I came to the seer with a question that was really bothering me. I see now that it is an age old question that countless people have asked down through the centuries. “What’s really going on in the world? Why do the evil ones prosper and the innocent suffer?”
To which the Seer replied, “In order to answer that, we must realize that the great God of heaven has secrets. Oh, yes, He keeps secrets–secrets that He will only reveal to certain individuals that He can trust. “Now this is not just some made up assumption on my part. The Holy Scriptures declare this to be true. ‘Surely the Lord GOD (Yahweh) will do nothing, but he reveals his secret unto his servants the prophets’ (Amos 3: 7). And, ‘I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world’” (Mt. 13: 35).
“So God definitely has secrets?”
“Yes, and they are contained in the parables. But He is revealing those mysteries to people right now. He’s revealing them to those who have a sincere, seeking heart. For, you see, these secrets go way back–back to the very foundation of the world. And Christ came and taught these secrets to those whom He had chosen. For He did say, You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen You and have ordained you to bear fruit, spiritual fruit. He shows mercy on whomsoever He will, for He is sovereign.”
“What are the secrets about?” I asked.
“God’s secrets have to do with His plan and purpose for all of us down here on earth. It’s all about Him establishing His government down here on earth. He calls it His kingdom, for He is the King. And He uses parables to reveal mysteries to us. Man’s wisdom teaches that the parables of Christ are nice little stories to make it a bit easier for us to perceive the things of God. Not so. It’s just the opposite. He teaches in parables to deliberately cloud the meaning for the masses so that only those who He wants to reveal the secrets to will understand!”
“These secrets are not given to everybody?” I asked.
“Would you tell everybody your own secrets? Of course, they are not given to everyone. The disciples even asked the Savior why He spoke to the masses using parables. He related to them that through parables they would understand “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [the masses, the multitude] it is not given” (Mt. 13: 11). The parable is double-edged. It reveals the secrets and mysteries of what God is doing to those He gives it to, and the parable prevents just any-old-body from interloping into His precious things that He reserves for His elect, His chosen ones. The masses can literally hear the words of His parables and not understand them. They can “see and not perceive” their meaning (Mark 4: 12).
“But how does this all tie in with my original question as to why the innocent suffer while the evil ones look like they are winning?”
“The answer to your important question is found in one of His parables. It is a secret and a great mystery that only a few will understand. And you are going to say when I finish explaining this, Why didn’t someone tell me before? It is the Parable of the Tares in the Field (Matthew 13: 24-30, 37-43). Before we get started, though, I want you to realize that this is a sacred secret and not to be taken lightly, for this knowledge is crucial in order to understand the forces at work on the earth, which, in turn, helps us comprehend not only what is happening, but why it is happening.”
Then the Seer began to read the parable. “The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matthew 13: 24-30).
“I don’t get it,” I said.
“Neither did the disciples. Christ had to explain it to them. Right after He spoke the parable to them they asked Him, Declare unto us the parable. He goes on to explain to them that the field is the world in which we live. The man is the Son of man, Christ Himself. And he sows the good seed, which are the children of the kingdom, or His followers, the children of God. The enemy who sowed bad seed into the field is the devil. The bad seed are his children, the ‘children of the wicked one.’ Both the children of God and the children of the devil are growing up together in this earth. And they will continue on growing until the time of the harvest, which is the end of the world age as we know it. At that time, the children of the devil will be gathered up and disposed of, and the children of God will shine forth in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt. 13: 36-43).
“Wow.”
“We have to realize that He ‘sent the multitude away’ and then explained this parable only to His disciples (v. 36). This information is heavy and was only for a chosen few–only to those that He had personally chosen out from among all the people. And so it is today. He is revealing these things to His elect.” [For more you can read my two books which you can find at the top of this page. Just click “Ebook…”] Kenneth Wayne Hancock