The wheat and the tares have to grow together (1). They have to grow side-by-side until harvest.
Our lives will produce moments of harvest and it will produce unprofitable, unwanted, and unfit desires, habits, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. While we may want to, we cannot abruptly rip out all that is unworthy and hated. We have to allow our hearts and minds to go through the process of growth. We have to allow our hearts and minds to go through the through.
Too often we want to be rescued. Too often we want to rescue others. However, the Lord states that this is the Kingdom of Heaven (2). The Kingdom of Heaven has moments where the laborers rest and during rest their adversary will come and plant weeds and tares into the field (3). Upon discovery, the laborers are instructed to not go and uproot the weeds and tares because of the possibility and reality that doing this would damage, if not destroy, all that was planted.
The field are the hearts of God’s people and the minds of humanity. In these hearts and minds, sacred places that are image bearers for all that is God (4), an enemy came and planted all that has the potential to choke the life out of these sacred hearts and minds. Weeds and tares are insecurity, hurt, pain, bitterness, jealousy, envy, greed, and pride. They are lusts (5), fruits of the flesh (6), and rebellion (7). The Lord says that these things are to grow and germinate with the fruit until.
The until is Harvest Time. This is a designated time where all that was planted is expected to bring forth some sort of fruit. Fruit can be material and it can also be immaterial. The question is will it produce the fruits of the Spirit in the hearts and minds of the believer (8).
At the time of Harvest, God instructed the gatherers to first gather up the tares. The Lord will deal with and gather the tares. He will deal with all that the enemy planted in the hearts of His people. A great challenge, similar to wanting to pull the wheat up during the early stages of growth, is are people willing to let go of the tares.
The challenges of life can become comfortable and a norm. There are many that have become comfortable in pain, hurt, neglect, and rejection to the point they find it difficult to recognize genuine care and compassion. Are people willing to let go of the tares?
It is Harvest time. It is fruit time. It is time for all of the fruit of the laborer to be separated and evaluated for value. Before there can be an evaluation of what is wheat, produce, and product, there must be a separation of the tares. Not only do they need to be separated, the tares and weeds need to be burned.
A skilled farmer knows the difference between weeds and tares and what his crops should look like. Hurt, pain, despair, and insecurity must be separated and burned so hope, security, faith, and trust can shine forth.
Jesus is that skilled farmer who knows how to separate the unprofitable without destroying what is profitable. He knows how to remove the painful, the hurting, and the undesired from all the whole and desired.
- Matthew 24:30
- Matthew 24:24
- Matthew 24:25
- Genesis 1:26
- 1 John 2:16
- Galatians 5:19-21
- Hebrews 3:8
- Galatians 5:22-26
The Bell Reader 