p. 106 | Parable of the Tares by Editor

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 30, 1864

Parable of the Tares.

By Editor

MATT. XIII, 24-30, 36-43.

Our Saviour interprets this parable, and thus makes its meaning very certain. It teaches us,—

1. That Christ proposes to set up the kingdom of the heavens on earth. To this end he sows the good seed. The field over which he sows is the world. The good seed which he sows, are the children of the kingdom. It is no longer, as in the preceding parable, the word, the seed of truth; but it is that incorruptible seed taken root and bearing fruit in the persons of the righteous. Thus is shown the tendency of this kingdom to subject even the outward and visible to its sway. It is not simply internal and spiritual, but ultimately affects and fashions anew the material organization of our bodies and the world. The body, as well as the soul, is the subject of redemption in Christ, as the resurrection proves. So with the earth itself. As Peter informs us, it is included in the restitution of all things. "Wherefore, according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth." The curse which has so long rested upon it is to be removed when the kingdom comes in its glory. This Paul tells us: "The creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." For the sake of these children of the kingdom, the earth itself, their habitation, shall be redeemed and once more made a constituent part of the kingdom of the heavens. This they long and pray for as commanded: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven." This is the kingdom Christ came into the world to set up.

2. In this work he is opposed by Satan. Thus the parable says: "While men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares. The tares are the children of the wicked one: the enemy that sowed them is the Devil." Most people in our day make little account of the Devil and his works, which we are expressly told the Son of God came to destroy. They hardly believe in his existence, much less his constant agency. But not so our Saviour in these words. He here teaches us that Satan is his great antagonist in this world; that he is ever active and vigilant in his opposition to the establishment of Christ's kingdom on earth. "As a roaring lion he walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." He is indefatigable in this work. He is mighty and successful. He is "the prince of the power of the air;" "the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience;" so that the beloved John says, "The whole world lieth in wickedness." He is very daring. He even attempted to seduce Christ from his mission of restoring the race and world to God. And we read that in the last days he will have great power and wrath: "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the Devil is come down to you, having great wrath, because he knoweth he hath but a short time."

3. And this leads us to a third truth of our parable, that there is to be progress in both good and evil to the end of the world. "Let both grow together until the harvest." "The harvest is the end of the world." The wheat is not to grow while the tares wane and die. Both are to grow, and to grow until the harvest, which is the end of the world, i. e., of this age, or dispensation, during which this mixed growth is to continue. Both are to have development, and alike reach full maturity.

Nor are we to set ourselves to the task of wholly extirpating the tares. We are forbidden to do this, "lest while we gather up the tares we root up also the wheat with them." This work is reserved for another time than the present, and for more skillful and effective hands than ours. "The reapers are the angels."

4. And thus we reach a fourth truth of our parable. The final and complete triumph of good over evil, and the bringing in of the kingdom, occur only at the end of the world, at the coming of the Son of man with his angels. "The harvest is the end of the world,"—aion, age, or dispensation. This is the point of time at which the Scriptures everywhere represent Christ as coming with his angels. And they come to separate the wheat from the tares which have been struggling and growing on together up to this point of time, to cast down and destroy the wicked and exalt the righteous.

Such are the plain truths of this parable. It follows: 1. That the millennium is after, not before, the coming of the Son of man. Until this there is a mixture of good and evil. The wheat and tares grow together. We are expressly commanded to let them both grow together till the harvest, till Christ comes. We are forbidden to take the work of separation into our hands. This is for him and his angels to do when he comes.

But in the millennium good is to be wholly triumphant. It is then to have a free and unincumbered growth. All men are then to know the Lord, from the least to the greatest. All kings shall fall down before him. All nations shall serve him. The nations shall learn war no more. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord. There shall be one Lord, and his name one. The people shall be all righteous.

So intense and universal shall godliness be during the millennium that even upon the bells of the horses shall be inscribed, "Holiness to the Lord." The commonest utensils of the household shall all be consecrated.

Such is the picture of the millennium as drawn by the pen of inspiration. Do you see any tares growing in that picture? Does it not look as if they had all been gathered out and burned? Do you not in that picture see the righteous shining forth as the sun in the kingdom?

But the parable informs us that the tares are to continue to grow and flourish side by side with the wheat till Christ comes. This beautiful picture of the millennial age and glory cannot then be realized before he comes. Whence it follows there is no millennium till after Christ returns to our world.

2. But there will be a millennium then. He comes to introduce it. He comes to discern between the righteous and the wicked; to separate the good from the bad; to root out the tares from among the wheat; to cast down and destroy the children of the wicked one; to exalt and to give the victory to the children of the kingdom; to bind Satan, and to destroy all his works in the earth.

3. A third inference from our exposition is that Christ's kingdom is not of this world. It comes down from God out of Heaven. It is brought in by himself; it is built up by angel hands. It is not man's work; not a product of his wisdom or power. He is incompetent to so mighty a task. His skill and strength are not sufficient even to root out the tares. He would rush at the work just as he is extensively doing in our day, with such blind and infuriated zeal as to pluck up more wheat than tares. The Lord's reapers are the angels. Doubtless the command will soon be given them, "Thrust in thy sickle and reap; for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe."

Many tell us that all the kingdom Christ will ever have in this world is to grow up out of the present state of things; that present means and agencies are all that is needed; that men will grow wiser, and better, and mightier; that the gospel will spread, right triumph, and the church enlarge her boundaries and influence, till at last she will succeed in converting all the tares into wheat, all the children of the wicked one into children of the kingdom.

Thus they make Christ's kingdom emphatically of this world, and establish and administer for him after a form and fashion of their own. They will have no interference of the King himself; they ask him only to stay in the Heavens a little longer, to keep back his angels, and they will have the work done, the Devil bound, his lies and delusions all exploded, his children rooted out, the world converted, and the millennium fully inaugurated.

Now how contrary all this is to the word of God, and especially our parable, is evident. This teaches us, as plainly as language can do it, that the kingdom is to be brought in and evil finally overcome in this world,—not by human, but by supernatural agencies; even by the direct interposition of the King himself and his angels. They alone are represented as competent for this work. The final result of their interposition will be the complete and everlasting separation of the good from the bad, the godly from the ungodly, the restoration of all things, a glorious reverse of the ruin made by the fall, the complete destruction of the works of the Devil, and the eternal reign and empire of Jesus Christ over this world.

Reader, are you a friend or an enemy of the King? Serve you under the banner of Jesus or Satan? The great day of separation makes haste. As a snare shall it come; as a thief in the night; as the lightning. Take heed to thyself.—Prophetic Times.