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"He answered, 'Some enemy did this.' "The farmhands asked, 'Should we weed out the thistles?'
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"He said, 'No, if you weed the thistles, you'll pull up the wheat, too.
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Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I'll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.'"
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Another story. "God's kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants.
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It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it."
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Another story. "God's kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread - and waits while the dough rises."
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All Jesus did that day was tell stories - a long storytelling afternoon.
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His storytelling fulfilled the prophecy: I will open my mouth and tell stories; I will bring out into the open things hidden since the world's first day.
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Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, "Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field."
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So he explained. "The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man.
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The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil,