With agriculture being an important part of Israeli life Jesus uses it more than once in His teaching about the kingdom of heaven, i.e. kingdom of God. In Matthew 13:24-30, He portrays a farmer that sowed good seed in his “wheat” field; then during the night an enemy came and sowed “tares” (a weed that so closely resembled wheat that it was hard to distinguish until the grain appeared) in the field. By the time the employees detected the tares they could not be removed without destroying the crop, so both had to grow together until the harvest when the reapers would separate them out while harvesting the grain. In Jesus interpretation of the parable to His disciples in verses 36-43 we learn that He was the good seed that came into the field of the world to produce a harvest for the kingdom of heaven, but His enemy, and our enemy, the devil would sow “tares” in the field, which in this setting I do not believe is as much the outspoken sinners in the world that are obvious to everyone, but are counterfeits that are hard to detect rising up among “the sons of the kingdom”. There have been counterfeits active among God’s people from ancient times; 2 Peter 2:1 talks about it and says “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies…” The kingdom of heaven today is a work in progress within believers; in the world around us good and evil coexist; the “sons of the kingdom” are called out to separation and holiness, however that slithering serpent called Satan would subtly slither his way in planting counterfeits among them, bringing false teachings and doctrines that would look authentic and be hard to detect; But in the end God’s reaping angels will make a complete separation, and the completed kingdom will be one of total perfection. Our challenge today is to recognize and steer clear of the evil and the counterfeit! “Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments” Revelation 16:15.
Tares
By Rose Hill
It is up to us to sow good seeds,
And not to worry about the enemies weeds.
At the end of the age the angels will reap,
The tare’s burn and the harvest keep.
Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version copyright …1982 by Thomas Nelson Co. used by permission.