Every Monday morning I hear it coming a block away. The deep-throated roar of its powerful engine, the clash and crash of its huge metal hands as they grasp their prey all announce the approach of a huge mechanized monster. I have already prepared for its arrival. I have placed my offering out on the curb and soon those metal fingers will grasp and lift it with seemingly little effort, and hurl it into a gaping maw. This monster is a garbage truck. When it is full, it makes trips to the disposal site where it disgorges its contents in a landfill for burial. The garbage is here digested by the chemical action of water and bacteria so that it is ultimately totally destroyed.
There is another kind of garbage truck that visits my house periodically. It is green in color and it is not collecting garbage but rather what is called recyclable items. These items may be plastic, metal, or glass which can be redeemed and converted into new useful products. Instead of going to the dump these trucks disgorge their contents at a recycling center where trained workers separate the good from the bad. It takes trained eyes to tell the difference. So there are actually two separation times; the first involves the obvious separation of garbage from potentially recyclable items, and the second is the further inspection of recyclable items into useful and useless material.
Jesus used the example of the wheat harvest to illustrate what happens in the judgment at the end of the age. His parable envisioned a wheat field in which there were weeds sown by an enemy. At the time of the harvest. the harvester separated the grain from the weeds and chaff. The wheat was saved in the granary while the weeds and chaff were burned. So it is in the final harvest for the Kingdom of Heaven; some people will be destined to eternal life and some to eternal destruction; some will be garbage and others will be recycled.
Just as in the case of the garbage trucks, there are really two judgments. Those who are unrepentant, rebellious sinners will be separated from those who have a potential for salvation. Those individuals who have at some time made a commitment to follow God's plan will be examined in a separate judgment. The books of record are opened, and they are judged by what is recorded. Some will be proved faithful to their commitment and others will be found unfaithful. The discerning eyes of the holy watchers will be able to judge the difference. Those who are found faithful will be recycled with glorious heavenly bodies, while the unfaithful will be destroyed along with the unrepentant garbage. The sorting process is now in progress and it is important to consider the fact that the signs all foretell that soon "the garbage man cometh."
