<p>15:13&nbsp;<em>But he answered and said: Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be rooted up</em>- It was commonly understood that all Israel were the planting of the Lord, having been planted as vines in His vineyard (Num. 24:6; 2 Sam. 7:10; Ps. 44:2; 80:8,15; Is. 5:2; Jer. 2:21; 11:17; 45:4). Yet He implies here that the scribes and Pharisees were&nbsp;<em>not&nbsp;</em>planted by God. The Old Testament references to Israel having been planted by God are many- to say that Israel&rsquo;s religious leaders were&nbsp;<em>not&nbsp;</em>planted by God was to clearly say that He did not consider them to be the true Israel. But the restored Kingdom of God was to feature planting of new vines (Is. 41:19; 51:16; Jer. 24:6; 31:28; 32:41; Ez. 36:36; Am. 9:15) just as He had planted a garden in Eden (Gen. 2:8), and so again the Lord is hinting that the old Israel was coming to an end, and a new Israel being planted which was in embryo the Kingdom of God, paradise restored. Paul picks up this figure in speaking of how his preaching of the Gospel was &lsquo;planting&rsquo;, specifically, a vineyard (1 Cor. 3:6-8; 9:7). This connects with the Old Testament and New Testament descriptions of Old Testament Israel as the vineyard God planted (Mt. 21:33; Lk. 13:6; 20:9). Paul saw that a new Israel was being formed one by one. Teaching God&rsquo;s word is described by Paul in 1 Cor. 3:6-8 as &lsquo;planting&rsquo;, and it would seem this was a Jewish metaphor used for the instilling of God&rsquo;s word into students. In this case, the Lord would be continuing the theme developed so far in Matthew 15- that attention to God&rsquo;s word is what makes someone part of the true Israel. Because of their rejection of the word of God in favour of the word of men, the Pharisees and scribes were therefore not planted by the Father. This was their choice.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Clearly the Scribes and Pharisees were plants, in the same field as the ones planted by the Father, who would be rooted up. They had been planted by someone other than the Father. This of course is exactly the picture presented by the parable of the wheat and weeds. But the Lord taught in that parable that the &lsquo;rooting up&rsquo; must be left to the Angels at the last day. The subsequent command to the disciples to &ldquo;let them alone&rdquo; could be understood in the context of the wheat and weeds&nbsp;parable- the idea might be &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t&nbsp;<em>you</em>&nbsp;think you can sort them out. Leave them alone. Let God do it&rsquo;. The Lord saw the problem that the disciples might root up wheat as well as weeds (He uses the same word- Mt. 13:29). And His concern was justified- for as noted on :1, there were within this general category of Scribes and Pharisees a number who would later repent and come to Christ. Those who are to be plucked up at the last day are in essence already plucked up by God, from His perspective (Jude 12 s.w.). The repentance of some of those Scribes and Pharisees (see on :1) who appeared in the &lsquo;to be plucked up&rsquo; category is a great example and warning to us. If the disciples had rooted them up then, those individuals would not later have come to Christ. So one reason why we are not to &lsquo;root up&rsquo; is because we have no idea how that person may change in later life; we do not see the specific potentials in people.</p>