This would look like a very scanty harvest to eyes accustomed to fruitful fields. There are four species of tares in Palestine. The seeds are poisonous to man and to beasts, producing serious sickness and sometimes death. They are, however, harmless to fowls and are sold as food for poultry. It is customary to gather out the tares when the grain is nearly ready for harvest. Then the women and children go into the fields and carefully remove not only the tares but all the weeds as well.
Jesus was ever replying, "The kingdom of God is not outward, with courts and armies and a great parade. It is inward, and means obeying the will of God." So Jesus lived in that busy world of his day, but few understood him. At last, because he would not be the kind of a Messiah they wanted, they crucified him. About forty years after this, the busy, proud people attempted to fight the Romans. They were defeated, and Jerusalem was taken. The temple was burned, the stone walls were thrown down, and the Jews were killed or sent away. So the story of Palestine and of its great hope ends very sadly for the Jews, who so looked and longed for their freedom. But we shall always love the land where the Lord Jesus lived and the people among whom he worked, because he loved them so much himself.
Map of Palestine at the time of the New Testament.
| IT CAME UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR |
It came upon the midnight clear, That glorious song of old, From angels bending near the earth To touch their harps of gold; Peace on the earth, good-will to men. From heaven's all-gracious King; The world in solemn stillness lay To hear the angels sing. Still through the cloven skies they come, With peaceful wings unfurled; And still their heavenly music floats O'er all the weary world: Above its sad and lonely plains They bend on hovering wing. And ever o'er its Babel sounds The blessed angels sing. O ye beneath life's crushing load, Whose forms are bending low, Who toil along the climbing way With painful steps and slow! Look now, for glad and golden hours Come swiftly on the wing: Oh, rest beside the weary road, And hear the angels sing. For lo, the days are hastening on, By prophets seen of old, When with the ever-circling years, Shall come the time foretold, When the new heaven and earth shall own The Prince of Peace their King, And the whole world send back the song Which now the angels sing. |
| --Edmund H. Sears. |