This parable is often cited as a prooftext from posttribulationists to support the notion that the church will be here on earth protected in the day of the Lord’s wrath, then afterwards be raptured.
Does the parable of the Wheat and Weeds (Tares) intend to teach a sequence of events?
For example it says: “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then gather the wheat into my barn” (Matt 13:30). A chronology could be indicated, but in my estimation, it is reading too much into the parable. We have to be careful of reading a sequence into the genre of parables. Even if there were a sequential aspect in this parable, it is difficult to establish an exact order. The parable states that the weeds are collected and tied first, but it suggests that the weeds are to be burned later after the wheat harvest. So if there is an intended sequence, the wheat is shown to have priority. The weeds are collected, tied, and placed to the side so as not to waste time burning them; then the task of harvesting is performed first. And only after the costly harvest is complete would the weeds be disposed by burning them. In ancient Palestine, weeds were often bundled and used later for fuel, as were other agricultural scraps.[i] In any event, it is best to build our eschatological chronology from non-figurative passages.
[i] Stories With Intent by Klyne R. Snodgrass (Eerdmans: 2008), p. 202
