of heaven because it is the ground and pillar of truth (1 Tim 3:15). So what do we understand from this? The whole earth exists to reveal heaven that is veiled from plain sight behind it, those who want to find God could search with their whole heart to hear the heavenly super harmonic songs and wisdom of heaven through it all, and to search and grope in the darkness of the world to find Him, though He is not far from us all but is closer than the air we breathe (Rom 1:20-21). Are we coming after Jesus even when the world of people are going away from Him when their outwardly entertainment is over and done? Are we seeking Jesus desperately to ask Him to explain to us the secrets of heaven or are we just satisfied attending the Church on Sundays and using the rest of our weekdays as sin-days? May we search our own hearts, and see our own true need for Jesus in our lives, all the days of our life on earth.
To every true and obedient disciples of Jesus, when they are so hungry and thirsty for truth of the Word of God, Jesus answers their needs whatever it may be in their lives.
Jesus explains the parable of the tares saying, "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. 40 Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
In other words, Jesus sows in to the world the people of faith through revealing the written and spoken Word of God from heaven by personifying it on earth through them, they are the sons of the Kingdom of heaven who do good to all people or atleast with some they desire to be like Jesus which they try to be by practicing his commandments (Acts 10:38; John 10:27-28; 13:17; 15:14). Because Jesus is the sower of the good seeds of the written and spoken Word of God in all the world (Luke 8:11), His name is described in the Book of Revelation collectively as "the Word of God" which means the revelator of the voice, will and all of the workings of God to all humans to make them friends of God (Rev 19:13; 2 Cor 2:1-3; John 15:15).
Satan as the prince of darkness, who influences the world for his whims and fancies because of the fallen state of all humans in to sin and disobedience through the first Adam our forefather, which he engineered in the beginning, he constantly sows evil thoughts of all types of sin and rebellion which when processed by unsaved humans make them tares in the world to do evil of rebellion and sin against God constantly (Mark 7:20-23; 1 John 3:8). God uses the good seed of the sons of the Kingdom to destroy the work of the evil One who is the devil in this world (1 John 3:8). Satan and his evil tyrant minions who work constantly through their evil influence over humans, sow in to their unsaved heart a rebellion against God constantly, and then sows them in to the world to fulfill his evil desire through their lives and thus keep the kingdom of darkness of the world system of governance intact under him (Matt 4:8-9). Satan's desire of the age is to make humans sin and through them continue his governance eternally through deception (Rev 20:7-10). But thank God once Jesus arrived on earth to sacrifice himself from heaven on earth, He has put a full stop to this evil plan by dying as a human and rising up as a immortal human forevermore through which He has become the sinless King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all the world now and forever more (1 Cor 2:6-9). Amen!
Jesus clearly reveals why evil do persist if God is good all the time? Jesus said as the enemy of the soul of all humans sows his tares in all the world, Jesus keeps sowing the sons of the Kingdom of God in all the world. If we ask, then how evil and the wicked who are involved in it will be judged, when and where if the devil will keep doing his wicked works through them? The most profound answer to this persisting question is answered by Jesus Himself, "the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels". What does it mean? It means, as long as this age of angels exist, the world around us are subject to the judgment execution of angels who will act as watchers over humans as they were appointed since the beginning of time (Heb 2:5; Dan 4:13, 17, 23; Eze 28:14), thus every breaker of the law of God will be judged by the angels who supplied it to Moses (Gal 3:19; Rom 2:12-13, 14-15), as well as those are ruled by their conscience among Gentiles will be judged by angels appointed by God in whom He finds fault (Job 4:18; 1 Kings 22:20-22; Mark 5:9-14).
We know that the fallen angels are not perfect, but God still uses them as long as they maintain their domain in the heavenlies and not posses human persons directly (Jude 1:6; Eph 6:12). Good Angels are those who are specifically used by God as reapers and judges over human lives (Gal 6:7), but they [i.e. good angels] will only be used at the time of the end of the age specifically to removes the tares of the sons of darkness completely out of the earth, but he uses them often and have also used them since the beginning of time to execute certain other judgments to reveal the glory of God (Acts 12:21-23; Isa 26:9; Psa 9:8).
Further the Parable reveals the crux of the whole point at the end, "40 Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
Here it is, God has set a time of judgment to cleanse the earth of evil completely through the Armageddon war and the succeeding judgment that will take place on earth (Rev 16:16; 19:19, 20-21; Matt 25:31-46), to set up a righteous Kingdom of God for a thousand years under the saints of the Church from the New Heaven and New Earth (Rom 8:19, 22; 2 Peter 3:13). From that time on wards, "the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father". So the bottom line is, God has a set time to execute His righteous judgment upon the whole world, and it is coming and is on the way (Rom 12:19). Until then if ever we try to take judgment in our own hands, then while uprooting evil we will also become a bad example to uproot the good people who are in the midst of them too. Because the world system has become totally corrupt because of sin from the beginning of time through the Satanic influence and rulership over it, and that good and evil is intertwined in it, God has allowed it to exist together because of the first Adam's choice to eat the fruit of the knowledge of the good and evil. But surely it will be separated at the end of the age. Therefore it is always wise to ask God for wisdom and overcome the evil nature of self through the good nature of God within every saints that God has blessed with, until His time comes to judge the whole world and set up a Kingdom of righteousness and rule it with a rod of iron (Jam 1:2-8; Deut 32:35; Rom 12:20-21; 2 Peter 1:3-4; Rev 19:14-16).
This judgment of God through Jesus separating the tares from the good seeds of the wheat, and thus thereafter bringing the tares to be burnt, while gathering the wheats in to His barn is explained in details here by Jesus as, "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth." We see in the Judgment of nations later Jesus revealing in details of how and when the above judgment will happen through the angels under the saints, here it is, " 31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. 32 All the nations [of various people group and individuals] will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. 33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; 36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ 41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ 44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”"
In the above judgment of nations in all the world, three group of people are identified out of it, the sheep who are the righteous saved people living at that time on earth, the goat are the unsaved and unrighteous people living at that time on earth, and "one of the least of these My brethren" who are the Church saints who have come along with Him, along with the Tribulation saints who were martyred by the Antichrist who will rise up in their glorious body at the time of His Second Coming, who were also mercilessly hunted for which the unsaved did nothing but were mere spectators until then (Heb 2:11, 17; Rev 20:4-6). The angels were the ones who were used by God to supernaturally gather this living saved and unsaved huge crowd of people in one place for the judgment to take place, and at the same time separating the saved from the unsaved (Matt 24:31). All the righteous people will inherit the Millennial Kingdom of God which will rule the earth by Jesus and the Church saints. The Tribulation saints will specially be given the task to stay on earth to take care of the Temple as priestly-rulers in the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus (Rev 20:4-6), in which Jesus and the Church will stay in the New Heaven, New Earth and New Jerusalem but will rule from the earthly Temple the whole wide world through the Resurrected Tribulation Saints. But all the unsaved will be sent directly sent in to everlasting punishment. It is those "all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness" who are the unsaved, the angels "will cast them into the furnace of fire". "There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth" by the unsaved from thereon for eternity. Hallelujah! God's judgment will be fulfilled at that time perfectly and supernaturally from heaven.
Much Love and Blessings....
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