Posted by Steven Benjamin on April 11, 2009, 6:16 pm, in reply to "Re: Shepherds Rod: TRACT No. 3 (pt 12)"
Separation Of The Tares From Among The Wheat.
The end of the period in which the wheat and the tares are commingled is the time of the closing work for the Laodicean church (the last of the seven churches). This work is identified by the church's founder as the marking in Ezekiel 9, the sealing of spiritual Israel, the 144,000. (See Testimonies to Ministers, p. 445 and Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 266; Vol. 5, p. 211. ) And this identification is conclusively substantiated by the fact, as herein seen, that Ezekiel's prophecy is a separation of two classes -- those who "sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof" (the church) and those who do not. And as the former are delivered while the latter fall under the slaughter weapons of the angels, there is clearly seen a complete separation of the tares from among the wheat in the
Time Of Harvest.
Though the true meaning and time of the harvest is greatly confused by some and confusing to many, a close study of the Word will clear it in just as simple manner as it cleared both the time of the seed-sowing and the period of the wheat and the tares.
With His eye piercing the mists of the ages, Christ foresaw the negligence of His watchmen and the evil which was to spring up in His church. Nevertheless, after being asked by His servants, "Didst not Thou sow good seed in Thy field? from whence then hath it tares?. . . Wilt Thou then that we go and gather them up?. . . He said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into My barn. " Matt. 13:27-30.
A harvest means the "result of effort," of toil, "the gathering of a crop" -- reaping the result of labor and filling up the barns with grain. So rather than the year's toil being finished at the beginning of the harvest, the heaviest labor of the year just then begins. And though harvest time is the shortest of all the periods of the harvest year, the work of reaping is not done in a moment; it takes time. The yield is not garnered by turning the field right into the barn; no, that would be a conglomerate mass instead of a harvest. First the sickle is put to the grain, and next the grain is bound into sheaves, then threshed, after which it is put into the barn; and thereafter the chaff and the tares are destroyed. This work being completed during the autumn, it shows that the harvest is a season of time after "the summer is past," and that it is followed by the fruitless winter period.
So it must be with the spiritual harvest which otherwise could not be illustrated by the literal. Do not regard lightly the wisdom of God: His illustrations are perfect.
Consider, now, with what exact fidelity to the natural harvest the Master has stated the truths of the spiritual harvest: "Let both grow together until the harvest," He says: "and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into My barn. " Matt. 13:30.
In these parabolic words Christ has made the spiritual method of harvesting analogous to the natural method. Were the one not precisely like the other, He would have distinguished the difference. Be admonished, therefore, not to let vain imaginings come into the mind, but stand squarely on the Scriptures, for they are full of meaning of illimitable value -- are, indeed, your very life.
As the word "until" means "up to," the tares are therefore to be gathered out, not before or after the harvest, but at the beginning of it. And "the time of harvest" being "the end of probationary time" (Christ's Object Lessons, p. 72), then the harvesting itself necessarily precedes the close of probation -- the fruitless winter season. Consequently, the tares are separated from among the wheat before, not after, the end of probationary time.
The wheat, "the children of the kingdom" (Matt. 13:38), are gathered into the barn, the kingdom; the tares, "the children of the wicked one" (verse 38) -- mere professors, those who are not doers of the Word, and who were granted membership "while men slept" -- "are gathered and burned in the fire" (Matt. 13:40), after the wheat is bound into sheaves. But
(CONTD)
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