So may all your enemies perish LORD! But may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.” —Judges 5:31 (NIV)

God is merciful to a repentant heart. I came across Johnny Chang’s podcast Unlearned Wisdom, and the episode talked about anger. From a young age, Johnny internalized that anger and violence were ways to get ahead or get even. He fell into street gangs and opened up that he would make a ruckus in the principal’s office by breaking things. He went to prison and the environment changed—it was a cold war on all sides, and blowing up had consequences there. It was the first step in spiritual transformation. Johnny now ministers to death row inmates.

Testimonies like Johnny’s shows God’s faithfulness to complete the work He’s started for us. They are signs that we are tending to the harvest, whether we realize it or not.

Israel: the Weed

For all of the Israelite rebellions, God admonished them to worship Him alone, to come to repentance. The book of Isaiah repeats “Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised,” three times in Chapter 9, and once in Chapter 10. God was angry; he laid the ground rules for how they should live and promised them a land flowing with milk and honey!

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known." —Deuteronomy 11:26-28 (NIV)

Israel continued to reap the curse. In the book of Isaiah, God’s call to the Israelites is spoken through the prophet Isaiah.

16 “Half of the wood he burns in the fire;

over it he prepares his meal,

he roasts his meat and eats his fill.

He also warms himself and says,

‘Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.’

17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol;

he bows down to it and worships.

He prays to it and says,

‘Save me! You are my god!’”

—Isaiah 44: 16-17 (NIV)

It continues in verse 21:

21 ‘Remember these things, Jacob,

for you, Israel, are my servant.

I have made you, you are my servant;

Israel, I will not forget you.

22 I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,

your sins like the morning mist.

Return to me,

for I have redeemed you.’

What a powerful message. “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.” We can hope for that same, loving forgiveness in Christ’s resurrection. Like the cloud in the scripture, our sins are swept away. That promise is true for the ones that walk with Jesus.

God’s graciousness ties into the parable of the wheat in scripture. In Jesus’ parable of the wheat, the disciples stayed behind and asked for Jesus to explain it to them.

Jesus: the Sower of the Good Seed

In the parable, weeds and wheat coexist. Weeds are unwanted, shackling the other plants in a garden. Wheat is prized, and picking it is the razor-edge between starvation and a stomach sated. There is a moment when the farmer pays a visit to the field to discover that weeds sprung up in the field abundant with wheat, and wonders how it happened. It was sabotage, said another. (Matthew 13:28)

Jesus’ clarification is here:

“He answered, ‘The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.’” —Matthew 13:37-43 (NIV)

Israel was called over and over again to live as wheat. Back in those times, there were specific instructions to sacrifice an animal as a burnt offering to God. In the book of 1 Samuel, Eli’s sons Hophni and Phineas were deviants. They would eat the burnt offerings of the people of Israel, and God saw this as a contemptible sin. God cursed the lineage of Eli to “die in the prime of life.” (1 Samuel 2: 30-33) The Philistines battled with the Israelites, and Hophni and Phineas died, just as God’s prophet warned.

Contrast Eli’s sons with David. David had virtue. King Saul had attempted to kill David before with a spear and David fled. There was a moment when Saul was asleep in a camp. Defenseless. This is an assassin’s advantage. Abishai offered to impale Saul with a spear out of loyalty to David. David could have put an out-for-blood rivalry to an end. David’s response was an example of living a wheat-driven way.

“’As surely as the LORD lives.’ he said, ‘the LORD himself will strike him, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the LORD’S anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go.” —1 Samuel 26:10-11 (NIV)

We live in a world filled with wheat and weeds. Even Jesus was betrayed for pieces of silver during his life. We must live uprooted in Christ to prevent us from the entanglement of evil: the weeds’ departure from God. It’s voluntary to be a weed. It’s also voluntary to be wheat. God hasn’t wrote us off, he’s writing our stories. The ending for the wheat is shining like the sun, never to stumble in darkness.