A certain man was sitting on the shoreline looking out over the ocean and he noticed a fleet of fishing boats drifting by and casting out their nets. As he was watching he noticed that at a given time the men began to pull in the nets and bringing on board fish of all kind. Still observing he noticed that they were separating the “select” fish from the others who were cast aside waiting to be used for fertilizer. He remembered reading from a Wonderful book describing what were to be the final days of mankind. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet, that was cast into the sea, and gathered some fish of every kind, which, when it was filled, they drew up on the beach. They sat down and gathered the good into containers, but the bad they threw away. So will it be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, and separate the wicked from among the righteous, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.”
He was saddened that so many undesirable fish were being tossed aside and so few “select” fish were being carefully placed in a safe place to be enjoyed later by the owner of the fleet.
There is coming a day indeed. An appointed time where the Owner of Heavens fleet will give the signal to cast in the nets and then separate the “good” from the “bad” and bring the “keepers” back to His House where there will be a great feast. Until then a mixture of the good and the bad must be patiently endured until the end of the world; because, till that time, a true and perfect restoration of the World must wait.
Rabbi Matt