Different Destinies For The Righteous And The Unrighteous
Malachi, the last prophet, ends his book with the same picture:
Then you will return and distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.
For behold, the day is comingit will burn like a furnacewhen all the proud and every evildoer will become stubble. The day that is coming will set them ablazesays Adonai-Tzvaotleaving them neither root nor branch.
John the Baptist appears to pick up right where Malachi left off! He is telling the people of Judea about the Messiah:
His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He shall clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn but the chaff He shall burn up with inextinguishable fire.
This is not the picture many like to have of Yeshua, but this is who he is.
Spiritual Significance Of Threshing Floor
Threshing wheat in Bible times. The threshing floor is mentioned in many places in the Bible. It is the place where the wheat is separated from the grain. But in biblical symbolism, it also stands for a spot of purification and humiliation. Jesus was announced by John the Baptist as: The One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He will clean the threshing floor and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire .
The threshing floor is the place where our heart is purified by the work of the Spirit. And a pure heart can meet God and understand His voice, as Isaiah prophesies here. When David had sinned and humbled himself before God, he built an altar on the threshing floor . Eventually, the temple was built on the same spot. God wants to build His church on the foundation of humiliation.
As God said to Solomon: If My people, for which My Name has been proclaimed, bow down and pray in humility, and seek My face, and turn away from their evil ways, I will hear from heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their land . God not only wants to build His church but also to heal and restore the land! What a promise!
A threshing floor is also a place of intimacy. Where can the Holy Spirit connect better with our Spirit than in deep fellowship with Him? Where we surrender to Jesus, and He can blow through our court?
Come to the threshing floor, just as the grain is brought there. He will come with His fire, and a new passion for Him will be ignited in your heart.
Threshing Floor / Biblical Image
The threshing floor is a Biblical place and a well-known Biblical statue. How should the people who do not live in the countryside imagine the threshing of grain in Israel? Let me start at the beginning.
The culms cut with the sickle were bundled loosely and then loaded onto donkeys and taken to the threshing floor to fan them.
Sometimes the animals were loaded so high and wide that they resembled a large grain pile on four legs.
The threshing floor was the common property of the entire village. It was a large solid place, preferably a bare rock plateau. Every villager had his own place on this threshing floor.
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A Threshing Floor Near Bethlehem
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Threshing Floors were used in the ancient world to separate grain from the chaff. This was usually a two step process. First, the cut stalks of grain were spread on the threshing floor and a threshing sledge was pulled over the stalks by oxen. The sledge was a simple wooden sled or heavy board with stone or metal spikes on the bottom that would break the heads of grain from the stalks . The same thing could be accomplished by having the oxen walk over the stalks or by beating them with heavy sticks .
The second step was to toss the broken stalks into the air with a large forked tool, usually made out of wood. The wind would blow the lighter chaff to one side, while the heavier grain would fall into a pile, which could then be gathered. This process of separating grain from chaff by wind is called winnowing . Because of the need for wind, threshing floors were normally located on hilltops or in large open fields, and were often used as landmarks or meeting places . Since threshing floors were so crucial to the life of the people, they were highly valued, and were often vulnerable to raids by bandits or rival tribes .
–Dennis Bratcher, Copyright ©2018, Dennis Bratcher – All Rights Reserved
The Separation Between Good And Evil
This brings us to the last meaning of the threshing floor, which is the separation between good and evil, in a spiritual sense. While the threshing floor is a physical space for chaffs and edible rice to be separated, it symbolizes far more.
In this particular story of Ruth and Boaz, it can be seen that Ruth symbolizes the believer, while Boaz symbolizes the redeemer which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Boaz was a very kind man and a very generous one as well. Ruth trusts Boaz amidst her obstacles.
Their story is a reflection of what happens in our spiritual threshing floor and that is the fact that we are being guided and redeemed by Jesus Christ as long as we show humility in ourselves to ask for it.
We have to be reminded that we are the grains as well that are being divided by our nature. We sin and, therefore, we have husks, but Jesus Christ separates us from that sin through His Salvation.
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What Was A Threshing Floor In The Bible
The threshing floor is one of the most important aspects of the story of Ruth and Boaz. Their story emphasizes that there is an undeniable need for a redeemer whom we can easily reach out to as long as we acknowledge our need.
- Glory DyChristianity.com Contributing Writer
- 202020 Oct
The threshing floor is a significant symbol in the Bible, which is mentioned both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the threshing floor is used in the daily agricultural lives of men.
It is a flat surface, usually smooth, which is used during the harvest of grains. This space was used before equipment and machinery was invented. It was used to separate the grains from the chaff by manual separation.
Usually, the animals crush and break the sheaves of the grains on the trashing floor or people manually use sticks to break the sheaves apart. As a result, the grains would be separated from the husks.
The final separation would be done by tossing the grains upon the wind, thereby, finally separating those still with husk and those already edible. The process is called winnowing.
Although the threshing floor is an ancient way of processing agricultural produce, it is still very significant in our lives as Christians today.
The Old Testament mentions the threshing floor through the story of Ruth and Boaz, the direct descendant of our Lord Jesus Christ, and, because of this, the threshing floor is an important symbol of Christianity.
Yeshuas Sovereign Right To Thresh
We need, as Paul says, to consider the kindness and the severity of God. The motif of sifting the wheat from the chaff reappears in the last supper. Yeshua turns to Peter, the one on whom he was counting to feed his sheep, and says:
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.
Therefore just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who practice lawlessness. They will throw them into the fiery furnace in that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear!
Of the increase of His government and shalom there will be no endon the throne of David and over His kingdom to establish it and uphold it through justice and righteousnessThe zeal of Adonai-Tzvaot will accomplish this.
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What Is A Threshing Floor In The Bible
Today is about the threshing floor. The Bible talks about the threshing floor from the Old Testament through to the New Testament. And many times used as a symbolic thing where God talks about separating the wheat from the chaff. And just real quick, I guess, background on the threshing floor and what the wheat and the chaff represent.
When farmers would bring in the wheat from the fields, they would throw the sheaves of wheat onto the threshing floor or the bunches of wheat they would throw them onto the threshing floor. They would either have animals come in and tread on the wheat, come in with wood things, and beat on the wheat until the little kernels. Or whatever it was, they were growing. It could be what it could be something else.
But the good part the grain would fall off of the stalks, and the bulk of it would land on the threshing floor. Still, some of it would get stuck within the stalks of whatever was they were growing, so to avoid wasting the good harvest wheat, whatever it was doesnt matter what it was, but they didnt want to waste the good stuff.
And that would be harvested and picked up, which would be used later on to make whatever they need to make, whether its flour or anything related to the crop they were growing.
So todays message from Pastor Ali has to do with the threshing floor. And it has to do with the season that the church is in right now and how God is cleaning the church and removing the good.
Sex And Death On The Threshing Floor
A friend asked me yesterday about the significant of the threshing floor in Scripture. I briefly sketched a response to his enquiry, but thought that it would be good to fill out this response in the following post. Perhaps some of my readers will be interested in the subject.
Much of the following is highly speculative, and should be taken on board only with considerable caution. In most of the respects that matter, interpreting Scripture is more of an art than a science, so we will need to develop and depend upon an instinct for the text, in communion with the Churchs tradition of engagement, rather than upon some sure technique or method, to settle upon appropriate readings.
In Judges 6:11, we find a scared Gideon threshing wheat in the winepress. In the act of threshing wheat, however, we find Gideon associated with an act that is symbolic of judgment, the role to which God is calling him. Gods judgment involves bringing the nations to his threshing floor, so that they can be threshed by the hooves of his servants. Micah 4:11-13 describes this process:
Gideon was involved in the process of bread-making, an activity with great biblical significance. The fact that he was threshing in the winepress brings together the themes of bread and wine, which are so central to biblical symbolism. Having threshed and ground the grain, he produced a large sacrifice of unleavened bread for YHWH .
Sex on the Threshing Floor
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Aspects Of Gods Character Seen In The Threshing Floor
Gods holiness: In the case of Uzzah, David, and the ark of the covenant we are reminded that God demands holiness. Although He longs for a relationship with us, He knows we can never have perfect communion with us until we are free from our sin.
The threshing floor reminds us we have chaff, or sin, in our lives that we need to get rid of.
So we need this reminder from 2 Samuel 6 to stop at the ordinary places in our life, much like Uzzah stopped on the threshing floor. We need to revaluate, and see if there is sin in our lives and let God clean us up.
Gods goodness to redeem: We could never be good enough on our own, but God in his rich mercy loved us so much to provide a way for us to be saved. He is our Redeemer. Ruth met her redeemer, Boaz, on the threshing floor. In the middle of a mess and debris, we can meet our Redeemer.
God doesnt need us to clean up our lives for Him. He will pick us off of the floor, brush us off, and lead us out of the pit into a new life with Him!
Gods presence in our everyday moments: Often we think of Gods presence as something magical or majestic. Although He is Almighty and King of Heaven, we forget He is found in the small moments, too. So, maybe the threshing floor reminds us most of all that God loves us, redeems us, and longs to be with us in or ordinary moments.
Structure Of Outdoor Floors
Outdoor threshing floors are usually located near a farm or farmhouse, or in places easily accessible from growing areas. They are usually paved with material that may be of various kinds, for example round stone cobbles about the size of a fist slate tile or sometimes the underlying bedrock itself is exposed. Unpaved earthen threshing floors are also sometimes found. The floors usually have a slight slope, to avoid water standing on them after rain and the paving may be divided by rays traced from a central focus to facilitate the pavement.
To overcome possible unevenness, and isolate them from water running off after rain so helping to preserve them, threshing floors are often surrounded by a stout low wall. The construction was often in a high place, to take advantage of soft and steady winds to facilitate the work of winnowing, separating the grain from the chaff, once the threshing had been completed.
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Strain Shake And Shake
The corn still had to be cleaned from sand and grit. A sieve was used for this. After the waving it was followed by sieving or sifting. The threshed grain was shaken vigorously in a large sieve. The grit and the stones had to fall to the ground as a result, but the grain had to be preserved.
That sieve certainly had a diameter of one meter. The corn was brought in and shaken back and forth by the farmers. Now it was no longer the cleansing and cleansing that was paramount, but the shaking and bumping of the grain. Jesus was well aware of the function of the sieve.
What Is The Meaning Of Threshing Floor In Bible
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A threshing floor is where the chaff would be loosened from grains after a harvest. In ancient Palestine, it was a custom to use oxen for treading out grain to loosen the chaff from it. The wheels of carts were sometimes used to do the job or farmers would use sticks to beat on the grain . The grain was threshed on a flat, exposed piece of ground, often on a wind-swept hill. After treading on the grain, the farmer will throw it into the air with his fork so the wind would carry the chaff away while the precious kernel remained, thus, separating the grain from the husks .
The threshing floor in the Scriptures is a symbol of the judgement. The prophet Hosea said, Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window . And the prophet Jeremiah gave a similar message, For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: the daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come . And David said that the ungodly are like the chaff which the wind drives away .
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In His service,
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Four Ways Of Threshing
The poor man drove his ox back and forth over the spread corn. The corn was trampled by the animals hooves for so long that the corn was removed from it. Sometimes the animals wore a muzzle. That was not permitted: You will not muzzle a threshing ox, the apostle wrote. After all, a worker in the gospel is worth his pay.
The more well-to-do citizens owned a threshing sledge. This is a heavy wooden board, the underside of which has small sharp points made of metal or stone. A draft animal was strained for it. This sled was pulled back and forth over the straw, causing the grains to release from the ears.
In addition to the threshing sledge, there was another threshing implement: the so-called wagon wheel . That was a square wooden window mounted on small wooden wheels. There was a sort of bench for the driver on that window. That wagon wheel was pulled by two horses . That was the toughest way to thresh.
Finally, there was a fourth way in which the wheat with long sticks was knocked out of the ears. In Isa. 28:27 one finds these ways of threshing in one text: Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge and no cogwheel is rolled over cumin, but dill is knocked with a stick and cumin with a rod Dill and cumin therefore had to be very careful threshing.