Awhile back, I had been looking at Jesus’ Parable of the Tares and how it relates to other parts of scripture in both the Old and New Testaments. Briefly, the good seed (believers) and the tares (unbelievers) grow up together, but at the end of the age or the harvest, which I have demonstrated was also the time of the resurrection, believers are separated from the unbelievers by the angels. The Lord sends out the angels at the end of the age and gathers the unbelievers and they are destroyed, while the believers are given safety, symbolized by the barn or storehouse, and where also they are fed.
At this point I would like to go on to another parable in Matthew 13, to what is known as The Parable of the Net:
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord. (Matthew 13:47-51; emphasis mine)
We have the same basic principles working in this parable, as we had in The Parable of the Wheat and Tares. The angels are sent at the end of the age to gather both the righteous and the wicked. There is judgment and reward, in that the wicked are separated from the righteous and destroyed, but the righteous are placed into vessels and kept. Nevertheless, the Lord did something at this point that is quite remarkable. After preaching no less than seven parables about the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, Jesus asked his Apostles who were with him: “Have you understood these things?” and they replied: “Yes, Lord!” They understood (Matthew 13:51).
The Apostles said they understood these things, and we should believe them, because, after all, when they didn’t understand on other occasions, they admitted their ignorance (Matthew 13:36;15:15; Luke 8:9). However, some would have us think that the Apostles didn’t understand. “Though they declared they had understood these things, it is evident they but feebly entered into them.”[1] And again, “Have ye understood? A test of their progress in the art of interpretation. They answered rightly, but the next verse suggests that they did not yet fully understand.”[2] Yet, in the very next parable, Jesus claimed that a well instructed scribe is like a householder that brings forth good things, new and old, out of his treasure (Matthew 13:52). The householder is responsible for the care of all in his house. In other words, a well instructed scribe is someone who not only knows enough to satisfy himself, but he is able to teach others what he has come to understand. Jesus called his disciples scribes who were instructed well, and immediately sent them out to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom.
How do we know the Apostles understood? The next two events in Matthew are Jesus’ rejection in Nazareth (Matthew 13:53-58) and the record of Herod slaying John the Baptist (Matthew 14:1-12). Between these two events Mark has Jesus sending out his Apostles to preach the Kingdom of God (Mark 6:7-13), and they created such a stir that it peaked the interest of Herod Antipas (Luke 9:7-9), and Jesus had to leave his territory for a season, taking refuge in the land of Herod Philip (Luke 9:10). Therefore, it seems to me that the Apostles understood everything Jesus said in the parables recorded in Matthew 13 (cf. Matthew 13:51).
We need to keep in mind at this point in Matthew 13:51, that Jesus had been making allusions to Daniel 12, where are found: the Great Tribulation, resurrection and judgment. Jesus refers to these things again in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24). As he was leaving the Temple complex, he declared that the Temple would be destroyed (Matthew 13:37-38). Later, four of the Apostles came to Jesus, asking when this would occur, and what would be the sign of his coming and of the end of the age (Matthew 24:3). The phrase “end of the world” is the same Greek phrase found in Matthew 13:39 in The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, and in Matthew 13:49 in The Parable of the Net. In other words, they equated the destruction of the Temple with the end of the age, when the resurrection would occur, and the living and the dead would be judged by the Messiah—thus, “what will be the sign of your coming?”
It seems to me that the Apostles understood very well what Jesus taught. They kept comparing what he said to them in the present to what he said to them in the past. This is proper exegesis, quite unlike much of what the futurists claim, concerning Jesus’ coming at the end of the Gospel age, which scripture says will never end, or the end of time, which scripture never mentions at all. If I were to choose who really understood Jesus’ words, the Apostles or today’s futurist ‘scholars’, I have to say that I prefer the fishermen chosen by Jesus over the folks with the diploma from men’s institutions. I don’t mean to make light of education or the cost it takes to get one, but when those educated people begin to make light of what the Apostles knew, I have to make a choice …and I have!
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[1] Ironside, Notes on Selected Books, Matthew 13:51
[2] Schaff, Popular Commentary — Matthew 13:51
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