Bereansearching Bible Studies

The Great Division: Jesus’ Parables of the “Sheep and the Goats”, the “Wheat and the Tares”, and “The Good Fish and Bad Fish in the Net” (All Pointing to Judgment Day)

Jesus presented us with several parables that deal with the Great Separation/Division that is surely coming soon on Judgment Day, and three of these are particularly in view in this study. The first uses the metaphor of a King (representing God) dividing the nations as though they were sheep set apart from the goats in Matthew 25:31-46. These verses come immediately after Jesus’ having just spoken the Parable of the Talents. The verses dealing with the sheep and the goats are consistent with the “Talents” parable, and they provide additional insights regarding it, and should therefore be viewed in that context as a follow-on to that parable. [Please note that Jesus’ provides us with additional insights pertinent to this “great division” in His “Parable of the Ten Virgins“.]

Two other of Jesus’ Great Separation parables use 1) a metaphor of the unwanted tares (weeds) growing in among the desired wheat that was sown in a field that are separated upon the harvest, and 2) a metaphor of good fish and bad fish caught together but separated on the shore. In all three parables, we see a picture of how, on Judgment Day at the end of the World, God will separate the righteous (represented by both the sheep, the wheat, and the good fish) to enter into Heaven, from the unsaved of the world, the reprobates (represented by goats, the tares, and the bad kind of fish), who will be cast into Hell forever. These three parables are extremely ominous in their implications, but nonetheless so very true in this understanding, particularly because the second parable is fully explained by none other than Jesus Christ Himself.

Jesus’ Parable of the Sheep and the Goats

Matthew 25:31-46, “¶When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth [his] sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. ¶Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed [thee]? or thirsty, and gave [thee] drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took [thee] in? or naked, and clothed [thee]? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me. ¶Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. ¶Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did [it] not to one of the least of these, ye did [it] not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.“

The First Division: Jesus’ Parable of the Wheat and the Tares

Matthew 13:24-29, “¶Another parable put he (Jesus) forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.“

Jesus’ Exposition of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares

So that there can be no doubt about what is the meaning of this second parable, Jesus Himself provides us with the correct interpretation. We read the explanation of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares in Matthew 13:36-43, “¶Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. ¶He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked [one]; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” [NOTE: regarding the meaning of “ears to hear“, please see this post]

And is not this division of wheat and the tares identical to, and consistent with, the separation that we read about in Hebrews 6:7&8, “¶For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers [is] rejected, and [is] nigh unto cursing; whose end [is] to be burned.“

Jesus said, “The Harvest is the End of the World”

This exposition by Jesus is telling us that Jesus will return at the end of the world and hence He must be referring to Judgment Day. Jesus said explicitly, “the harvest is the end of the world;” according to Matthew 13:39, which will be when the world is ready to be reaped, and all those who are to be saved will have been saved and taken up into Heaven, and when the wicked will be Judged guilty and cast into Hell. Jesus said in Matthew 13:39 when explaining to His disciples the meaning of the “Parable of the Tares of the Field” that, “The enemy that sowed them (the tares) is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” For more on this, please see again the “Parable of the Sower.“ And note the consistency with what is stated in Exodus 23:16, “And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, [which is] in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.” 

Mark 4:26-29, “¶And he (Jesus) said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.“

Matthew 13:30, “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.“

Joel 3:13, “Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness [is] great.“

Revelation 14:19, “And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast [it] into the great winepress of the wrath of God.“

And note also the harmony of what we read in Matthew 5:45, “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.“, which indicates that just as both the wheat and the tares are allowed to grow together until the harvest at the end of the world, in the meantime, that they will still share the same earthly temporal benefits.

The Second Division: The Harvest of Wheat Takes Place at the Threshing Floor of God

There is one more “Division” that we are told about in the Bible, which is also agriculturally focused and has the same implications regarding Judgment Day. It is the separating of the “wheat” (which represents the same as in the parable of the Wheat and the Tares: the righteous, the believers) from the “chaff” (representing the same as with the tares: the unsaved, the reprobates), which John the Baptist spoke of regarding Jesus on Judgment Day in both Matthew 3:12,  “Whose fan [is] in his hand, and he (Jesus) will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he (Jesus) will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” and  Luke 3:17, “Whose fan [is] in his hand, and he (Jesus) will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he (Jesus) will burn with fire unquenchable.” The “garner” (which is a barn or harvest house) spiritually represents Heaven, while the “unquenchable fire” spiritually represents the fires of Hell for eternity.

The “floor” means “threshing floor” where the division of the wheat and the chaff takes place. The “fan” is a tool that is held in the harvester’s hand, which involves the throwing up/winnowing of the mixture of the collected harvested material into the air such that the wind carries away the chaff to the side (that is usually burned), while the desired wheat or barley(corn) drops to the floor for collecting into heaps and then storage vessels, usually placed in a barn. Threshing floors are generally located on hilltops where the wind blows most consistently.

Threshing floors have great spiritual significance in the Bible.

1. It is where Ruth made her petition for redemption to Boaz in Ruth Chapter 3, “And now [is] not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor.”
2. The Holy Temple in Jerusalem was built by King Solomon on the site of the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, which King David purchased and had been told to erect an altar to God in 1 Chronicles 21:18, “Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.  And later in 2 Chronicles 3:1, we read, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where [the LORD] appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.”

A much more detailed exposition on the meaning of the “Threshing Floor” can be found in the exposition of the Book of Ruth (and, the Lord Willing, in a future standalone post).

The Third Division: The Good and Bad Fish in the Net

Jesus spoke another parable that provided a third perspective on the great division of mankind. In Matthew 13:47-50, we read where Jesus said, “¶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.“

It might be useful to consider here how the “fish” are used by God to represent “people”. This was made clear when Jesus called Peter and his brother Andrew to follow Him and that He would make them “fishers of men” in Matthew 4:19, “And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” and Mark 1:17, “And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” Then there is Luke 5:1-10, where in the last verse we read, “And so [was] also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.“ Therefore the fishes spiritually (via allegory), represent mankind, because Jesus clearly said that this is the case.

Then we are also present with the case where God records the historical account of Jesus appearing to the disciples (post-Resurrection) on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (“Sea of Tiberias“) as Peter along with named other disciples were fishing as we read in John 21:1-11, “¶After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he [himself]. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the [sons] of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. ¶And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. ¶Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt [his] fisher’s coat [unto him], (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship; (for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits,) dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. ¶Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.“ The disciples under the direction of Jesus caught a great multitude of fish (153 fish to be exact). We can infer therefore that these fish represent a lot of men.

NOTE: There is a reason that the number of caught fish in the net is specified as being exactly 153. 153 is a unique number which highlights the prime number “17”, which can be factored from it in two different ways. If we add 1 +2 +3 +4 +5…..up to and including +17, we find that the sum equals 153!  The Number 153 also breaks down like this:  3 x 3 x “17“. In a previous post on the meaning of Numbers in the Bible, it was shown how the number “3” represents “the Purpose or Will of God” and the number “17” (a prime number that cannot be divided any further) represents “Heaven” in the Bible. The number 17 is therefore uniquely highlighted in two different ways that no other number besides 153 will be capable of doing. We can see that the spiritual implication that God has incorporated into this historical account, and the insertion of this unique number, is that it was the Purpose and Will of God that the disciples, led by Peter, should become “fishers of men“, and they would be used of God to bring a great number of souls into Heaven in accord with Jesus’ declaration that is recorded in Matthew 4:19 and Mark 1:17.

Conclusion

The Great Division of all Mankind who have ever lived, and ever will live, will take place at the end of this world on Judgment Day. Judgment Day is when the harvest of souls occurs. Jesus specifically said in Matthew 13:49&50, “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.“

One part of mankind (represented by the sheep, the wheat, and the good fish) will enter into Heaven (God’s Green Pasture, the Great Harvest Home, and the vessels for good) and as a result of those people having King Jesus Christ’s Righteousness imputed to them while the other part of mankind (represented by the goats, the tares/weeds or chaff, and the bad fish) will stand naked before God in their unredeemed sinful state and be cast into the fires of Hell for Eternity.

Are you ready? If you are not ready, it may still be possible for you to cry out to God for mercy through the Person and Atoning Sacrificial Work of the Lord Jesus Christ, such that He might show mercy to you before that Great and Terrible Day of the Lord, Judgment Day. The LORD Jesus Christ is mankind’s ONLY Hope, and The ONLY Means of salvation from God’s just penalty for our sins. There is only one alternative, and that is to spend an eternity in Hell.

Psalm 96:13, “…Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.“

Joel 2:11, “And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp [is] very great: for [he is] strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD [is] great and very terrible; and who can abide it?“

 Jesus said in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed [are] they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” and we are told in 2 Peter 3:13, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” The believers who seek after righteousness are seeking Jesus for their Salvation and will have Jesus’ righteousness imputed to them forever in the new heavens and a new earth.

Hosea 14:9, “Who [is] wise, and he shall understand these [things]? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD [are] right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.“

POSTSCRIPT

Other verses to ponder concerning the issue of “Division“:

1) In Luke 12:51-53, Jesus was unequivocal in saying, “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.” (see also Matthew 10:34–39 )

2) Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.“

3) The Book of Remembrance: Malachi 3:16-18, “Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard [it], and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.“

4) Dear reader, please think about this also. During the Crucifixion of the Lord, Jesus Christ, there was a thief on the right hand of Jesus, and a thief on the left hand. Matthew 27:38, “Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.” Likewise we read in Mark 15:27, “And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left.” and in Luke 23:33, “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.“

But we also read later in Luke 23:39, “¶And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. ¶But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.¶ And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.“

One was saved and one was not. Another clear separation!

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Tags: Bible, division, God, Jesus, matthew, parables, sheep-and-goats, threshing-floor, threshing-floor, wheat-and-chaff, wheat-and-tares

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