ESOCS Devotional 21 January 2025 – Don’t Pull The Weeds
MEMORY VERSE: “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 13:30
TEXT: MATTHEW 13:24-43
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 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?’ 28 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?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 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.” ’ ”
31 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32 which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”
33 Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”
34 All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, 35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:
“I will open My mouth in parables;
I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.”
36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”
37 He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. 40 Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
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To me, one of the most challenging of all of Jesus’s parables is his comparison of the kingdom of heaven to a field planted with both wheat and weeds (Matthew 13:24-30). As the story goes, a man plants a field of good seed, but an enemy comes by stealth and plants weeds among the wheat.
When the garden sprouts, the weeds and wheat come up together. The man’s servants are troubled by the presence of weeds in their master’s field. “Do you want us to go and gather them?” they ask.
Now, I’m no farmer, but it seems to me that the servants have a point. Weeds in the field can cause damage to the crops. They steal valuable minerals from the soil. They consume scarce water that the good seed needs to thrive. Indeed, earlier in this very chapter, Jesus had told a parable about a Sower who planted seed that died precisely because thorns choked them out. It seems any decent farmer would go into the field and pull the weeds.
But not this farmer. Instead, he instructs his servants to leave the field alone, allowing the wheat and the weeds to grow together. He knows the enemy has planted weeds to damage his crop, and yet he refuses to pull them. The reason he gives for leaving the weeds alone is that his servants “would uproot the wheat along with [the weeds]” (13:29).
Instead, he says the field should grow untended until the harvest. At that time, the harvesters will come, first binding the weeds for the fire and then gathering the wheat into the barn. These harvesters are distinct from the servants. They are professional harvesters rather than household servants. With their greater skill, they will separate the wheat from the weeds.
So, we ask, are you a wheat or a weed? If the later, please while you are allowed to grow, consciously work on your life to become wheat for fire awaits the weed. Only wheat is justified. The Scripture says, “Then the righteous [wheat] will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43). God will harvest the wheat. He will bring His people home, and the righteous will shine like the sun. With whom will you be bundled on that day?
CHALLENGES
- Will you be harvested when our Lord Jesus will come again? Your lifestyle now will count.
PRAYER POINT
- Father, help me to be found in the bundle of life with the people of God on the Last Day. Amen.
FURTHER READING: Isaiah 18:18-end; 29:1-end; Matthew 13:44-end
ESOCS Devotional 21 January 2025
