Verses 47-50: the Parable of the Net Cast Into the Sea AT 13:47-50{the Kingdom of Heaven Is Likened to a Net Cast Into the Sea. Then, When It Is Full of Every Kind of Fish, They Pull It to Shore and Put the Good Fish Into Vessels and Cast the Bad Away. Likewise, at the End of the World (or "the Age" in Which the Lord Was Then Speaking), the Angels Will Sever the Wicked From the Just and Cast the Former Into the Fire. There Shall Be Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth
As always, the Word of God is its own interpreter. As we have already noted, the sea is a commonly used figure in the Scriptures for the restless, turbulent, and unorganized masses of Gentile nations in contrast with the land, a figure for a settled sphere of things, where order is maintained. Further, when the Lord first calls Peter and Andrew to follow him, they are fishermen mending their nets. He tells them that, if they will follow Him, He will make them "fishers of men.”
The net therefore is the "gospel net." The gospel has been going out to the Gentiles now for nearly 2000 years. As to the fish, which are of "every kind," they are men from all nations, not merely those from among the Jews. Those who separate the good fish into vessels and cast away the bad fish are those whose responsibility it is to exercise discerning oversight in the local assembly. (Not everybody that professes to be a Christian really is a Christian.) The "vessels" are the local assemblies themselves. Then, after the assembly has been raptured away and the end of the Mosaic age arrives, then it will be that the angels will sever the wicked from the just and cast the former into the lake of fire.
