"The Parables.  No. 3.  The Wheat and the Darnel." by Charles H.
Welch in The Berean Expositor, circa 1912-13.


In our last article dealing with the Sower, we considered the
course of the several ministries, or "sowings," of the word of the
kingdom.  We saw how the various grounds depicted not only the
state of the human heart universally, but the characteristic of the
hearers at different points of the history of the kingdom
proclamation.  To meet the possible difficulty that might arise as
to the reason why the gospel of the kingdom should be so long
refused is the purpose of the next parable.  The key words are "an
enemy hath done this."  The scene is not changed, but the symbols
are.  We have a wheat field before the mind, as in the previous
parable, but now we are definitely told that "the field is the
world."  Further, the sower in this instance is "the Son of man."
Let us look at the parable before we consider its interpretation.


First consider its structure:--


                      The Wheat and Darnel.


a | A man sowed good seed.               Statement.

  b | Enemy sowed darnel.                Enemy.

    c | The blade sprung up.             Growth.

      d | Then appeared the darnel.      Fruit.


a | Didst thou not sow good seed?        Question.

  b | An enemy hath done this.           Enemy.

    c | Shall we gather the darnel?      Growth.

      d | Let both grow till harvest.    Fruit.


The very first thing which we must notice is that whereas the
parable of the Sower occurs in the three Synoptic Gospels, the
parable of the Tares is found only in Matthew.  This enables us to
see that this particular parable has exclusive reference to the
kingdom of the heavens, and must not be applied to outside
subjects.


Before going further we will set before the reader a rather more
literal rendering than that of the A.V. or the R.V.:--


"Another parable placed He before them, saying, The kingdom of the
heavens hath become like a man sowing good seed in his field; but
while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed darnel through
the midst of the wheat, and went away.  But when the wheat sprang
up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the darnel also.  Then
the servants of the householder came near and said to him, Sir, was
it not good seed thou didst sow in thy field, whence then hath it
darnel?  But he said unto them, A man that is an enemy did this.
But the servants said unto him.  Wilt thou therefore that we go and
gather them together?  But he said, No: lest at any time while
gathering the darnel ye uproot along with it the wheat.  Let both
grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest season I will
say unto the harvesters, gather together first the darnel, and bind
it into bundles with a view to the burning it up; but the wheat
bring together into my barn."


Our first consideration must be to settle, if possible, the true
meaning of the servants, the wheat, and the tares.  Christ's
explanation, in answer to the disciples' question concerning the
parable, was as follows:--


          Parable.                       Interpretation.


"He that sows the good seed.. | is the Son of man.

And the field................ | is the world.

And the good seed............ | are the sons of the kingdom.

And the darnel............... | are the sons of the evil one.

And the enemy that sowed them | is the devil.

And the harvest.............. | is the consummation (sunteleia)
                              |    of the age.

And the harvesters........... | are the angels."


"Just as, therefore, the darnel is gathered together, and by fire
is burned, so will it be in the consummation of the ages: The Son
of man shall send forth His angels, and they will gather together
out of His kingdom all cause of offense (skandalon means more than
a stumbling stone -- literally it is 'the catch of a trap'), and
those that are doers of lawlessness, and will cast them into the
furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of
their Father.  He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."


This is the inspired explanation of the parable.  It does not deal
with the gospel, but with the hearers of the gospel.  In the
parable of the Sower the seed typifies "the word of the kingdom,"
while the ground represents the hearts of the various hearers.  In
the parable of the Tares the whole case is altered.  The seed no
longer represents the word, but the sons either of the kingdom, or
of the wicked one.  The ground no longer represents the hearts of
the hearers, but the world.  Commentaries are worse than valueless,
they are positively harmful if they ignore the interpretation given
by the Word of God itself.


The parable tells us that the prime cause of the defection and
apostasy of Israel is to be seen in the attitude and work of Satan.
Throughout the course of the ages Satan has sought to overthrow the
purpose of God in Christ.  The primeval promise of Gen. iii. 14, 15
introduces the reader to the conflict of the ages.  "I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."  The
purpose of the ages centres in Christ (Eph. iii. 11, R.V. margin).
The antagonism of Satan is directed against this purpose.  Every
step of the way this opposition is seen.


Adam and Eve are placed in the garden.  Dominion is given them.
They are tempted and fall, and if the penalty had fallen upon them,
the coming of the seed must have been frustrated.  Cain slays Abel,
and God gives Seth "instead," thereby showing that "Cain, who was
of that wicked one, and slew his brother because he was righteous,"
was the tool in the hand of Satan who sought to prevent the coming
of the Seed.  The irruption of the "sons of God," and the
corruption of the seed of man, ending in the flood (Gen. vi.), was
another attempt to prevent the coming of the Seed.  As yet Satan
did not know through which family of the descendants of Adam the
promised Seed should come, so he sought to pollute the whole race.
Immediately after the flood Noah utters a prophetic word, which
pointed out Shem as the chosen one.


Soon Abraham is called, and the promise of the land and of the Seed
is given to him.  Satan now centres his attack upon this man and
this land.  Taking advantage of the delay mentioned in Gen. xi. 31,
the evil one peopled the land of Canaan with the Nephilim, the
Giants, the Sons of Anak and the Rephaim.  The reading of Gen. xi.
31 with xii. 5, 6 is very solemn:--


"And they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into
the land of Canaan; and they came unto *Haran and dwelt there*."


"And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the
land of Canaan they came .... *and the Canaanite was then in the
land*."


The denial of Sarai both in Egypt and Gerar (Gen. xii. 10-20, and
xx. 1-1O) is connected with Sarai being taken into the harem of the
monarch, and with divine interposition and warning.  The repetition
of these things is not merely to show Abraham's frailty, but to
show the two-fold attempt of Satan to contaminate the line of the
Seed.  Space will not allow us to trace the ever central attack
through the long course of Israel's history.  The massacre of the
male children by Pharaoh is echoed by the same evil work of Herod.
The parable of the Tares gives us the method adopted by Satan when
he found that in spite of all his efforts the long promised Seed
had come, and that the Messiah had proclaimed the gospel of the
kingdom, and that some had received the message.


Referring back again to Gen. iii., we must notice that there are
two seeds mentioned.  The Seed of the woman and the seed of the
serpent.  Now as we translate the one, we must in all fairness
translate the other.  Therefore, if the Seed of the woman is
Christ, the seed of the Serpent is Antichrist; if moreover we may
extend the term to include believers, so must we allow the term to
include unbelievers.  The parable before us exposes the policy of
the wicked one.  Change of purpose he does not know, but change of
tactics he will ever allow, so that he may draw nearer to his end.


Among those who were professedly the religious people of the day,
and in their own estimation "sons of the kingdom," were those who
were really "sons of the wicked one."


Matt. iii. opens with the ministry of John the Baptist.  The voice
of the forerunner was heard,


"and Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the country round about the
Jordan went forth unto him, and were being baptized in the river
Jordan by him, openly confessing their sins."


By reason of the fact that John proclaimed that "the kingdom of the
heavens is at hand," all who came to be baptized were professedly
those who desired a place in that long hoped-for kingdom.  Here it
is that we catch a glimpse of the Devil's seed, ready to be sown
among the good wheat:-


"But seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his
baptism, he said unto them, Offspring of vipers, who has warned you
to flee from the coming wrath?"


We must not be too hasty in concluding that these Pharisees and
Sadducees all turned back; John immediately continued:-


"Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance, and do not think to say
within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father, for I say unto
you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto
Abraham,"


John warns them that though they may look so much like the wheat so
that it would be impossible to distinguish them then, yet when
Christ came He would reveal the secrets of many hearts; the fruit
would manifest which was wheat, and which was darnel, which were
the sons of the kingdom, and which the sons of the wicked one.
After referring to the exceeding greatness of Christ, John uses a
figure which links this passage very suggestively with the parable
before us:-


"Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse His
threshing-floor, and will gather together His wheat into the
granary, but the chaff will He burn up with fire unquenchable."


Some may have heeded these stern words, but many we know refused
the witness, and became the enemies of the Lord and His work.  The
words of John to the Pharisees and Sadducees find an echo in the
words of Christ in later passages.  In the very chapter which
precedes this one of kingdom parables, and where the rejection of
Christ reached a climax, we find reference to these "tares," the
seed of the wicked one.  The subject (chap. xii. 22-37) refers to
Satan's kingdom, and in verses 33, 34 the Lord says:-


"Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree
corrupt, and its fruit corrupt.  *For from the fruit the tree is
known.*"


This last sentence is entirely in harmony with the parable.  The
tares, or darnel, are the Arabian zowan, which grows among the
corn.  Even the native farmers cannot distinguish between the wheat
and the tares with sufficient accuracy to enable them to weed out
the latter.  The moment, however, that the wheat and the zowan
begin to head out, a child could distinguish between them.


Continuing the quotation of chap. xii. 34 we read:-


"Offspring of vipers, how can ye speak good things, being wicked."


Again in Matt. xxiii. 33 the Lord says:-


"Serpents, offspring of vipers, how should ye flee away from the
judgment of Gehenna?"


In John viii. 30-32 we have the two kinds of believers or
disciples:-


"As He was speaking these things, many believed on Him.  Jesus
said, therefore, unto the Jews who had believed on Him, If ye abide
in My word, ye are *truly* My disciples; and ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free."


The Lord Jesus "needed not that any one should bear witness
concerning man, for He knew what was in man" (John ii. 25).  His
words, addressed to those who had believed, exposed their inner
selves.  "They answered Him, seed of Abraham are we . . . our
father is Abraham."  Here we have a link with the "offspring of
vipers" (Matt. iii.), and this is used by the Lord in His reply,
"Ye are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father ye
choose to be doing."  How soon the Lord's words divided the wheat
from the tares!  It is the same in John vi. 59-71:-


"Many of His disciples, therefore, when they heard, said, This is a
hard saying, who can hear it? . . . There are some among you who do
not believe; for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
did not believe, and who it was would deliver Him up . . . Did not
I make choice of you, the twelve, and yet from among you one is a
devil."


The servants could not distinguish the true from the false, but the
Lord knew what was within before it developed its fruit.


Satan's attempt to spoil the kingdom purpose will fail as all else
of creature craft must do if directed against the Lord.  The
harvest time, however, has not yet taken place, that is reserved
until the consummation of the age. Matt. xxiv. 30, 31 gives us the
commencement of this great harvest.


"And they will see the Son of man coming upon the clouds of heaven,
with great power and glory.  *And He will send forth His angels*
with a great trumpet, and they *shall gather together His chosen.*"


Much more could be said, but our space is limited.  We believe that
sufficient has been produced from Scripture to assist the student
in arriving at a true understanding of this parable.  The reader
should bear in mind the opening words of the parable, "The kingdom
of the heavens has become like, &c."  The phase which the kingdom
had taken consequent upon Matt. xii. is here depicted.  We shall
have opportunity for dealing with the closing words of the
interpretation when we consider the corresponding parable of the
Drag Net.


May we be thankful for every exhibition of divine knowledge, wisdom
and love, over-ruling and defeating the enemy of truth, and may we
ever seek to glorify the Lord our God by fruitful lives, shunning,
as we would poison, any approximation to the dissembling and
hypocritical spirit which is set forth under the figure of the
"darnel."