July 25, 2008

The Threshing Floor

Read Ruth 3:1-9

Once the ripened grain had been harvested, the sheaves were brought to the

threshing floor, where oxen or other animals would tread it underfoot to separate

the kernels of grain from the stalks. The men would then use winnowing forks to

toss the stalks of barley into the air, where the wind would catch and blow away

the chaff while the heavier grain fell to the ground. The resulting piles of grain were

provision for the months ahead. After years of famine, there would have been much

jubilation in Boaz's household as the evidence of God's restored favor was heaped

in front of them. We read that Boaz "was in good spirits" when he and his workers

at last lay down to rest. Indeed!

This strong visual image of threshing and winnowing surfaces throughout scripture as a metaphor for judgment between the righteous and the ungodly. 

[The righteous] will be like a tree firmly planted -- the wicked are not so,

but they are like chaff which the wind drives away. (Psalm 1:3-4)

Let those be turned back and humiliated who devise evil against me. Let

them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them

on. (Psalm 35:4b-5)

The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters, but he will rebuke

them and they will flee far away, and be chased like chaff in the mountains

before the wind, or like whirling dust before a gale. (Isaiah 17:13)

As for me [John the Baptist], I baptize you with water for repentance, but

he who is coming after me [Jesus] is mightier than I, and I am not even fit

to remove his sandals; he himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and

fire. And his winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean his

threshing floor; and he will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn

up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:11-12)

But there is deeper meaning still, as the threshing floor is also the place of real

judgment. Near the end of King David's reign, he brings God's anger on Israel

by taking a census. He repents and God allows him to choose which punishment

shall fall on the people. The angel who brings the pestilence to Jerusalem was

"by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." When the plague is over, the

prophet Gad tells David to erect an altar to the Lord on that spot. (2 Samuel 24) 

Years later, when King Solomon builds the temple, he builds it "on Mount Moriah,

where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had

prepared, on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." (2 Chronicles 3:1) 

All the sacrifices, the incense, and offerings that were thereafter lifted up to the

Lord were made in the place of his choosing -- the threshing floor. The image

of winnowing, of grain separating from chaff, would always be present as the people approached God.

Jesus uses this same image to illustrate not final judgment but the testing of faith

in his followers. He tells Peter, "-- behold, Satan has demanded permission to

sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and

you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." (Luke 22:31-32)

Have you ever felt like you were being sifted? Tossed in the air at the mercy of

prevailing winds? Take heart in knowing that it is only the chaff - the dry and

lifeless parts of your life - that will blow away, while the strong, true, fruitful parts

will remain. Take heart, too, in knowing that Jesus prays for you during such times,

always making intercession for you. (Hebrews 7:25)  See the good grain that

remains as a sign of God's favor and his provision for the time ahead, and celebrate

his goodness.

                                                            Doris Cheshire