What plant is it in the picture? Is it wheat or tares? Can you tell?
Both plants belong to the same family in the plant taxonomy. They belong to Poaceae but they are different species. Wheat belong to the genus Triticum and Tares belong to the Lolium genus. Wheat and tares are so similar that it is difficult to differentiate in their early stages. Tares bears a close resemblance to wheat until the ear appears,that is at the harvest time.
What then is tares?The botanical name for tares is Lolium temulentum and it is typically known as darnel, poison darnel. Some people call it the false wheat because it looks so similar to wheat in appearance and even belongs to the same family of cereals. It has no nutritional relevance for humans. It is classified as weeds,unwanted plant.
Tares causes nausea and drunkenness. It is of no relevance for making food. The name temulentum means drunkenness. Because it make people who eat of it, nauseated and feel like drunk.
What is wheat?Wheat is used in a wide variety of foods. It is a major ingredient in such foods as bread,porridge,biscuits.It is used in pastries,cakes. It can also be made into semolina and beverage. It has a high nutritional value.
In Matt 13 Jesus compares the kingdom of God with wheat and tares. One is useful the other is useless.One is a good seed, the other is a weed. One was planted by the owner of the field, the other by his enemy.Both the wheat and the tares were planted in the same field,the same land. That field is the property of the Man not the enemy. The field represent the earth and the church.
It is the property of the Lord,he owns them but he didn’t plant tares in there,he only planted good seeds. The wheat was planted first then later the tares. Being planted in the same field means they received the same irrigation,the same rain,the same nutrient but their results were different at the end. Their results were different because they had different nature. The wheat was gathered to be used as food,the tares were uprooted to be burnt.
Wheat is processed into flour to make bread. Jesus who is the bread of life is the prototype of the true wheat. It is from wheat that we make bread,only wheat can produce life.
It is only ‘wheat’ believers that can be converted into bread that gives life. It is only those who are planted by the Lord himself that can be made into flour to produce bread that gives life. Those born of God are the wheat,Peter was called wheat by the Lord(Luke 22:31)
In order for the wheat to become bread it has to be beaten,it has to be threshed and milled into flour. In the same way, we as believers, need the processing of the Holy Spirit in order for us to become bread to feed people.
Another lesson we can learn from this is, sometimes we may have mixtures of wheat and tares. It is possible to make flour and bake bread from this mixture of wheat and tares. When such happens, the bread will not be of life but of drunkenness, it will be a bread that produces death and make people nauseated. The end result will be people disregarding the bread and throwing it away. We must make sure our lives are not a mixture of wheat and tares but only wheat.
We should take heed that we have only good seeds, and not seeds and weeds. Our lives should be made up of what God has planted not what the devil has planted too. We should avoid mixtures, we should guide ourselves from deceptions and hypocrisy.
The field can also represent our heart or minds. What have we allowed to grown in? Is it only the wheat that God planted or we have also allowed tares of deceit,evil and errors. The scriptures says that while men slept the enemy came and sow the tares.
We should be watchful lest we allow the enemy to sow tares in the field of our heart and mind. For most of us it may be too late but just as the Lord said allow them to grow till the harvest. We ought to test and examine all that we feed our mind and heart with.
The Holy Spirit has came to help us test and separate the seed from the weeds and the wheat from the tares.
It takes about 4 month(spring wheat) to 7 month(winter wheat) for wheat to be harvested after planting.When they both grow they look alike until they are mature ,until the harvest time. The tares even look more straighter than the wheat. Sometimes the false plants(which includes, doctrines, people,lifestyle,traditions) look more appealing and healthier than the wheat.
The wheat has good fruits but the tares doesn’t. The fruits of the wheat make it bend a little. Fruitful believers or wheat believers are submissive,they walk in humility to God. They produce fruits in humility. The more fruit on the wheat the more it bends,in the same way the more fruitful we become in our walk with God, the more humble and submissive we ought to be to God.
Can you still tell where the wheat is?
The wheat is on the left.May we walk and become the wheat God has planted us to.God bless you.