The parable of the weeds taught Christ’s disciples that there is a qualitative difference between the wheat that God plants and the weeds that the evil one plants. As God is the creator of all people, we can understand that we are meant to become wheat. Yet what we become is actually a function of our own decision. It is up to us to choose rightly.
The parable of the dragnet is the same truth, taught to those who fish instead of those who farm, “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Jesus teaches from the experience of those He speaks to; “One of the methods used to catch a quantity of fish was to suspend a large, weighted net in the lake and pull it toward the shore (either by boats or hand-drawn ropes). Since the lake contained over twenty kinds of fish, the catch found in the dragnet was usually a mixed lot. A sorting process was necessary to eliminate those varieties that were either inedible or unclean according to Jewish law (cf. Lev. 11:9–12).”
A dragnet is going to pull up everything in its path, so edible fish and crustacean alike find themselves being sorted. The Jewish fishermen would simply pick up each find and either make an instant decision that it was good to eat. If so, they gathered it. If not, they would throw it back into the water. That is because fish of all kinds grow together in the same body of water just as weeds and wheat grow in the same field. These things take their sustenance from the world that was created for them, just as people do. But unlike weeds and unclean fish, people get to decide what kind (of person) they are going to be. Jesus’ choice of words to describe the fish is not by accident – He called one kind a “good fish” and the other kind “bad fish”. It is our choice to be good just as it is our choice to be bad. We get to decide what we are becoming.
In his book, We Become What We Worship, Greg Beale said, “What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or for restoration.” “Our worship exposes us and changes us. We either revere the world and are conformed to the sinful patterns of the world, or we revere God and are progressively conformed into his likeness.”
This is the luxury afforded unto us at creation. We get to make a choice, just as Adam and Eve got to make a choice. Every day we choose if we will clothe ourselves in righteousness via obedience to God’s Word and leading, or if we will clothe ourselves in something else.
Choose wisely, because either way, we will ultimately get caught up in God’s plan for the closing of the age. Amen.
Certain things have been decreed by the free determination of God, and one of these is the law of choice and consequences.
A.W. Tozer
APPLICATION: Intentionality
Intentionality mixed with perseverance and faith goes a very long way in the right direction.