Wheat and the Tares

[JohnD]

Back to the OP subject.

Another example of tares being sown in amongst the wheat is the Israeli monarchy. 1 Samuel chapter 8. To sum up, the people cried for a king to rule over them because "everyone else is doing it." Actually they said all other nations have a king we also want a king like other nations. Some biblical scholars say that God had a king in mind but hi time had not yet come (David) there had to be so many generations (ten I believe) since the episode with Judah and Tamar (interesting I just realized Tamar was David's daughter's name who was violated by her half brother...). But anyway, God condescended to allow Israel to have a king... but he said in effect are you guys gonna be sorry! And he told Samuel to tell the people just what a king would do to them... giving comfort to Samuel, God said they are not rejecting you, Samuel, they are rejecting me.

Reading I & II Kings and I & II Chronicles is like reading batting averages in the national baseball league in is worst season. Most kings did evil in the sight of the Lord and judgment fell time after time even to the dividing of the kingdom one generation after David... it was delayed until the next generation for the sake of David... but Israel was split in two. Judah / Israel because of the kings who sat enthroned as yet another tare amongst the wheat.

[JohnD]

Another tare sown in the wheat field is the Jewish Temple.

God told Moses to build the Tabernacle. God told David not to build the Temple... but that an heir of David's would build the house of God. Which David took to mean Solomon.

2 Samuel 7:12-13 (NASB95)

12 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.

13 “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

And the details of the building of the first Temple reads like a series of "Solomon Says..." When God's interpretation of 2 Samuel 7:12-13 reads:Zechariah 6:12-13 (NASB95)

12 “Then say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the Lord.

13 “Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the Lord, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices.” ’

Lets look at the criteria of these verses.

1. After David dies

2. A descendent of his the Lord will raise up

3. God will establish his kingdom and his throne forever

4. He (whose name is the Branch i.e. Nazarene) shall build a house / temple for the Lord

5. He will be a priest on the throne

Solomon was an heir of David (born to him by the widow of the man he murdered).

Solomon was king over Israel (whose kingdom was judged by God to be split in two but the carrying out of the sentence took place in the next generation for the sake of David).

Solomon married as many as 300 women (many of them foreign women despite God's warnings not to do so).

Solomon kept as many as 900 personal palace prostitutes (concubines / harem).

Solomon apparently used members of the occult in his building of the Temple.

Solomon butchered hundreds of animals as sacrifices to dedicate the Temple none of which were in keeping with the prescribed Levitical Laws regarding sacrifices.

Solomon lead Israel into idolatry.

I could go on, but the point is clear. Solomon started out strong and wise and blessed but ended up in the position where some theologians question where his eternal destination would be. I personally do not. I believe the Lord has to hold his nose (so to speak) to save each and every one of us rotters. And I am certain my dirty laundry list could go on and on as well (as could all of yours). I am stating these here to make the point that this is not the man God had in mind to build his temple AND that God's temple is not what you might think it is...

Zechariah 6:12-13 (NASB95)

12 “Then say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the Lord.

13 “Yes, it is He who will build the temple of the Lord, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices.” ’

Matthew 16:18 (NASB95)

18 “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

1 Peter 2:3-9 (NASB95)

3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,

5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

6 For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”

7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “The stone which the builders rejected, This became the very corner stone,”

8 and, “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NASB95)

16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

Hebrews 8:5 (NASB95)

5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.”

Solomon had no such directive and no such pattern. Even by the standards of the tabernacle measurements the Temple does not reflect these dimensions. When Solomon built the temple as a misuse of the power and prestige God gave him for being David's son and for praying a very humble and selfless prayer (1 Kings 3:5-15) he had no regard for the tabernacle (1 Kings 2:29) where when David was still alive he spared his older brother Adonijah (1 Kings 1:51) as a point of refuge. But after David was gone he slew Joab there and also Adonijah.

God condescended to deal with Israel through the Temple system as he had the monarchy... but both led to time after time Israel falling into sin and idolatry. It was rare that the Jews were in good standing with the Lord from that point on. And when Jesus stood in the Temple courts it was as though he referred to the Temple as the house of God in name only. In Matthew 24 his disciples marveled over the temple complex Herod had remodeled for some 60 years by that time... Jesus response? Not a stone will be left upon another that will not be thrown down. I am of the opinion that the very cross Jesus would be nailed to was reused scrap wood from the temple remodeling and that they were crossed pieces from the door post and lintel of the Temple doors... which is why the first Passover in Egypt the blood of the pascal lamb was to be struck on the door posts and lintel of the dwellings of Israel.

[JohnD]

Tares were also sown among the wheat in the New Testament as well.

3 John 9-11 (NASB95)

9 I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say.

10 For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words; and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brethren, either, and he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church.

11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.

Then there were the warnings about savages wolves not sparing the flock and false prophets and false angels of light... but two of the greatest blows against the truth came in the persecution which drove Christianity underground in the Roman Empire long enough for the Jewish leadership to sever ties with this new covenant and the main body of the Jewish people (roughly 66 CE to 313 CE) when Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity. Or as the late Dr. J. Vernon McGee put it... "It was when the dey-ville joined the Church, my friend..."

From this tare sprang the Roman Catholic Empire from which the Church never fully recovered...

Pope = Cesar

Cardinals = Senate

Bishops = Regional Governors

etc.

Protestant Reformation brought along with it most Roman Catholic traditions and procedures and governmental structure / expunged of all trace of Judaism (which God ordained and all point to Christ).

This is not to say abandon all Churches... obviously. It is to say learn the truth as distinct from the traditions of men (which nullify the Word of God):

Matthew 15:6 (NIV)

6 he is not to ‘honor his father’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

Mark 7:13 (NIV)

13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

Learn the truth and effect change in your own life and in the body of believers in your life.

Just a reminder of the Roman and Roman Catholic Empires: