Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous -- Matthew 13:47-49
This little parable follows after the Parable of the Wheat
and the Tares and its explanation. It is
related, for, as the weeds are separated out at harvest and burned, so the
undesirable fish are cast away. They are not thrown back. Those aren’t the fish the fisherman wants
reproducing.
I was reading Herman Ridderbos’ comments in his book The Coming of the Kingdom. He discusses the question of why the tares
could not be separated before the wheat was harvested. When you think about it a little, this is the
question that troubles a multitude of those in the valley of decision, as Joel
says. Why do we have to wait for the
wicked to be removed from among us? Why
does God work only at the end of history?
The atheist’s answer is that, obviously, there is no God, and we are
living in a delusion.
The promoters of evolution ought to understand this better
than anyone -- except for the fact that they reject the idea of the cosmos and
existence having any meaning at all.
What we believe is that nature is very much part of the language of God
and part of His revelation. As we know
from observing nature, if a predator is removed from the environment, the
ecosystem is thrown out of balance.
There is overpopulation of the prey species and food sources are
depleted to the point, in some cases, of irreversible destruction.
If that is part of God’s revelation then we can see, as
Jesus is teaching in these parables, that there is a balance to be maintained
in the development of the kingdom. There
will come a point when the kingdom is perfected, when it is matured to a degree
that allows us to move into an entirely new realm of existence. This is depicted in the parables as the time
of harvest, of the drawing in of the net.
When that Omega point is reached, the balance that has been part of our
maturation process will no longer be necessary, and those influences will be
removed while the righteous are brought in to their ultimate purpose and
destiny.
The answer that we give to the problem of evil will never be
good enough for some of those who pose the question. There are times, when I am battered and down,
that it sounds pretty hollow to me. I
understand. The elk need the wolves as much as the wolves need the elk,
yet it doesn’t make the kill any less painful or gruesome for the creature caught
by the fangs. I don’t know if elk have
some sort of animal understanding of the interplay between themselves and their
adversaries. Perhaps they have something
that gives them peace when it is their time to go down.
I do know that we have access to the wisdom
of God. A person may choose to live an
animalistic, materialistic life. He
doesn’t have to. The truth is all around
us. No one has to be a weed or a bottom-feeding
scavenger, but even they, blindly, serve the ends of the kingdom.
