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them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony
heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh" (Ezek. 11: 19).
This is the great blessing of the New Covenant with Israel which is sealed by the
blood of Christ (Luke 22: 20, N.I.V.), and upon this covenant of grace the future of
Israel rests and the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom on earth.
Charles H. Welch helpfully sums up the four sowings, thus:
"They seeing, see not, neither do
John the Baptist
Wayside hearers
they understand".
The Lord Jesus,
"Nothing but leaves . . . it withered
Stony ground hearers
the Twelve,
away".
and the Seventy
"No fruit to perfection (Maturity)".
Peter and the Twelve
Thorny ground hearers
"Riches, pleasures, the lust of other
things" (Heb. 6:).
Good ground hearers
"The honest and good heart".
The Final Witness
(the heart of
"Some a hundredfold".
the New Covenant)
The parables of the Fig Tree (Luke 13:) and the Great Supper go along the same lines
as the Sower. It is important to realize that the main object of these parables is not to
give easy spiritual lessons to beginners, but to depict the secret course of the earthly
Kingdom through its apparent defeat owing to human failure, right on to its glorious
close. All the parables of Matt. 13: give further details of this great theme which
resulted from the rejection of Christ by Israel as their Messiah and King.
The Wheat and the Tares.
The object of this parable is to underline why the Kingdom should be so long rejected.
This has been partly dealt with in the former parable of the Sower. The first three
sowings failed because of unsuitable ground, which was reflected in the hostile mental
attitude of those in Israel who heard the gospel of the Kingdom.
But the parable of the Wheat and Tares gives a deeper reason. The failure was also
due to the working of an enemy, Satan, and this greatly complicated matters. We still
have a wheat field before the mind, but this time the Lord interprets it as representing the
world and Himself as the Sower. The enemy who sowed weeds among the true wheat is
Satan. The weeds are the children of Satan, and the harvest is the end of the age
(Matthew 13: 36-40), and the harvesters are the angels.
Great care should be taken here to get clear every detail of this inspired explanation.
So many commentators and expositors ignore the interpretation given by Christ Himself
and thus they become positively harmful, however well intentioned they may be. The
real cause of the failure and apostasy of Israel was due to the antagonism and work of
Satan which has characterized his attitude since his fall. His aim has been to overthrow