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Matthew 13:39 - The Parable of the Weeds Explained

and the enemy who sows them is the devil.
In this parable, Jesus identifies the enemy as the devil, who is often depicted in Scripture as the adversary of God and His people. The devil's role as a sower of weeds among the wheat highlights his intent to corrupt and disrupt God's kingdom. This imagery aligns with other biblical passages where Satan is described as a deceiver and accuser (Revelation 12:9-10). The act of sowing weeds among the wheat symbolizes the introduction of false teachings and evil influences within the church, a theme echoed in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, where false apostles are described as masquerading as servants of righteousness.

The harvest is the end of the age,
The concept of harvest is a common biblical metaphor for judgment and the culmination of God's plan. In the context of this parable, the harvest represents the end of the current age, a time when God will separate the righteous from the wicked. This eschatological theme is consistent with other New Testament teachings, such as in Matthew 24:3, where the disciples ask Jesus about the signs of the end of the age. The harvest imagery also connects to Old Testament prophecies, like Joel 3:13, which speaks of a harvest of judgment.

and the harvesters are angels.
Angels are frequently depicted in Scripture as God's messengers and agents of His will. In this parable, they are tasked with gathering the wheat and the weeds, symbolizing their role in executing divine judgment. This aligns with other biblical accounts where angels are involved in end-time events, such as in Matthew 24:31, where angels gather the elect from the four winds. The presence of angels in the harvest underscores the divine authority and orderliness of the final judgment, emphasizing that it is carried out according to God's perfect justice.

Persons / Places / Events

1. The Enemy (The Devil)
In this parable, the enemy is identified as the devil, who sows weeds among the wheat. This represents the spiritual adversary who seeks to disrupt God's work.

2. The Harvest
Symbolizes the end of the age, a time of judgment and separation between the righteous and the wicked.

3. The Harvesters (Angels)
Angels are depicted as the agents of God who will carry out the final judgment, gathering the righteous and the wicked.

4. The Field
While not mentioned directly in this verse, the field represents the world where both good and evil coexist until the time of harvest.

5. The Sower (Son of Man)
Although not in this specific verse, earlier in the parable, the sower is identified as the Son of Man, Jesus, who sows good seed.

Teaching Points

Understanding the Enemy
Recognize the reality of spiritual warfare and the devil's role in sowing discord and deception in the world.

The Certainty of Judgment
The end of the age is a definitive event where God will judge the world. Live with an eternal perspective, knowing that our actions have eternal consequences.

Role of Angels
Angels are ministering spirits who serve God's purposes, including executing His judgment. Trust in God's sovereign plan and His use of angels in the spiritual realm.

Coexistence of Good and Evil
Until the end of the age, good and evil will coexist. Christians are called to be light in the world, influencing it for good while awaiting the final harvest.

Preparation for the Harvest
Be diligent in faith and practice, ensuring that you are among the wheat, not the weeds. Engage in regular self-examination and repentance.

Lists and Questions

Top 10 Lessons from Matthew 13What does spiritual harvest mean?Who is your adversary according to the Bible?Is Satan real?Why does God put us through tests?

(39) The enemy that sowed them is the devil.--Here, as in the parable of the Sower, there is the most distinct recognition of a personal power of evil, the enemy of God thwarting His work. It will be noticed that our Lord, as if training His disciples gradually in the art of the interpreter, gives rather the heads of an explanation of the parable than one that enters fully into details; and it is therefore open to us, as it was to them, to pause and ask what was taught by that which seems almost the most striking and most important part of the parable. Who were the servants? What was meant by their question, and the answer of the householder? The answers under these heads supply, it will be seen, a solution of many problems in the history and policy of the Church of Christ. (1.) The enemy sowed the tares "while men slept." The time of danger for the Church is one of apparent security. Men cease to watch. Errors grow up and develop into heresies, carelessness passes into license, and offences abound. (2.) The "servants" are obviously distinct from the "reapers." and represent the zealous pastors of the Church. Their first impulse is to clear the kingdom from evil by extirpating the doers of the evil. But the householder in the parable is at once more patient and more discerning than they. To seek for the ideal of a perfect Church in that way may lead to worse evils than those it attempts to remedy. True wisdom is found, for the most part, in what might seem the policy of indifference, "Let both grow together until the harvest." That is the broad, salient lesson of the parable. At first it may seem at variance with what enters into our primary conceptions, alike of ecclesiastical discipline and of the duty of civil rulers. Is it not the work of both to root out the tares, to punish evil-doers? The solution of the difficulty is found, as it were, in reading "between the lines" of the parable. Doubtless, evil is to be checked and punished alike in the Church and in civil society, but it is not the work of the rulers of either to extirpate the doers. Below the surface there lies the latent truth that, by a spiritual transmutation which was not possible in the natural framework of the parable, the tares may become the wheat. There is no absolute line of demarcation separating one from the other till the time of harvest. What the parable condemns, therefore, is the over-hasty endeavour to attain an ideal perfection, the zeal of the founders of religious orders, of Puritanism in its many forms. It would have been well if those who identify the tares with heretics had been more mindful of the lesson which that identification suggests.

The harvest is the end of the world.--Strictly speaking, the end of the age--i.e., of the period that precedes the "coming" of the Son of Man as Judge, which is to usher in the "world," or the "age," to come.

The reapers are the angels.--What will be the actual work of the ministry of angels in the final judgment it is not easy to define, but their presence is implied in all our Lord's greater prophetic utterances about it (Matthew 25:31). That ministry had been brought prominently before men in the apocalyptic visions of the Book of Daniel, in which for the first time the name of the Son of Man is identified with the future Christ (Matthew 7:13), and the Messianic kingdom itself brought into new distinctness in connection with a final judgment. Our Lord's teaching does but expand the hints of the "thousand times ten thousand" that ministered before the Ancient of Days when the books were opened (Daniel 7:9-10), and of Michael the prince as connected with the resurrection of "many that sleep in the dust of the earth" (Daniel 12:1-2).

Verse 39. - The enemy that sowed them (ὁ σπείρας); contrast ver. 37 (ὁ σπείρων τὸ καλὸν σπέρμα). Ver. 37 states what is ever true; ver. 39 merely refers back to the enemy spoken of in the parable. Is the devil (Matthew 4:1, note). (For the thought of this and the preceding clause, see John 8:44; 1 John 3:8, 10.) The harvest is the end of the world; literally, as the margin of the Revised Version, the consummation of the age (συντέλεια αἰῶνος); when the present age shall have received its completion, and the more glorious one be ushered in (cf. Matthew 12:32, note). And the reapers are the angels; are angels (Revised Version). But it is exactly parallel to the preceding predicate, and if the insertion of our English idiomatic "the" fails to lay the stress which the Greek has on the fact that the reapers are such beings as angels (as contrasted with human workers, Matthew 9:37, 38), its omission adds a thought which the Greek was probably not intended to convey - that the reapers would be only some among the angels. Parallel Commentaries ...

Greek

and
δὲ (de)
Conjunction
Strong's 1161: A primary particle; but, and, etc.

the
ὁ (ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

enemy
ἐχθρὸς (echthros)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2190: Hated, hostile; subst: an enemy. From a primary echtho; hateful; usually as a noun, an adversary.

who sows
σπείρας (speiras)
Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 4687: To sow, spread, scatter. Probably strengthened from spao; to scatter, i.e. Sow.

them
αὐτά (auta)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Accusative Neuter 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 846: He, she, it, they, them, same. From the particle au; the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.

is
ἐστιν (estin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

the
ὁ (ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

devil.
διάβολος (diabolos)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 1228: From diaballo; a traducer; specially, Satan.

The
ὁ (ho)
Article - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

harvest
θερισμὸς (therismos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2326: Reaping, harvest; met: the harvest, crop. From therizo; reaping, i.e. The crop.

[the] end
συντέλεια (synteleia)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 4930: A completion, consummation, end. From sunteleo; entire completion, i.e. Consummation.

of the age,
αἰῶνός (aiōnos)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 165: From the same as aei; properly, an age; by extension, perpetuity; by implication, the world; specially a Messianic period.

and
δὲ (de)
Conjunction
Strong's 1161: A primary particle; but, and, etc.

[the] harvesters
θερισταὶ (theristai)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 2327: A reaper, harvester. From therizo; a harvester.

are
εἰσιν (eisin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

angels.
ἄγγελοί (angeloi)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 32: From aggello; a messenger; especially an 'angel'; by implication, a pastor.

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