Matthew 13:39 Commentary and Bible Study

The presence of evil in the world is attributed entirely to the devil; God is not responsible for the sowing of one single tare. The Lord does not call them the children of the wicked for no reason. This is easy to understand in terms of the parable, for two different agents sow two different types of seed, but as we view the history of humanity, the righteous and the wicked are far less easy to distinguish, and appear far more closely entangled together – there is only one human race and all are descended from one man. (We do not see the two distinct types of seed separated out from the beginning, but we will see them separated at the end.) This aspect of humanity – their relation through ancestry and the resulting close connection between them – is entirely removed from the parable, nevertheless it still alludes to this complication in terms of their roots being entangled. But the parable is simplifying things for us. It is looking at the final outcome. The fact that the good seed was indistinguishable from the tares at times is passed over. The distinction is made clear for us because the parable takes us to the harvest, which Christ says is the end of the world. At that time all who have been chosen to be converted will have been converted, and the true character of each will be known. The parable sees things from the point of view of the Lord who knows from the beginning who is a tare and who is one of the good seed. We are helped to see things this way by being taken to the end of the world. The final outcome is what justifies the farmer’s decision to let the two grow together. The parable contains the element of predestination because the good seed which was sown in the first place is not lost but produces a good harvest, and the tares which were sown at the beginning are at the end picked out and bound in bundles and burned in the fire. Each is true to its original type – the type known to the mind of God. ‘The reapers are the angels.’ The role of the angels in the final judgment is taught by Christ in several places (Matthew 13:49; 16:27; 24:31; 25:31). It was their concern about the presence of the tares that in the parable prompted them to suggest a plan for their removal, albeit an unacceptable one. But they are deeply concerned for the purity of God’s kingdom, and they will not be denied a role in the removal of the wicked once the time has come. They are ministering spirits who are totally aligned with the will of God. They will also bear the righteous into their place of eternal safety to be ever with the Lord. Even before the final day, the angels play a part in conveying the souls of departed saints to their rest, the moment death takes place (Luke 16:22). God’s children can have full confidence that as, at the end of earthly life, they cross the threshold of eternity with all its unknown experiences, God will send his servants, the angels, to bear them up and every detail of that last journey will be catered for. All anxiety about this should be banished from the believer’s mind.