Understanding the Scriptures
|Parable(v. 1)||A short story that teaches a lesson or moral|
|Sowers, soweth(vv. 2–3)||Planters, plants|
|Tares(vv. 3, 6–7)||Weeds|
|Reap down(v. 5)||Cut down and harvest|
|Heirs(v. 9)||Receivers of a gift or blessing by right, inheritors|
Doctrine and Covenants 86:5—Angels Ready to Reap
Speaking to a group of temple workers in 1894, President Wilford Woodruff said: “God has held the angels of destruction for many years, lest they should reap down the wheat with the tares. But I want to tell you now, that those angels have left the portals of heaven, and they stand over this people and this nation now, and are hovering over the earth waiting to pour out the judgments. And from this very day they shall be poured out. Calamities and troubles are increasing in the earth, and there is a meaning to these things. Remember this, and reflect upon these matters. If you do your duty, and I do my duty, we’ll have protection, and shall pass through the afflictions in peace and in safety” (quoted in Susa Young Gates, “The Temple Workers’ Excursion,”The Young Woman’s Journal,Aug. 1894, 512–13).
Studying the Scriptures
Do activity A or B as you studyDoctrine and Covenants 86.
Interpret the Parable
Apply the Message
Write about an experience you had, or one any young person might have, to which the meaning of the parable of the wheat and the tares could be applied.
How does the message ofDoctrine and Covenants 86:8–11relate to the parable of the wheat and the tares?