Praise the Lord for these wonderful summer days. Today they are forecasting for one of the hottest days of July. Praise the Lord for the seasons that the Lord does send upon the earth. Praise the Lord for the way He leads us through various seasons in our life's journey on earth. My daughter Sunita frequently reminds me of the special seasons of our lives. Jesus is the Lord in every season; He is the Lord of all seasons. Blessed be His Name.
I have decided by the grace of the Lord to celebrate in all seasons and in every season. In his new book, Erasing Hell, Francis Chan, counters Rob Bell’s recent work, Love Wins. Bell acknowledges hell’s existence on earth but finds it difficult to believe that it is forever and that God can punish non-Christians for all eternity. Chan, on the other hand, says that while most people wouldn’t want to believe in the reality of hell, the Bible clearly speaks about it.
Our Lord Jesus is the Master Storyteller. He told parables to elucidate Kingdom Princples. The seventh parable in the great parable chapter (Mathew 13) of the Bible is the fifth parable similitude in the chapter. This parable, like the previous two, begins with “Again” (Matthew 13:47; cp. Matthew 13:44, 45). It is the lesson that says we need repetition in the learning process. The flesh does not like the “again” business, but if you are going to learn anything well or do anything well, “again” must be part of the process. In studying the Scripture, you must study “again” and “again”.... Christ taught the people parables to help instruct in spiritual matters. Matthew 13:48 notes that when the net was full/filled, it would take a large number of men several hours just to drag it ashore/up on the beach. Then they sat down. The parable shows the deliberation of the sorting in judgment by the fact that the sorters “sat down.” This deliberation ensures an accurate judgment. No one will be cast away who is saved, and all unsaved will be rejected. The Angels sorted/gathered the good fish into containers, but threw away the bad. The fish to be carried to a distant market would be put in containers with water to keep the fish alive, and those that were to be sold nearby were placed in dry containers, usually baskets.
The world is a vast sea (Psalm 104:25). People, in their natural state, are like the fishes of the sea that have no ruler over them, (Habakkuk 1:14). The preaching of the gospel is the casting of a net into this sea, to catch something out of it, for God’s glory who has the sovereignty of the sea. This parable, like the one of the wheat and tares, avoids a separatism which prevents the people of God from associating with the people of the world. We are to be in the world but not of the world. The parable is not dealing with any transition from good to bad, or bad to good, but speaks to the fact that both exist together in the same world. Jesus is not creating a sectarian Israel to stand over against the rest of the world. Just as He ate with publicans and sinners, so His disciples will move among people who disbelieve,
The comparison of the kingdom of heaven to a fishing scene reminds us of the calling of the disciples to “fish for people” in 4:19. The focus seems to be on catching people for salvation rather than, here, as in Jeremiah 16:16, for punishment. Though the disciples’ “fishing” ministry belongs to the establishment of God’s kingship, this parable adds the thought that there is a negative as well as a positive aspect to it. Their net is cast over a wide cross-section of people, and while the message saves some it will leave others unconvinced; those who have failed to respond to it are presumably among the “bad fish” of this parable. The fishermen of v. 48 are of course identified as the angels, not as the disciples, but it is the prior announcement of the kingdom of heaven (with which the disciples have been entrusted, 10:7) which forms the basis of the separation between good and bad. Those who have received the kingdom with appropriate response in the form of discipleship—would survive; the evil would go to their punishment. In His interpretation of the parable of the weeds Jesus stated the same truth He gives here: At the end of the age [His] angels shall come out/come forth, and separate/take out. The action here is “to discriminate” or make distinctions, and in Greek, krisis literally means “to divide.” In our day there is an overwhelming disdain of discrimination or judgment. Yet by our actions we make countless numbers of personal judgments every day. We drink water and not battery acid. We drive on a green light and not a red. We eat fresh food instead of rotten. Discrimination and judgment are basic common factors of life. Perhaps there is such a disdain of them because of a underlying realization that this common occurrence is pointing to a final reality that people fear and repress.
During the present era, which is the Church age, God permits unbelief and unrighteousness, but the time is coming when His toleration will end and His judgment begin. The net of God’s judgment moves silently through the sea of humanity and draws all people to the shores of eternity for final separation to their ultimate destiny-believers to eternal life and unbelievers to eternal damnation.
People move about within that net as if they were forever free. The net may touch them from time to time, as it were, startling them. But they quickly swim away, thinking they have escaped, not realizing they are completely and inescapably encompassed in God’s sovereign plan. The invisible web of God’s judgment encroaches on every human being just as that of the net encroaches on the fish. Most people do not perceive the kingdom, and they do not see God working in the world. They may be briefly moved by the grace of the gospel or frightened by the threat of judgment; but they soon return to their old ways of thinking and living, oblivious to the things of eternity. But when humanity’s day is over and Christ returns to finalize His glorious kingdom, then judgment will come.
The sorting process will be accurate. It will be clearly distinguished between the good and bad. Over and over Jesus warns about the horrors of hell and pleads with people to avoid it by coming to Him for salvation. He warned:
Matthew 24:38-41 "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. (ESV)
God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23) and does not desire that anyone perish (2 Pet. 3:9). The Lord wept over Jerusalem because the people would not come to Him and be saved (Luke 19:41). He warned about hell not to put people in agony but to save them from it. Hell was not created for humanity, but for the devil and his fallen angels (Matt. 25:41), but it is the very real destination of those who fail to surrender to Him.
In Christ,
Brown
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