“AN ENEMY HAS DONE THIS!”

 Matthew 13:24-30                         (ESV)

The Parable of the Weeds

“[24] He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, [25] but while his men were sleeping, “his enemy” came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. [26] So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. [27] And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ [28] He said to them, “‘AN ENEMY HAS DONE THIS.’”So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ [29] But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. [30] Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the WEEDS first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the WHEAT into my barn.”’”

Recognizing where lies and deceit originate is PARAMOUNT to defeating our “enemy”. 

Many times the “enemy” is so adept at disguising himself, A MASTER OF DECEIT, that we have NO IDEA we are being misled.  Until our EYES are OPENED to SEE TRUTH we are unable to isolate and identify the “enemy” we will continue to be snookered by his antics.  

In this parable JESUS told the “great crowds” to separate the the WHEAT from the WEEDS, and then to BURN THE WEEDS, not to leave them alone!  We MUST burn the WEEDS instead of letting them continue to spread among the WHEAT.  Culling the WEEDS is the only way that WHEAT can flourish.  

One of the least favorite chores that I was assigned in my youth was weeding the garden.  My grandfather was an old school MASTER GARDENER.  He wanted to keep all the WEEDS away from his plants because it seemed they were determined to chose out the fruits of his labor.  The weeds took away from the growth of the good seeds that he had planted and nurtured.  

Recognizing and KNOWING who is responsible for the WEEDS in life is key to our SPIRITUAL HEALTH!  We need to understand when “AN ENEMY HAS DONE THIS”!  Joseph understood that evil things performed by his brothers could and would be used for THE GOOD OF GOD (Genesis 50:20)!  Sure, “AN ENEMY HAS DONE THIS”, but GOD can and will use it ALL FOR HIS GLORY!!!