I don't usually feel like God speaks to me when I read the Bible. Not like, "Hey Steve, here's what you need to know about me..." It's usually a feeling or a sense of new understanding, just not a literal phrase or sentence.
Last night was a different story however, thanks to some great friends and the NET version of Matthew 13:24-30. I'm not talking something audible, but it was as close as I'm comfortable with experiencing.
The insight for this came from the note in verse 25 on the nature of weeds. I had always understood weeds in the context of what they look like here in west Michigan, maybe a poke weed or a thistle. The weed being referred to here though is probably darnel, or ζιζάνιον (zizanion), if you can read Greek (I cannot).
Darnel is a plant that looks very similar to wheat, but is poisonous. First, this tells me that it's not so easy to separate the good from the bad, and it makes the world a very real place. Not ideal. That shouldn't be news to anyone.
My sentence from God came as a clarification to the problem of evil in the world. It is very easy to look at the desolation and hurt and pain in the world, and ask, "how could there be a God who would let this happen? Does s/he even care?" That's a very reasonable question to ask. I'm not going to give you a proof for why God exists or doesn't, that can't be done, and it frustrates me to no end. What I will do is tell you something about God, if you believe her/him to exist. God is honest.
If you believe God exists, then occasionally you will bump into something in the Bible that seems morally questionable if God is God. If God is love, mercy and kind. I'm going to ask that you suspend your human perspective on morality, because frankly, you don't have an eternal perspective, or even a 7th dimensional perspective (you can bet I wish for even a 5th dimensional perspective every day). Don't suspend your idea of morality forever though, you can have it back later, you will need it to remain human.
In verses 28 and 30, God says to me, "I know there is evil, and I know you see it. I see it too. But this is my plan, despite how it may not make sense and hurt from your perspective." He says: "An enemy has done this." "Let both grow together until the harvest."
In this instance, in this parable, in this story, I hear God saying to me: "I know. I know. This is the decision I have made from my perspective, it might not make sense from yours. You will have to fight to grow in the midst of a weed filled world. You will struggle to receive the sunlight you need. You will compete for water with the weeds, but in the end, I know the wheat and I know the darnel. I'm going to gather you into my barn."
I hear an acknowledgment from God that the world is a confusing place, but that he's letting us grow this way for now:
‘An enemy has done this...in gathering the weeds you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.'I don't understand why s/he's doing it this way, but God isn't hiding it either. S/he's honest with us about it.
I love this.
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