His Threshing

By Barb Fisher

Study texts: 1 Chronicles 21 and Matthew 3

The Word of God reveals who we are in Christ. We are His beloved, chosen, redeemed, His treasured possession, His people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, more than conquerors, His children, the sheep of His pasture, members of His body…This is not a complete list, but enough of a list to let us know that God’s plans and His thoughts towards us are immeasurably good.
In studying the Word, I came across a name God calls His people that I don’t remember reading, and I know I have never heard it taught. It is found in Isaiah 21:10 “O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.” He calls us His threshing and the corn of His floor. What does that mean?

In 1 Chronicles 21 King David is called to the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite. He had sinned by numbering the people, and God sent His judgment through a plague. 70,000 men of Israel died. David saw the angel of Yahweh standing between heaven and earth with a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. His immediate response was to repent. He then interceded for the people by pleading with God that he was the one who sinned not the people. He asked God to let His judgment fall on him and his father’s house and spare Israel. David was then ordered by the angel of Yahweh through the prophet Gad, to go and build an altar on the threshing floor of Ornan. A threshing floor is a flat surface used during the harvest of grains to separate the grains from the chaff. Usually, animals would crush and break the sheaves of the grains on the threshing floor. 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, separating those still with husk and the ones edible. This process is called winnowing.

At that time, Moses’s tabernacle was at Gibeon, a high place. God had forbidden Israel to worship on the high places. (Deuteronomy 33:52) God would not draw him to an ordinary or profane place to build an altar, but to a threshing floor. When David arrived, he asked Ornan to sell him the threshing floor. Of course, being overcome by a visit from King David, and an angel of Yahweh, his first response was to give. (Just a little side-step here. Heavenly encounters will result in a desire to give. Isaiah during his visit in the very throne room of God, when asked who should the Lord send, without hesitation cried, “I’ll go!” (Isaiah 6) Face time with the King of Glory will result in a desire to give!)  David refused to not pay the full (complete, appointed) price. A burnt sacrifice and a peace offering had to come as his sacrifice and not someone else’s.
 
David built an altar on the threshing floor and sacrificed a burnt offering and a peace offering. Yahweh answered him with fire from heaven. He then told the angel to sheath his sword and the plague stopped. Yahweh answered David with fire on the threshing floor! 

So, why does Yahweh call us His threshing and the corn of His floor? This sanctified place is only for His sons and daughters. We can worship as everyone else does and in the places everyone else worships, or we can hear His voice calling us to the threshing floor, and like David, obey. 

In Matthew 3, John the Baptist is talking to those who followed him into the desert to be baptized. He tells them that Jesus, who is coming soon, will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. In verse 12, John says how He will do this: with His winnowing fork in His hand, on a threshing floor, and unquenchable fire. To be baptized with fire requires the same from us as from David: repentance, obedience, a counting of the cost (Luke 14:28), a willingness to pay the price, and sacrifice. Jesus, with His winnowing fork in hand, separates from us everything that does not and will not produce “good” fruit; fruit that will benefit the Kingdom of God and bring glory to Jesus!

The threshing floor is not a place for children! It is not a place for the lukewarm! It is not a place for those “riding the fence.” Nor for the undecided, unchangeable, and unavailable. But know that the invitation to the threshing floor is always extended to every believer. As you relish in your identity as a chosen one, a child of God, a conqueror and overcomer, consider what pleasures are to be had by hearing Him call you His threshing and the corn of His floor.