The Wheat, the Tares and the Impending Harvest 

By any honest measure, the last 10 - 20 years have reshaped the world at a pace unprecedented in human history.

Technology has advanced exponentially. Moral boundaries have blurred. Nations are shaking. Indeed, truth itself feels contested. Many believers are sensing what Yeshua (Jesus) described nearly two thousand years ago: a simultaneous surge of light and darkness.

Consider the Global Landscape

Eastern Europe burns as the war in Ukraine grinds on, reshaping borders, economies and alliances. What began as a regional conflict has become a fault line between world powers, reviving Cold War mentalities and accelerating military posturing across NATO and Russia alike. The earth itself feels unstable, just as Yeshua foretold: “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” (Matt 24:7)

In Iran, persistent protests, especially led by women and young people, have exposed the seismic fractures between the authoritarian Islamic religious structures and a population crying out for dignity and freedom. The streets echo with generational anguish. This is not merely political unrest; it is the manifestation of a society wrestling with identity, authority and hope.

The United Arab Emirates has restricted or discouraged students from attending certain British universities, reflecting a growing mistrust between cultures once tightly linked through education and commerce. The reasons given reflect badly on Britain - citing concern that students from the UAE – a Muslim nation, remember – ware likely to become radicalised by the Muslim Brotherhood at UK unis. Even academic exchange, long a bridge between civilizations, is now subject to geopolitical suspicion.

In America, meanwhile, recent defence strategy documents increasingly frame Europe not simply as an ally but as a contested strategic theatre, caught between Russian aggression, Chinese economic expansion, and internal fragmentation. The transatlantic relationship itself feels less stable, more transactional. Trust is thinning.
 

This is not merely political unrest; it is the manifestation of a society wrestling with identity, authority and hope.

The Chagos Islands debate, long unresolved, has resurfaced questions about colonial legacy, sovereignty, moral responsibility and minor international law. Even decades-old geopolitical wounds are reopening, reminding us that history never truly disappears; it waits for its appointed moment.

Europe faces unprecedented pressure from uncontrolled migration. Millions move across borders, driven by war, poverty, commercial greed and maybe even political positioning. While compassion demands care for the stranger, the sheer scale has strained social systems, fuelled political extremism, and fractured national cohesion. Governments struggle to balance mercy with order. Communities feel overwhelmed. This is wheat and tares growing together in real time: genuine human need alongside exploitation, trafficking and ideological manipulation.

At home in the UK, waves of protests, from economic grievances to cultural flashpoints, reveal a nation wrestling with identity, governance, and trust in institutions. Similar scenes repeat across Europe and North America. Citizens no longer believe their leaders hear them. Leaders no longer seem able to govern coherently. Social contracts are fraying.

In London, controversy surrounding the proposed expansion of the Chinese embassy has highlighted how deeply foreign influence now penetrates Western capitals. Concerns over surveillance, intimidation of dissidents, and sovereignty reflect a broader anxiety: power is shifting, and the rules-based order many assumed permanent is eroding.

All of this unfolds simultaneously. This is what Enoch meant by “you shall have no peace.”  Not simply more wars, but the collapse of coherence itself.

Matthew 13 and the Chaos of Our Times

In Matthew 13, Jesus teaches the parable of the wheat and the tares: “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.” (24-25)
 

Not simply more wars, but the collapse of coherence itself.

This parable is not merely an agricultural metaphor, it is a prophetic framework for understanding history; especially the days leading to the consummation of the age.

Two Crops Growing Together

Jesus later explains the meaning: “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” (Matt 13:37–39)

We can notice something deeply Hebraic here. In Jewish agricultural understanding, wheat and tares (likely the troublesome wheat-like weed, darnel) look nearly identical in early growth. Only as maturity approaches does the difference become obvious.  Darnel even becomes toxic when fully developed.
Yeshua’s point is sobering: righteousness and wickedness are allowed to mature side by side until harvest.

This explains much of what we are witnessing today. The rapid acceleration of change over the past two decades has not produced neutrality, but, rather, polarisation. Good is becoming clearer; evil bolder. Both are coming to fullness.

As Daniel prophesied: “Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly” (Dan 12:10). Purification and corruption increase simultaneously.

Acceleration Before Harvest

In Hebraic thought, harvest is not random, it is appointed (moed).  Ecclesiastes reminds us: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” (3:1)
 

Good is becoming clearer; evil bolder. Both are coming to fullness.

The biblical pattern shows that before major divine interventions – Noah’s flood, the Exodus, the Babylonian exile – society reached a point of saturation. Violence, idolatry, and moral confusion peaked.
Yeshua echoes this pattern: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” (Luke 17:26)

Our modern age mirrors this trajectory. Technology has compressed time and space. Information spreads instantly. Ideologies globalise overnight. Sin is normalised at scale. And at the same time, the gospel is preached in more languages than ever, worship rises from underground churches, and Jewish people are returning to their ancient homeland. This is not coincidence. It is convergence. The wheat is ripening – as also are the tares.

Israel at the Centre of the Field

From a Christian Zionist perspective, Israel is not a side-note in this process; it is central. The field is ‘the world’, but Jerusalem remains God’s prophetic clock.  Scripture declares: “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest.” (Isa 62:1)

The modern rebirth of Israel in 1948 and the liberation of Jerusalem in 1967 are among the most significant prophetic markers since the first century. Ezekiel foresaw this regathering: “I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen… and bring them into their own land.” (Ezek 37:21)

In Hebraic understanding, restoration always precedes redemption. We are watching that restoration unfold in real time. At the same time, global hostility toward Israel is intensifying, exactly as Zechariah foretold: “I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about.” (Zech 12:2)
 

Delay is not weakness, it is grace. But grace has a limit. The harvest will come.

The nations rage. Antisemitism resurges. Spiritual lines harden. This is Matthew 13 playing out on a geopolitical scale.

Why God Allows the Tares

Many ask why God does not uproot evil immediately. Jesus answers: “Nay; lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.” (Matt 13:29-30)
This reflects God’s mercy.  Premature judgment would harm the righteous still developing. In Hebraic thought, patience is an attribute of divine compassion (erech apayim = slow to anger).

Peter affirms this: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise… but is longsuffering with us, He is not willing that any should perish.” (2 Pet 3:9). 

Delay is not weakness, it is grace. But grace has a limit. The harvest will come.

Humanity resists divine order

Yeshua’s instruction to let both wheat and tares grow together was not passive resignation. It was prophetic realism. He was preparing His disciples for a world that would become increasingly unstable as harvest approaches.

The ancient Book of Enoch, respected within Second Temple Jewish thought and echoed indirectly in many New Testament quotes and allusions, including the famous quote from Jude, contains a sobering declaration to the fallen ones: “You shall have no peace.”  While not part of the canonical Hebrew Scriptures, this warning captures a consistent biblical pattern: when divine order is rejected, shalom withdraws.
 

What we are witnessing today is not isolated turbulence; it is systemic disintegration.

Peace is not merely the absence of war in Hebraic understanding. Shalom means wholeness, alignment, harmony with God’s design. When that alignment fractures, unrest follows – socially, politically, spiritually.

What we are witnessing today is not isolated turbulence; it is systemic disintegration. From a biblical perspective, this is exactly what happens when humanity collectively resists divine order. Isaiah described it this way: “There is no peace, says YHWH, unto the wicked.” (Isa 48:22)

Jeremiah lamented leaders who offered shallow reassurance: “They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” (Jer 6:14)

Our age is saturated with such false assurances. Technology promises connection but delivers isolation. Politics promises security but produces anxiety. Globalism promised unity yet has amplified division.
 

Living Faithfully in a Ripening World

The tares are maturing. Yet so is the wheat. In Hebraic thought, chaos is not meaningless, it is birth pangs. Before redemption comes travail. Before resurrection comes death. Before harvest comes shaking.

Paul echoes this: “The whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now” (Rom 8:22). For believers, this moment demands more than observation.

First, we must cultivate spiritual depth. Surface-level Christianity will not survive sustained instability. Wheat that survives heat has deep roots. Prayer, Scripture, repentance, and obedience are no longer optional disciplines; they are survival practices.
 

Prayer, Scripture, repentance, and obedience are no longer optional disciplines; they are survival practices.

Second, we must resist fear. Chaos is not evidence that God has lost control. It is evidence that history is moving toward its appointed conclusion.

Third, we must stand visibly with Israel and the Jewish people, not as a political gesture, but as alignment with God’s covenant purposes. As the nations rage and Jerusalem becomes a “cup of trembling” (Zech 12:2), the Church must remember: “He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (Ps 121:4)
In Hebraic understanding, restoration precedes revelation. Israel’s return to her land signals that redemption is drawing nearer.

Finally, we must become light, not noise, not outrage. Light. Yeshua said: “You are the light of the world” (Matt 5:14). Light does not argue with darkness. It simply shines.

As systems fail and societies fracture, people will look for something unshakeable. That is our calling: to embody the Kingdom while the world convulses. The wheat is ripening; the tares are ripening, too. Just as Yeshua promised, the harvest will come.

The only lasting question is whether we will be found rooted, faithful, and aligned with the purposes of the God of Israel when it does.
 

A Prophetic Exhortation for This Hour

Beloved, this is not a season for spiritual sleep. Yeshua warned that the enemy sowed tares “while men slept” (Matt 13:25). Passivity has always been the adversary’s preferred doorway. Comfort dulls discernment. Distraction weakens watchfulness. Yet Scripture repeatedly commands God’s people to remain awake: “Watch therefore: for you do not know the hour your Lord will come.” (Matt 24:42)

Light does not argue with darkness. It simply shines.

We are living in days when neutrality is quietly becoming betrayal. The shaking we see across nations is not random. Hebrews tells us plainly: “Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.” (Heb 12:26)

God is allowing every false foundation to be tested; governments, economies, ideologies, even religious systems. What cannot be shaken will remain. Everything else will fall away. This is why the wheat must mature now.

In Hebraic understanding, harvest is not merely an ending, it is a separation for purpose. The righteous are gathered not simply to be rescued, but to be revealed: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of YHWH is risen upon thee” (Isa 60:1). The darker the world becomes, the more distinct the people of God must appear.

This hour calls for repentance that is genuine, not performative. For holiness that is lived, not discussed. For courage that speaks truth without bitterness. For compassion that does not compromise righteousness. For intercession that stands in the gap for nations, especially for Jerusalem.

The psalmist exhorts us: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.” (Ps 122:6)
This is not merely symbolic language. Jerusalem is the epicentre of God’s redemptive story. As Israel continues to be restored physically, the Church must be restored spiritually. The same God who gathers His ancient people is refining His Bride.

The darker the world becomes, the more distinct the people of God must appear.

Do not mistake delay for absence. Do not confuse mercy with indifference. The Owner of the field is watching - and the harvest is certain.

Joel declared: “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe” (Joel 3:13). We are approaching that ripeness now.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us strengthen our hands, steady our hearts and teach our children to bless Israel. Let us guard our minds; root ourselves in Scripture; walk humbly; love boldly, stand firmly.
Refuse fear, deception, and spiritual lethargy. We were born for this moment in history. The wheat is being prepared for glory; the tares for removal.

And soon, sooner than many expect, the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.

If you have ears to hear, then hear. (Matt 13:43) 

(Image by Kai Pilger from Pixabay)