Way of The Warrior- A Daily Devotional

Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 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?’ 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?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 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.” – Matthew 13:24-30 NKJV

Warrior;

Matthew 13 is an interesting chapter, there are parables upon parables, and they are all moving in a specific direction.  The disciples even asked, why all the parables? The great thing about chapter 13 of Matthew is that Jesus explains Himself well, so we are not going to explain the parable above, Jesus did that, but let’s look at some of the deep meanings in this parable.  Matthew 13:10-11 answers the disciples’ questions of why He talks in parables: And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” God was separating, God is separating, and God will soon finally SEPARATE! In the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 12, Jesus is extremely specific about what He is doing: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (v49-53) Look around America and see the hatred, the vileness, the venom spewed at Christians and a President that supports Christians and people of the Books. 

Leader, He also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming.’ And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? (Luke 12:54-56) A farmer knows when it is time to harvest by THE SIGNS in the field. In the King James version, the Greek word ‘zizanion’ is defined as spurious wheat, darnel; a plant that grows in Palestine which resembles wheat in many ways but is worthless. It also EASILY CONTAMINATES wheat seed. So the original Greek word can also be called a darnel, some translations use the word ‘Cockle’, these “weeds” look exactly like wheat while both are growing as blades. When the wheat is ready to be harvested, the tares can finally be distinguished by their lack of fruit, or the DARK SEED that is produced, and they may be separated easily. In some translations, the use of the word WEEDS can cause us to lose some of this pertinent meaning. During Christ’s incarnation the Jews had an agrarian culture, they farmed. When they were taken into captivity in Babylon, they learned business and never went back to the AG business. Many farmers depended on the quality of their crops as their primary source of survival and commerce. An enemy sowing TARES or DARNEL would have sabotaged a business, and many lives. The tares in the parable were likely darnel because that weed, until mature, appears as wheat. Without modern weed killers, what would a wise farmer do in such a dilemma? Instead of tearing out the wheat with the tares, the landowner in this parable wisely waited until the harvest. After harvesting the whole field, the tares could be separated and burned. The wheat would be saved in the barn. There is only one way to get into the BARN, and out of the FIRE: That is by the ONE WHO SOWED THE GOOD SEED- JESUS!

Conduit, how does all the BAD SEED, this DARK SEED get into the field? Jesus told us, “The enemy has done this”. The good news is that the TIME IS NOW to harvest! Jesus told us in Matthew 9:37 and Luke 10:2 that the Harvest is Plentiful, but the workers are few! Many people believe that all are the Children of God and that Jesus is this soft mushy deity that just needs people to like Him and accept Him, but don’t worry about anything they are doing or anything they believe, or how they are talking, thinking, acting or voting. Remember there are sins of omission and sins of commission. In other words, there are things we are to do, that we DO NOT DO, and there are things we are NOT TO DO, yet we DO. To believer that we are all following after the same God- is a lie from the ENEMY. When Jehovah walked with the Israelites, IN THE BEGINNING, in the EXODUS and in the DESERT- He separated and segregated. The Israelites were NOT to marry the gentiles, eat like the gentiles, or think like the gentiles. They were to maintain a pure bloodline, and identity. It is the same today and it will be the same in the closing days of the TIME of the Gentiles. In Matthew 25:31-41, Jesus says He will gather up all people when he returns to the earth as King. He will divide them into two groups, the sheep, and the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. He will then say to the people on His RIGHT, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father!” He is talking to those who lived a truly converted life and obeyed God- “Come and possess the kingdom which has been prepared for you ever since the creation of the world.” Then Christ will turn away from the sheep and state to those on the LEFT, to the ‘goats’, “Away from me, you that are under God’s curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels!” The sheep are symbolic of those who follow and obey Christ, while the goats represent those who choose not to follow Jesus, but do what felt right to them. 1 Corinthians 6:20 states: for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. In 1 Corinthians 7:23 He doubles down: God paid a high price for you, so don’t be enslaved by the world. We must soberly understand like the Wheat and the Tares, one is of value to the SOWER and one is of no value. The same with the sheep and the goats! God considers one set of animals HIS, but the other, He does not! Jesus is the true shepherd over the sheep-those willing to follow him and do what he says. However, Jesus does not claim ownership or responsibility over the goats- those who are rebellious and stubbornly refuse to follow HIM, HIS will, HIS way, His life, HIS WORD! The ultimate fate of the goats is like the tares: to be thrown into the lake of fire. There are only 2 teams. You are either on Jesus’ team, or the other team. Jesus is separating- THE TIME IS NOW- GET OFF the World’s team and get on TEAM JESUS!