Matthew 13:47-50
“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” — Matt. 13:47-50.
This parable is very simple. In the Old Testament the people had been compared to fishes of the sea, and the same large net is referred to, called a” drag.” (Hab. 1:14, 15.) It is the large net, called in Cornwall and elsewhere a seine, which covers a large space, and is then drawn to the shore, with the fish enclosed.
The gospel’ is the net, it gathers good and bad. It must be noticed, that the bad are not discovered until the net is drawn to the shore. The thought is not that the gospel finds some good, and some bad (though, of course, some are morally better than others); but, at” the end of the age,” some are found to be bad, though, of course, they were known to God to be that before.
Our Lord gives His own interpretation:” The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.’’
The reader is referred to the parable of the Wheat and the Tares, to see how this gathering the good into vessels, and casting the bad away, falls in with our looking for our Lord from heaven. In that parable, the wicked being among the good is pointed out as the direct work of Satan; here it results from the gospel being sent forth, far and wide, as a draw-net is spread in the sea. Doubtless, Satan here is also busy, as we see in the parable of the sower. There he caught the seed away; here he is just as successful, when he allows his own to enter the gospel net, though really remaining his. Alas! how solemn to know that many gathered by the gospel into the various associations of Christians — it may be to attractive preachers, or to take part in a lifeless ritualism, anything, indeed, that will lull an uneasy conscience — but who are” wicked,” and who come not to Christ, whose blood alone can cleanse from every stain.
The parable is, in short, a faithful picture of Christendom, and depicts the solemn doom of all who will be found gathered by the sound of the gospel to that which bears the name of Christ. But the just — made just only by the transforming power of God — will be safely gathered into His vessels. Not one can be overlooked, or forgotten. To His name be all the praise!