The threshing-floors were constructed in the fields, in a high open area to be exposed to the wind. The floor was a level, circular area prepared by first picking out the stones, and then wetting the ground, tamping or rolling it, and finally sweeping it. A threshing floor was a very hard and flat surface. Sometimes they were made on top of a huge flat rock. A border of stones usually surrounded the floor to keep in the grain. The sheaves of grain which have been brought on the backs of men, donkeys, camels, or oxen, are heaped on this area, and the process of trampling begins. In some places farm animals, commonly oxen or donkeys, are tied together and driven round and round the floor to crush the grain under their hoofs. In other places two oxen are yoked together to a threshing machine, the bottom of which is studded with pieces of basaltic stone. This 'drag,' on which the driver, and perhaps his family, sits or stands, is driven in a circular path over the grain. The supply of unthreshed grain is kept in the center of the floor. Some of this is pulled down from time to time into the path of the animals. All the while the partly threshed grain is being turned over with a fork. The stalks gradually become broken into short pieces and the husks about the grain are torn off. This mixture of chaff and grain must now be winnowed. Winnowing is done by tossing the grain- chaff mixture into the air so that the wind may blow away the chaff and impurities. When the chaff is gone then the grain is tossed in a wooden tray to separate from it the stones and lumps of soil which clung to the roots when the grain was reaped. This process is called sifting. The grain is now piled in heaps and sealed. This process consists in pressing a large wooden seal against the pile. When the instrument is removed it leaves an impression which would be destroyed should any of the grain be taken away. This allowed the government offers to keep account of the tithes and enabled the owner to detect any theft of grain. Until the wheat is transferred to bags someone sleeps by the bundles on the threshing-floor. If the wheat is to be stored for home consumption it is often first washed with water and spread out on goats' hair mats to dry before it is stored in the storehouse."I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather the wheat into the garner; but he will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Mattew 3:11-12)Look upon the fields for they are ripe (white) unto harvest! Are we sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness, sowing at the noon time and the early eve? Have we taken to the field to bring in the Lord's harvest? I believe if we are ever going to see a sustained move of God in our nations we are going to have to decide RIGHT NOW that we are going to take to the fields and bring in the harvest!Why does it matter? It matters for this cause- if the sheaves are not being brought to the threshing floors of God's working within the Church- the churches of our land soon cease to be threshing floors. When this happens then preachers and pastors begin wanting to protect the 'crowds' that ARE coming to services each week and the message begins to get compromised. On the other hand, if the saints were bringing in the sheaves each week to service- the ministers would feel little reason to fear low numbers and crowds and would feel the liberty to preach without fear or favor. God would do his working of seperating the wheat from the chaff as the minister preached an uncompromising message and the Spirit of God gently blew away the ungodly (as it were) as they would not tolerate the wind of Holy Ghost conviction. This process should have been happening in every generation since the cross. Every season of harvest should have yielded wheat for the master in His 'barn' (Heaven) and the chaff ultimately cast into hell (unquenchable fire). The chaff are the ungodly (Psalm 1:4) and in the process of taking this gospel message into the world we are bringing both wheat and chaff together to the Lord to be threshed by His word and seperated by the gentle wind of the Holy Spirit. All the unsaved are the enemies of God by nature and the children of wrath- but when afforded the opportunity to see God for who He is and follow Him by faith- they may at that moment 'chance of wheat.' Our job is to bring in the sheaves and allow the word to press men and women upon the rock Christ Jesus to be broken under the mighty weight of their sin. Christ then begins to perform the winnowing (fan is in His hand) and allow the sifting (testing). When we cease to do this the churches are a bad mix of chaff and wheat. It appears that we have more than we do- as the process of brokeness and winnowing and sifting is brought to a near standstill for fear of loosing "what little we see." Had we taken to the fields God would have filled our churches with wheat - week after week- here a little and there a little until our churches would be pure grain (purer grain). Why do revivals fail after they get started? The saints quit the fields and the machine breaks down. Slowly but surely compromise leads to compromise and we end in declension. How did it all begin? When the saints quit the fields. God Bless,-Robert **Notes**International standard Bible Encyclopedia
