Week 4 Day 3 Fast Forward
We interviewed Carole and this is what we found out about growing grain.
When sowing seeds, such as wheat, you would first prepare the soil. You would prepare the soil by getting rid of all things in the field such as weeds. You could do this by plowing the field and then disking the soil so it would be nice and smooth. You would then sow the seeds with a wheat drill and they would all be in nice and straight rows. I’m not sure at what point you would fertilize, probably prior to sowing the seeds. Some farmers pick up rocks on a continual basis to keep the soil smooth and increase the yield. Many of the seeds you buy now days come pre-treated for insects. But, you may have to spray chemically to ward off insects or a fungus such as wheat rust. When the wheat is ripe, you would use a combine to harvest the wheat seeds. You would also bale the straw that comes after you take the seeds out.
The Parable of the Wheat and the Bearded Darnel
Jesus said that God’s kingdom could be explained by this story: A farmer sowed good wheat seeds in his fields, but when he wasn’t looking, this evil guy came along and threw bearded darnel weed seeds into the field. Since you can’t tell the difference between these two kinds of seeds, no one caught on until the seed heads sprouted on the plant. By that time the roots of the two kinds of plants were hopelessly woven together. It would destroy the wheat to weed out the weeds! So the farmer chose to wait until the harvest to separate the good wheat from the bad bearded darnel.
What Jesus wanted the people to know was 1) there is evil in the world so we need to be careful and watchful; 2) sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between what is good and what is evil; so, 3) we cant’ be quick to judge others. We shouldn’t judge at all because we only see a part of a person’s life. God sees the whole thing-- so let God be the judge. And 4) God’s judgment comes at the end-- at the harvest. So with this parable Jesus is warning us against judging others and reminding us that one day we will be judged by God.