Threshing and Winnowing

 

I have started reading through 2 Chronicles in my continuing journey through the Bible.  I got to the third chapter, read verse 1, and could go no further.  Here is the verse that stopped me (2 Chronicles 3:1): "Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite".  After reading this verse I began to seek the Lord of its meaning, and of the 'why's.

As I pondered the importance of this location for the building of God's temple, I learned that Mount Moriah is the place where God told Abraham to take his son, Isaac, and sacrifice him.  Abraham obeyed, but God stopped Abraham and sent a lamb to sacrifice in Isaac's place.

The threshing floor of Chiding is the place where Uzza reached out his hand to hold the ark of God when the oxen stumbled in 1 Chronicles 13:9-10: [9] When they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark, because the oxen nearly upset it. [10] The anger of the LORD burned against Uzza, so He struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark; and he died there before God.

Additionally, the account of King David and the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite was fresh on my mind.  I had just read the story in 1 Chronicles 21: 

1-Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel...  ⁷ And God was displeased with this thing; therefore He struck Israel. ⁸ So David said to God, "I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing; but now, I pray, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly." ⁹ And the Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, ¹⁰ "Go and tell David, saying, 'Thus says the Lord: "I offer you three things; choose one of them for yourself, that I may do it to you." ' "¹¹ So Gad came to David and said to him, "Thus says the Lord: 'Choose for yourself, ¹² either three years of famine, or three months to be defeated by your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or else for three days the sword of the Lord--the plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.' Now consider what answer I should take back to Him who sent me." ¹³ And David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man." ¹⁴ So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. ¹⁵ And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying, the Lord looked and relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who was destroying, "It is enough; now restrain your hand." And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁶ Then David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. So David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. ¹⁷ And David said to God, "Was it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, O Lord my God, be against me and my father's house, but not against Your people that they should be plagued." ¹⁸ Therefore, the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. ¹⁹ So David went up at the word of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of the Lord. ²⁰ Now Ornan turned and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves, but Ornan continued threshing wheat. ²¹ Then David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David. And he went out from the threshing floor, and bowed before David with his face to the ground. ²² Then David said to Ornan, "Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it to the Lord. You shall grant it to me at the full price, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people." ²³ And Ornan said to David, "Take it to yourself, and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. Look, I also give you the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing implements for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering; I give it all." ²⁴ Then King David said to Ornan, "No, but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing." ²⁵ So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place. ²⁶ And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the Lord; and He answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering. ²⁷ So the Lord commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath. ²⁸ At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.

Finally, in the Book of Ruth, Ruth presents herself to her Kinsman Redeemer, Boaz, on his threshing floor.  Boaz ultimately accepted her offer, marrying her, and taking on the responsibility of her welfare. 

As for the meaning of the name 'Moriah', I learned that Moriah means 'teaching place', or 'place of worship'.

Threshing is the work of separating grain from the stalks and husks.  The stalks and husks are considered waste, and is called 'chaff'.  Threshing is an agressive practice which can be done by flailing, beating, or trampling.  In some countries grain is spread on the threshing floor and is threshed by an animal pulling a heavy sled over the grain.  After the grain is threshed, it is tossed into the air - often with a winnowing fork - to separate it from the chaff.  As it is tossed into the air the grain falls to the threshing floor and the wind carries the chaff away.  This is known as winnowing.

The Temple of God has as its foundation a place of threshing and winnowing - separating the wheat from the chaff.  This is the place where teaching and worship take place!  It is a destructive and redemptive place.  Its foundation is a place of not only God's judgement, but also of repentance.  Its foundation is a place of God's provision for the sacrifice required for sin - God's great mercy as demonstrated in the sacrifice of the Holy Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, for the sins of the world. It is a place of redemption by the Kinsman Redeemer - Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.

In Matthew 3:11-12 John the Baptist tells the listener, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.". John the Baptist is telling us of Jesus, here.

1 Corinthians 3:11-17 tells the reader: "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.

In these contemplations I see there is, indeed, a threshing of God's people.  We are God's temple, and our foundation is built upon the threshing floor.  There is a purification and a refining, and all that will not withstand the fire of God's judgement will be loss.  God will remove the chaff from the life of his Child, and this can be experienced as painful and difficult. Heaven and earth are passing away, so must our attachments and reliance upon these pass away.  Seek, first, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.  One must love God with all their heart, soul, and mind. Our foundation must be Jesus Christ, the Holy Lamb of God, who was threshed...

Isaiah 53:4-12: "Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked-- But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors."