Continuing my daily ritual of Torah Study and incorporating Rood’s Chronological Gospels as the dates correspond to the Julian calendar–specifically on August 25, 2014, I came across the passage in Matthew 13:36-43 (recorded as event 86) where Yeshua expounds for His disciples the parable of the tares as it relates to the Kingdom of Yehovah. The passage reads as such:
36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare [or in ancient Greek, phrazo meaning to explain] unto us the parable of the *tares [which is English for zizanion which is a darnel] of the field.
37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.
40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
(Mat 13:36-43 KJV)
*Tares is zizanion or a kind of darnel, which is a Eurasian ryegrass. According to Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (if you don’t have a copy, I would encourage you to get one as it is a very handy resource when attempting to understand terms and words such as tares that are not common to our modern-day vernacular), grow in the grain fields as tall as wheat and barley. It resembles wheat in appearance. The Jews considered it degenerate wheat. Rabbis referred to it as “bastard” wheat. Tare seeds can be deadly poisonous to humans and herbivorous animals.Since it naturally tends to become intricately intertwined in the wheat and barley crop, the common practice was for wheat/barley growers to leave the separating of the two till near the time of harvest. Obviously, at the time of harvest, the tares are separated from the wheat/barley and the tares are then burned in a heap.
This agricultural situation presents the Messianic Believer with a tremendous spiritual application for the tare represents some very interesting character traits that may be applied to the Body of Messiah:
- the son’s of the evil one
- false teachings
- false teachers
- will not be part of the Kingdom
One of the many things that I have become acutely aware of, having come in to the true Faith once delivered, is the huge disparity that exists between the Faith that I am now involved in and Christianity in all its 30,000 plus denominational iterations. In my early years in this Faith of ours, it was so easy for me to look upon my Christian brothers and sisters with pomposity and in many cases disdain and anger because of the “stuff” they believed and professed. In fact, I was more tolerable of the heathens in my life than the Christians I would run across from time-to-time.
I was then fortunate to have embarked upon routine Torah studies and my studies took me on a journey with the Children of Promise as they trekked across the Sinai desert, heading for the promised land that all but a couple adults who began that journey out of Egypt would ever see. In that band of trekking nomads were those who were evil–evil in heart, mind and soul. There were also non-Hebrews who went along for the trek for purposes of simply getting out of Egypt. The evil ones and most of the non-Hebrews created nothing but problems for those few who were true to the call. I began to liken those of us in the true faith once delivered and Christians to the band of individuals crossing the desert. This hodge-podge of people who made up the young nation of Israel, were allowed to travel and live together. It was not until all was said and done and Yehovah’s Torah was set in place, that the entire party of travelers were required to make a decision and cleave to the God of Israel. Yehovah did not separate them as they traveled but let circumstances and obedience to His Word and way of life separate those who belonged from those who did not belong.
As it stands, it is none of our business who professes Jesus, or for that matter Yeshua, as Messiah. Each of us is on our own individual journeys. Consequently, each of us are at any given time, at differing levels of understanding of Scripture, relationship with Yehovah and living out our lives as we believe we should. Many of the 2+ billion individuals who profess Jesus as their Lord and Savior will never come to have a proper relationship with Yehovah (as the true Faith once deliver would consider a proper relationship with Yehovah to be). Others will come close to a realization of the true Faith but fall short somewhere along the line. Still a precious few will have the light come on in their minds, hearts and souls, and they will come to understand the True Faith once delivered in all its grand and beautiful glory; and it will be these individuals who will join us in the Messianic/Hebraic Roots community as fellow Torah observing Believers of Messiah. It thus becomes our job to earnestly contend for the Faith once delivered, all the while praying for our respective family members, co-workers and friends to receive the light of the true Gospel before it’s too late. It is this mindset that we must adopt–one of hope and of compassion for our cousins who are in bondage under Christianity and Judaism. We must see our Faith from the standpoint of the tares growing together with the viable wheat–we must compassionately contend with those who are not of our Faith until such a time the Master deems is sufficient and brings all things to a close. May you be blessed in this knowledge. Until next time-Shalom fellow saints in training.