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Threshing Floors, Separation, and Christmas

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Genesis 50:5, 10, 13 My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die; in my tomb which I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me. So now let me go up, I pray you, and bury my father, and I will come again.…And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond [west of] the Jordan, and there they mourned with a great lamentation and extreme demonstrations of sorrow [according to Egyptian custom]; and [Joseph] made a mourning for his father seven days....For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre, which Abraham bought, along with the field, for a possession as a burying place from Ephron the Hittite.

2 Samuel 6:6 And when they came to Nacon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled and shook it.

2 Chronicles 3:1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared to David his father, in the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

I am often amazed at the symbolic patterns which are hidden within seemingly, insignificant verses. The reoccurring topic of the threshing floor is one that yields rich treasures of wisdom and truth. Consider again the story of Ruth which on the surface should be the last Scripture a pastor chooses for Christmas – but here we must arrive. Ruth 3:2 And now is not Boaz, with whose maidens you were, our relative? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.

Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rachel, Jacob, Leah, Boaz, Ruth, and David – all have one thing in common: the significance of the threshing floor. Why does this topic appear throughout the narrative? Threshing floors were used for one thing: separating. Separating through threshing (crushing), and separating through winnowing (tossing grain and chaff in the air).

In the Gospel of John Jesus refers to Himself as the Temple, and the Old Testament informs us that the Temple was built on a threshing floor. Thus the “rock” on which Jesus stands is the place of threshing and winnowing. It was the foundation of His life, and the path His feet walked. The threshing floor of Jesus is the foundation of the who’s who of the Hall of Faith. It is what Christmas is all about. John 3:19 The [basis of the] judgment (indictment, the test by which men are judged, the ground for the sentence) lies in this: the Light has come into the world, and people have loved the darkness rather than and more than the Light, for their works (deeds) were evil. His Light has entered our darkness. That by itself is separation. Are you cooperating with His process of threshing and winnowing the grains of His Word to rise in your life into Living Bread? Are you becoming living bread?

Hidden Treasures

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There was a very poor man down in West Texas in the 1930s who barely made a living on a very poor sheep farm around Odessa and Midland. His name was E. L. Yates and he was so poor that he was contemplating bankruptcy and allowing the bank to repossess his farm. He was constantly worrying about how he could pay his bills and feed his family. One day a survey crew from an oil company came to him and asked for permission to drill for oil on his property. The contract stated that he was to receive every eighth barrel if any oil was found. At 1,115 feet they hit a gusher. The well produced 80,000 barrels of oil a day! Wells soon followed that could produce twice that capacity. Even thirty years later government surveys showed wells with a capacity for 125,000 barrels a day. It proved to be one of the richest veins of oil ever found on the North American continent. Mr Yates owned it all! When he purchased the land the oil came with it. During all the years of poverty he was rich and didn’t know it. Years passed before Mr Yates possessed what he owned and enjoyed the privileges of ownership.

In Gen. 28:16 Jacob makes a similar discovery: “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” Acts 17:27 makes a similar observation: So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us. In our time of fasting and praying, seeking to meet Jesus outside of the camp, it is easy to become discouraged, disillusioned, and give up. But faith keeps digging until it strikes the riches of Who God is just beneath the hard surface of silence.

Graham Cooke states that “Hiddenness connects us with God’s Wisdom, and wisdom is the revelation of Who God is and the internal recognition of how He likes to work in our lives. Faith depends upon one thing – your understanding of the Nature of God. Real Wisdom and Understanding are hidden from us. We don’t gain spiritual maturity by accumulating knowledge, but by increasing in godly Wisdom. In Rev. 2:17 Jesus doesn’t aim to take away His Followers oppression in Pergamum. Instead His intention was to provide more revelation. He promised, To him who overcomes (conquers), I will give to eat of the manna that is hidden. In hiddenness we find His Wisdom, Understanding, and Revelation. Our task is to search for it. Colossians 2:3 states: In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom (comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all the riches of spiritual] knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden. Psalm 51:6 states: Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

Remember that in the New Testament Jesus is known as Truth, but in the Old He is known as Wisdom! While seeking Jesus in the hiddenness and darkness of our faith we will discover and unearth Him in His hidden Wisdom, Understanding, and Revelation. Happy digging and remember you are wealthier than you realize!