Rural analogies in the Bible remain still; we understand them even if we no longer practice them in ancient ways. One that remains is the separation of chaff from grain by the process of winnowing.
This was done in Bible days with a fork not unlike the splayed garden rake in use today. The farmer filled it with grain and threw its contents into the air. Threshing floors were elevated to catch winds, which blew away the chaff as the grain fell back onto the floor.
John the Baptist warned that the coming Messiah, with “fan” in hand, would “thoroughly clean his “threshing floor” by separating the chaff from the grain. He would then store the grain and burn up the chaff (Luke 3:17).
Jesus the Messiah did that with his teaching, and the Apostle Paul did so too. If we see churches as threshing floors, and winds as scriptural doctrines that blow strongly through accumulated teachings, this analogy of separation between wheat and chaff is very applicable.
Paul wrote about winds of doctrine from false teachers that blew new believers around and tossed them to-and-fro (Ephesians 4:14). Such winds do not ‘separate grain from chaff’ but instead divide churches. Jeremiah the prophet said, “The [false] prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream, and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat, says the LORD?” (Jeremiah 23:28)
Jesus warned Peter that Satan had “asked” for him, that he might “sift him as wheat” (just as he had ‘sifted’ the mourning Job). Peter’s personal ‘threshing’ took place while he denied his Lord three times; but Jesus had prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail. “And when you have returned” Jesus had said, “strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31, 32). After being “sifted” to rid him of the self-preserving “chaff” in his nature, Peter then would be able to strengthen others who were tempted to deny Jesus when faced with martyrdom because of their witness.
“Winds” of false doctrine and temptation “blow” on churches today, generally, and on individual Christians in particular. When they do, the fearful are ‘blown away’, and the faithful remain. Persecution ‘blows away’ pretenders, but never defenders! “Here I stand”, said Martin Luther in front of the church door at Wittenberg, on which he had nailed his 95 theses, and with conviction stated: “I can do no other.”
Strong influential “gusts” affect local churches from time to time, and when they do, those who are flippant and casual among them soon disappear; however, the serious and the committed remain in place.
Whenever ‘winds’ of difference on Bible Prophecy, or Calvinism versus Arminianism (God’s sovereignty/Our Responsibility) ‘blow in’ some are ‘blown out’. They may have been genuine, but would rather “not get involved”. There have been times when prevailing winds of doctrinal divisions have ‘blown away’ entire local churches.
My point is that we are living in times when winds are blowing very strongly, some of them cyclonic in their destructive potential, with the damaging velocity of typhoons. There are Christians around the world who wake up every morning and wonder if they will survive the day.
Paul the apostle knew what that felt like, and wrote, “I die daily.” If, like the brave apostle, we are ‘dead’ to temptation, self-preservation and the fear of what might happen to us due to our faithful witness, these ‘winds’ of opposition, however fierce, will blow away any remaining ‘chaff’ in us of fear and doubt.
So, pray and determine that by God’s grace you will still be in place after the destructive winds have died! I once asked a Filipina in whose nipa palm hut we were staying what would happen if the worst came to the worst and a typhoon was so strong that it blew the hut away. Her reply was simple and brave in its note of quiet acceptance: “We are ready to die.”
Many Christians around the globe who are being threatened because of their brave witness to their Lord Jesus respond with a similar, quiet resolve. By the grace of God, I’m sure that you would also.