Not everyone follows God. Some people are unclaimed. Others belong to God’s enemy. We share the world with those who serve our Heavenly Father and those who do not.
Sometimes people who do not serve God knowingly serve His enemy. Sometimes they have not yet heard the Word of God — and are waiting to be claimed. Sometimes they have been deceived into believing they serve God when they do not. Sometimes they are evil in human form.
Jesus disclosed mysteries about the Kingdom of Heaven through the use of parables. “For it had been prophesied, I will talk in parables; I will explain mysteries hidden since the beginning of time.” (Matthew 13: 35)
In one of His parables (a “parable” is a short story that illustrates a spiritual meaning), Jesus discloses: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer sowing good seed in his field; but one night as he slept, his enemy came and sowed thistles among the wheat. When the crop began to grow, the thistles grew too.
The farmer’s men came and told him, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that choice seed is full of thistles!’ ‘An enemy has done it,’ he exclaimed. ‘Shall we pull out the thistles?’ they asked. ‘No,’ he replied. ‘You’ll hurt the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest, and I will tell the reapers to sort out the thistles and burn them, and put the wheat in the barn.’ “(Matthew 13:24-30)
“His disciples asked him to explain to them the illustration of the thistles and the wheat. ‘All right,’ he said. ‘I am (literally, ‘the Son of Man is’) the farmer who sows the choice seed. The field is the world, and the seed represents the people of the Kingdom; the thistles are the people belonging to Satan. The enemy who sowed the thistles among the wheat is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels.” (Matthew 13:36-39)
In truth, I’m never certain if I understand Jesus’ parables completely. Even his disciples would ask Jesus to explain them from time to time.
My consolation is that if it’s God’s will for me to understand them, I will. Until then, I pray that God will guide me and protect me from temptation and deception as I follow the path that Jesus has prepared for me. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen
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