Parables Of The Kingdom – The Second – The Wheat And The Tares – Part 1 Of 2 Series

PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM – THE SECOND – THE WHEAT AND THE TARES – Part 1 of 2

We come to the second of the Kingdom Parables commonly known as The Parable of the Tares.

Previously we studied the Sower and saw this to be the good seed sown by the Sower who is Christ, but taken up by His Apostles in the first century. The word went forth into the world. Towards the end of the first century we saw that some problems were creeping in; some false teachers becoming very active.

The Parable of the Sower had a strong relationship to the church at Ephesus and to the first age in church history we called The Apostolic Period. We shall see that the 7 Kingdom Parables match the 7 churches of Asia from revelation 2 and 3, and also connect with 7 periods of Church History. It is quite remarkable.

THE SCRIPTURES FOR THE PARABLE OF THE TARES

Just before the quotations, we can ask, “What are tares?” The word is sometimes translated as darnel. It is actually “darnel”, (Lolium temulentum) a ryegrass which looks much like wheat in its early stages of growth. It is a type of imitation wheat and Satan has all his imitations that look like the correct thing but they are false.

FROM MATTHEW – {{Matthew 13:24-30 He presented another parable to them saying, “THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN may be compared with A MAN who sowed good seed in his field but WHILE MEN WERE SLEEPING, HIS ENEMY CAME AND SOWED TARES also among the wheat and went away, but when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ and he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ and the slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ He said, ‘No, lest while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them. ‘Allow both to GROW TOGETHER UNTIL THE HARVEST and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “FIRST GATHER UP THE TARES and bind them in bundles to burn them up but gather the wheat into my barn.”}}

In the first parable we have the seed being sown, but inevitably we run into trouble. Nothing of good is left in this world without corruption creeping in, or banging at the door to destroy it. Just leave food in the open for a short while and Beelzeboul’s agents, the blowflies, soon find it and come to lay their maggots.

A good Christian work commences, and before long someone is on the scene to cause trouble or some overbearing Government regulation wants to shut you down. This is what the tares is all about – opposition from the enemy of souls against what is of God.

The interesting thing about these parables is that they move from one to the next, but they represent a time sequence in their broader understanding, as we will see near the end of this parable, and we saw in the last. The church has never settled down and if it does, something is wrong. We should always have opposition to the preaching of the gospel. A church that is in luxury and settle contentedly, is not preaching the gospel.

Have a look at these two special verses – {{2 Timothy 3:12 “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus WILL BE PERSECUTED. 2 Timothy 3:13 “Evil men and impostors WILL PROCEED FROM BAD TO WORSE, deceiving and being deceived.”}}

VERSE 12. When an individual or a church desires to live godly and desires to practise righteousness and godliness, that one will be persecuted. No persecution – no godly living. There was a lot of persecution happening in the Apostolic age but it increased after that time.

VERSE 13. Second Timothy 3 has a focus on the last days and verse 13 is set in the last days, which is our time. However there has been a steady increase of wicked men over the time since Pentecost and the scourge of evil men only grows worse. In the period leading into the second century some very evil men appeared. We look at that later.

[1]. MAN AND THE GOOD SEED

The parable begins with “a man” who could have been any man, but he was a servant of God because he had the good seed. This man was a sower as in the first parable. If there is good seed, then there is bad seed. In science we have the law about action and reaction. Everything of God, or from God, has a matching evil reaction from the devil and his demons. Just two examples – God said originally, “Be fruitful and multiply,” but the devil says, “Keep having abortions.” In Genesis God joined man and woman in marriage, but Satan has his own marriage of two homosexuals.