What the Bible says about Mankind's Rebellion against God
(From Forerunner Commentary)
The first half of the chapter shows Israel's old, wicked state that God could not work with and how He will eventually be able to work with the Israelites once He brings them into the humble, contrite attitude they need to turn to Him.
The thought in verse 16 is, "If I keep contending them as they have always contended with Me, I will wear or burn them out spiritually." The verse actually reads, "For I will not contend forever, nor will I always be angry; for the spirit would fail before Me, and the souls which I have made." They could not take the struggle between their continuous, rebellious spirit and God's efforts to overcome it. He does not want to destroy people but to change them so He can work with them.
So, even though the natural inclination of the human heart is to rebel against His efforts, He says in the next verses, "I'm going to change them so that there are no more wicked people as they were. I will heal them." Obviously, this change occurs through the giving of the Holy Spirit, making them soft- rather than hard-hearted. He would soften their heart through the Spirit.
It is specifically the Spirit of God that spells the difference between God's former work with Israel and His New Testament work with the elect, then with Israel in the Millennium, and ultimately, with the whole world. Without the Holy Spirit in play, change could not occur, even through God's efforts. As we see with Israel and Judah, His contention with man and man's rotten attitudes just spurred further rebellion, causing the relationship to spiral downward. They ended up defeated and in captivity, which God allowed, even engineered. He had to say, essentially, "I've had enough! Get out of My sight. I'll work with you later," because He did not want to destroy them completely.
But then He sent His Son, who made real change possible. It did not occur immediately, but God's plan was for Him to form a group—the church—to work with in this present age to transform them into the image of the Son. We, the elect, will one day be the examples to which unconverted people will turn to understand that formerly rebellious people can repent and live in a right relationship with God. As the apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 1:26-29, God purposely took the weak, the base, and the foolish to confound the mighty, noble, and wise people who contended with God for so long. They will say, "Wow, if God could do it with them, well, He can do it with us."
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
The Poor in Spirit
As Jesus says, the field is the world, in which He has established His church. The church is not of the world (John 17:14), but within it, just as a farmer may designate a specific plot of his land, separated from the rest, for a particular, unique crop.
However, Satan the Devil has also been at work, sowing his own seeds within the field. Using fragments of God's truth, Satan has founded false religions and counterfeit Christianities that preach distortions of truth. Like the tare that grows masquerading as the wheat, members of these false churches may appear good, pious, and very generous. Worldly Christians may possess a seemingly good heart and act with fine intentions, but when the top layer of goodness is peeled back exposing their core, they reveal deceived hearts lacking understanding or true love.
Further, the world's churches are in constant rebellion against God, refusing to keep His commandments and rejecting the absolute authority of His words. The world's ministers even pervert the Word of God with infusions from such pagan religions as Buddhism, Hinduism, or other mystic or New Age faiths. Through syncretism and false doctrine, these churches accomplish the will of their evil father: deceit and destruction (see John 8:44).
Satan's malignant influence is not felt only within the world. He has planted his own seeds, sowing false brethren and even ministers within the very church of God. However, as Christ reveals in this parable, God permits this intrusion of well-camouflaged counterfeits. Tares in God's church will appear religious and devout, with no obvious warning-flag identifying them to unsuspecting church members.
Ted E. Bowling
Taking Care With the TaresRelated Topics: Commandment Breaking | Commandment Keeping | Commandments, Breaking | Commandments, Keeping | Counterfeit and Genuine Christians | Deception | Deception, Guarding against | False Church | False Religion | Genuine and Counterfeit Christians | Mankind's Rebellion against God | New Age Beliefs | Pagan Religious Practices | Parable of the Sower and the Seed | Parable of the Tares | Rebellion against God | Religious Deception | Satan as Deceiver | Satan as Sower of Tares | Syncretism | Syncretistic Religion | Tares and Wheat