The Mysteries of
the Kingdom of Heaven
10. THE "EVERLASTING GOSPEL"
PARABLE OF THE NET CAST INTO THE SEA
In the
last chapter of this final three, we find, as I believe, not another aspect of
the divine dealings with the mingled crop in the field of Christendom, but a
new acting, whether in grace or judgment, after the merchant man has possessed
himself of his pearl, or in other words, after the saints of the past and
present time are caught up to Christ. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like
unto a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind; which, when
it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into
vessels, and cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world (or
age): the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just;
and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and
gnashing of teeth" (vs. 47-51).
The parable closes thus (in so far,
just as the parable of the tares of the field,) with the judgment executed at
the appearing of the Lord. The common application of it is to the going forth
of the gospel during the present time, and the final separation of bad and good
when the lord comes. That is, the meaning is considered to be almost identical
with the tare parable. I believe there are some plain reasons against such an
interpretation. For, in the first place, the parallelism of the two parables in
that case is certainly against it. There would be little in the picture of the
net cast into the sea that was not simply repetition of what had already been
given. And this, at first sight, would not seem natural or likely.
But
beside this, it is to be considered that Scripture plainly gives us another
going forth of the gospel of the kingdom, and as the result of it a
discriminative judgment when the Son of Man comes, apart altogether from the
present going forth of the gospel, and the judgment of the tares of
Christendom. The company of sheep and goats in Matt. 25 is an instance of this.
For there will be no such separation as is there depicted between these sheep
and goats, of the true and false among Christian professors, "when the Son of
Man shall" have "come in His glory." The true among Christian professors, on
the contrary, will come with Him to judgment on that day, as we have seen both
Col. 3:4 and Jude bear witness. The judgment of Christendom will not then be
discriminative at all: the wheat having been already removed from the field,
tares alone will remain in it. Thus in Matt. 25, neither tares nor wheat can be
at all in question.
But after the saints of the present time have been
caught up to the Lord, and Christendom has become a tare field simply, a new
work of the Lord will begin in Israel and among the surrounding nations, to
gather out a people for earthly blessing. It is when God's judgments are upon
the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. And this will
be a time of "great tribulation," such as for Israel Matt. 24 depicts.
Antichrist is there, and the "abomination of desolation" stands in the holy
place; yet amid all the evil and sorrow of the time, the "everlasting gospel"
goes forth (Rev. 14:6, 7) with its call, so opposite to the proclamation of
this day of grace now being made. "Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the
hour of His judgment is come."
Plainly, one could not say that yet. We say
it is "the accepted time, the day of salvation," not of judgment. Only after
the present day is closed could the everlasting gospel be preached after that
fashion,- the old "gospel of the kingdom" indeed, but with the new addition to
it of the hour of God's judgment being come.
It is this proclamation of the
everlasting gospel that is the key to that company of sheep and goats standing
before the throne of the Son of Man when He is come.
EVERLASTING
GOSPEL GOING OUT TO THE GENTILES
Now, if we look a little closely, it
is just such a state of things as that amid which the everlasting gospel goes
forth, that this parable brings before us. A "net cast into the sea" is the
picture of the gospel going forth in the midst of unquiet and commotion, the
lawless will of man at work every where, the wicked "like the troubled sea when
it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt" (Isa. 57:20).
Moreover,
if we turn to the very earliest of Scripture types - to Genesis 1 - we shall
find confirmation of this view, which is exceedingly striking. In those
creative days we find, day by day, the successive steps by which God brought
out of ruin the beauty of a scene where at length He could rest, because all
was "very good." There need be little wonder to find this but the picture and
type of how He, step by step, after the misery and ruin of Adam's fall, is
proceeding toward the final production of a scene in which once again, and
never more to be disturbed, because of its goodness He can rest. These days in
their respective meaning it is not the place here to point out. The third day,
however, speaks of the separation of Israel from among the Gentiles. The waters
of the salt and barren sea are the representative of man left to the lusts and
passions of his own heart (according to the figure in Isaiah just referred to),
or in other words, the Gentiles. Israel is the "earth," taken up and cultivated
of God, to get, if it might be, fruit. The third day speaks of this separation
of Israel from the Gentiles, as the first parable of the three we are now
looking at speaks of her as God's earthly treasure.
This is a scene all on
earth. The next creative day gives us however, the furnishing of the heavens,
as we have already seen the second parable of the "pearl" does. And if the sun
be a type of Christ (as it surely is), that which brings in and rules the day,-
the moon is no less a type of the Church, the reflection, however feeble and
unstable, of Christ to the world in the night of His absence. The present time,
then, is here figured, - the time of the revelation, in testimony, both of
Christ and of the Church. And now, if we pass on to the sixth day, we have as
plainly in figure the kingdom of Christ come. The rule of the man and woman
over the earth,- not rule over the clay or night, not the light of testimony,
but rule over the earth itself,- is a picture of what we call millennial
blessing.
Finally in this series comes the Sabbath, God's own rest: He
sanctifies the whole day, and blesses it; no other day succeeds.
Now
between the fourth and the sixth days, the Church and the millennial
dispensations, what intervenes? A period, short indeed in duration, but
important enough to occupy thirteen out of the twenty-two chapters of the book
of Revelation: the very time to which, as I believe, the parable of the net
refers. And then, what is its type, if the fifth day represents it? Once again,
the "sea," but the waters now supernaturally productive, teeming with life
through the fiat of the Almighty. And so it will be in the day of Rev. 7 as the
hundred and forty-four thousand of the tribes of Israel, and the innumerable
multitude of Gentiles who have come out of "the great tribulation," bear
abundant witness. These are the gathering out of the people for earthly
blessing, as the fruit of the everlasting gospel.
These passages, then,
mutually confirm each other as applying to a time characterized by Gentile
lawlessness, Israel fully partaking of this character, and not yet owned of
God, though He be working in her midst. Into this "sea" the net is cast, and,
gathering of every kind, when it is full, is drawn to shore.
It is not till
AFTER this that the sorting begins: "which, when it was full, they drew to
shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, and cast the bad
away." This shows us that the sorting cannot apply to any thing which goes
on during the time of the preaching of the gospel at all events, for the net is
no longer in the waters when it takes place. And it is thus the same thing
evidently as that which the interpretation speaks of: "So shall it be at the
end of the age; the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from the
just." This is the clearance of the earth for millennial blessing. When the
saints are removed, at the coming of the Lord for His own which 1 Thess. 4 sets
before us, the wicked will not be severed from the just, but the just from the
wicked. The righteous will be taken, and the wicked left. Here it is the
reverse of this - the wicked taken and the righteous left. Thus, with the
divine accuracy of the inspired Word, which invites scrutiny and rewards
attention to its minutest details, it is said in the judgment of the tare-field
of Christendom, "They shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend,
and them which do iniquity," but not, "they shall sever the wicked from among
the just," for the just have been before removed. Here, on the contrary, the
righteous are those not taken away to inherit heavenly blessing, but left
behind to inherit earthly.
With this glance at things which belong to that
short but most momentous season - the season of the earth's travail before her
final great deliverance, the sevenfold sketch of the kingdom of the absent King
necessarily ends. The blessing of earth, as of Israel, necessitates His
presence, and with that the close of the "kingdom and patience," the beginning
of that "kingdom and glory" which will never end. Well will it be for us if we
keep in mind the sure connection between the "patience" and the "glory."
* Parallel passages will be found in Matt. 24:37-42 and Luke 17:24,37.
In the Old Testament, the Psalms especially are full of this severing of the
wicked from among the just: e.g., Psalms 1:4,5; 37:9-11. See also Malachi
4:1-3.
THE END
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