Isaiah 5:20   “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

We all agree that our world is in turmoil..  The words of Isaiah seem especially true today.

However, the 1^st century world was in chaos as well.  Rome had taken over the land and the Jewish way of living was being corrupted.  Thousands died at the hands of the Roman conquerors.  In 70 AD the whole of Jerusalem was looted and burned. 

The early disciples of Jeshua must have worried and wondered.  They knew He had the answer to what was coming in the future. These early followers experienced the evil which was all around them.  They must have inquired of the Lord as to how could evil and good co-exist at the same time??
                                He told them this parable.  (Matthew 13:23-30)

“The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.  But while the men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.  Now when the stalk spouted and produced grain, then the weeds also appeared.
The slaves said to him, “Do you want us to go out and gather them up?   No, he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’’

Some of you say that this pertains to the future kingdom when He makes all things new.  However, this very parable can apply today.  It helps us understand the situation we are living in.  We must accept the reality that evil is inseparably intertwined with the good.  We might long to put a comfortable distance between good and bad, but this is not an option available to us.  Instead, we are offered assurance that God will sort it all out with perfect justice in the end.

 When we look at our world, we see both the good and the bad.  Some like to see only one or the other. “Humanity is basically good!” Or the opposite direction: “We are a generation of spoilt narcissists!”  Neither picture is complete.  We have plenty of both good and bad in uncomfortable and contradictory juxtaposition.

Jeshua did not retreat from evil doers.  He hangs out with prostitutes and sinners as well as the “brood of vipers” of the suffocating religious establishment.  He holds his ground and maintains his stance whoever He encounters.  There is no doing away with people.  That comes later.   

God made it possible for good and evil to co-exist.  Its our choice of choosing.  Real love must be voluntary, and volition requires freedom.  Freedom must necessarily leave the door open, and evil enters the scene. 

As of now we are moving inevitably towards harvest time.  And with the harvest comes the winnowing! 

                        Stay with the wheat!  The harvest is coming!