The Threshing Floor

The biblical concept of a threshing floor has been on my mind a lot lately. I guess I first considered it after reading Angie Smith's blog (Bring the Rain) back in June when she talked about this idea. But, I knew I needed to study it myself in order understand things better.

So, study I did! I had no idea such significant things happened on a "threshing floor." But, I guess I should back up a little and describe what a threshing floor is. It was a flattened surface made either of rock or beaten earth where the farmer would thresh the grain harvest. This is the literal place where the wheat would be separated from the chaff. This was a two step process. First step: beat the mess out of the wheat. They would lay the wheat stalks onto the threshing floor and have a huge sledge pulled over it by oxen. If this wasn't a possibility, then either the oxen would walk over it themselves, or someone would beat the wheat with sticks. (I love it when I rhyme accidentally!) Second step: Toss the broken stalks into the air. The threshing floor was high on a hill so that it could utilize the most amount of wind. The farmer would use a huge forked tool and throw up the beaten stalks. The chaff would blow away while the heavier grain would fall into a pile by the farmer. This is called winnowing.

I thought I would give a few stories that revolve around threshing floors, and then TRY to give a little significance at the end. If you are willing to hang with me and read this through, I think you will be blessed like I was! :)

The first mention of a threshing floor occurs in Genesis 50:10-11. Joseph's father Israel (used to be called Jacob) had died. Joseph asks Pharoah if he can go back to Canaan to bury his dad. This huge entourage goes with him on the journey...which takes place after about 70 days of "public mourning." On their journey, they come across a threshing floor. All the sudden, everyone breaks out in loud lament and bitter weeping. Joseph thinks it wise to stay there for 7 days...and they do just that. I did not find it at all ironic that this vivid expression of grief would occur after over 2 months after the death of Israel. Sometimes, you just don't know when it is going to hit! I think the significance here...mourning at a threshing floor...is that God meets with us so that he can use this pain to beat out the ugly sin (doubt, despair, anger...) in us and allow the goodness that resembles Christ to fall back at the mercy of his feet. I assure you that grief feels like a nasty beating. Whether by oxen, sticks, or a sledge, I don't know...but it is a beating, nonetheless!

Another special mention of a threshing floor is in the story of Ruth. Ruth's mother-in-law asks her to go lay at Boaz's feet at the threshing floor in order to win over his favor so that she might be cared for and "redeemed" since she was a foreigner. The whole book of Ruth is a beautiful parallel between a Bride and Bridegroom, or between the Church and Jesus. It is a picture of entering worship and life being produced.

A third mention may not give you the warm fuzzies inside, but it does remind us of our Holy God! The threshing floor of Nacon can be found in 2 Samuel 6. First, a little background: the Philistines had captured the ark (which symbolized and probably WAS the presence of God). After the Philistines experienced misfortune after misfortune, they sent the ark back...to the house of Abinadab. David...King of Israel was ready to bring it back to Jerusalem. For whatever reason...ignorance, I guess, David didn't read up on how to handle the holy ark. He didn't realize that only priests should handle it at all. Uzzah (son of Adinadab and definitely not a priest) was helping tote the ark across the bumpy land. The oxen were pulling a cart that toted the ark...you get the picture. Well, those silly oxen get to the threshing floor and take a little stumble. Uzzah does what anyone else would do and reaches out to steady the ark, lest it fall down! And, that is the end of him! God considered the act of touching the ark irreverent because Uzzah was not a consecrated priest. (Makes me thankful that we can enter the presence of a holy God through our high priest...Jesus!) Well, David freaks out and becomes so fearful of God that he leaves the ark behind for 3 months! After he figured out exactly what God required of the ark, he went back to retrieve it. I just find it very intriguing that this happened on a threshing floor! It was almost as if God was saying that He would only be known the way that He wants to be known...and it starts with holy!

The next example is really awesome. David has been king awhile and his ego gets the best of him. He decides that it might be cool to know just how many people live in his precious kingdom that he is king over. So, he orders a census. Long story short, the prophet Gad tells David that he gets to pick his punishment and David chooses falling into God's hands instead of men. Still, this consisted of a plague throughout his land that lasted for three days. Guess where the angel of the Lord was standing when he was bringing forth this plague? Yep...a threshing floor...Ornan's to be exact. David is instructed by Gad to go to the threshing floor and build an altar to the Lord...almost like an act of responsibility for the calamity and a pleading of God to be merciful and end the plague. (The chaff had to be removed in order for David to be acceptable before God.) Ornan (also called Araunah) begs to give his king the threshing floor, but David insists on buying it ....he doesn't want his sacrifice to the Lord to be a cheap one! Now, here is where things get really awesome! When Solomon (David's son) builds the temple, guess where it is put? On the very location of the threshing floor that David bought! (Which also happened to be the mount that Abraham was willing to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.) The temple would be huge place of blessing for the Israelites.

The next (and last....I promise) example of a threshing floor is found in the new testament. When John the Baptist is "preparing the way" for the Messiah, he interestingly enough, announces him in this way (Matthew 3:12)..."His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." John announces the whole mission of Christ right up front...Jesus is coming to clean house and to put everything true in the right place.

So, how on earth do I try and tie all of this together? I think that basically, the threshing floor represents where God shows up to do his work...to meet with his people. Sometimes that takes the shape of blessing and other times it takes the shape of judgment. But, it always results in purification, refining, and cleansing. God is going to beat away everything in our lives til only the true and right product is left. And that product will always look like Jesus.

I think Micah 4:12 (message) sums it all up!

...this is the making of God's people--that they are wheat being threshed, gold being refined...on your feet...be threshed of chaff, be refined of dross. I'm making you into a people invincible..."

And for crying out loud, if you read this whole long thing, please leave me a comment so that I can make you a homemade chocolate cake! :)