THRESHING-FLOORS
[p. 391] THRESHING-FLOORS
Matthew 3:11,12; 2 Samuel 6:6,7; 1 Chronicles 21:18 - 22; Genesis 50:10 - 13
The brethren will, I judge, see that these scriptures speak of threshing-floors, and I propose to take them in the order in which they have been read with the hope that the Lord, by the Spirit, will give support in speaking so that there may be help; first of all that our consciences may be brought into action in regard of the judicial services of Christ. We know from His own words that all judgment is committed to Him, so that this passage in Matthew 3 is included in His judicial services and work; indeed Matthew of all the evangelists stresses this feature of Christ’s administration, and He is the One who has Himself endured, to the utmost extent, divine judicial severity. One can understand — no doubt we all can — that He is qualified, not only personally, but morally, to occupy the judicial office. It is one of the chief offices and it is not foreign to the administration which the Father has committed into the hands of the Son; for although judgment is said to be God’s strange work, yet He is known by that which He executes (Psalm 9:16) — it is one of the means by which He is known — and this will extend to eternity, for there will be abiding witness to divine wrath (Revelation 19:3), that God should be known in it.
So the Father has given all judgment into Christ’s hand, as the Lord explains, “the Father judgeth no man” (John 5:22) He has committed all judgment to the Son, “because he is Son of man” (verse 27); there is in this another touch which is intended to appeal to us as men, it is, speaking reverently, that He is one of us; the Son of man is necessarily linked with men. He was, of course, holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, but He was here as Man, taking His place in the likeness [p. 392] of men. So that if He executes judgment it is not for want of sympathy with the race, but because of the requirements of God whom He represents; for, as in the economy, He is representative — He is over all. His authority is received as delegated, and has to be viewed as on God’s behalf even in the smallest judicial details. It is a glorious administration; every administration of Christ is glorious. One cannot think of Him undertaking anything that is not marked by glory, either official, personal or moral. Even Stephen, about to utter indictment against Israel, is marked by judicial glory reflected from Christ; and so indeed ought every one of us to be, for the judicial department, so to speak, includes us all. Even the least esteemed in the assembly is supposed to have authority to officiate in this; and every moment in the history of the assembly on earth calls for this service. Each must begin with himself, for if I do not execute the office in regard of myself I shall not (nor have I any right to) do it in regard of others; but if I do judge evil in myself, I am morally entitled to judge it in others, and to acquaint them with my judgment too. It is very salutary; tending to produce and maintain wholesome conditions among the saints.
In this passage in Matthew 3 John the baptist says, “He that comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not fit to bear; he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire; whose winnowing fan is in his hand, and he shall thoroughly purge his threshing-floor, and shall gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable”. That is judicial. Verse 11 is baptism by the Spirit, for that is the baptism wherewith Christ baptises us. It is a very blessed service, but it is with the Holy Spirit and with fire. This most blessed service of Christ, which marks our dispensation, is accompanied by the judicial feature; fire meaning that. The Holy Spirit is here on divine terms, not on human terms. We may ask [p. 393] for Him, it is open to us to do so, but He comes in on His own terms. The Holy Spirit is a gift of love, it is a divine transaction and must, therefore, be according to divine terms. So that the fire secures the rights of God in those who have the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures go so far as to say, “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). So concerned is He as to the Spirit and our having the Spirit, that the Spirit must be, as it were, guarded and vindicated; and the accompaniment of the fire is the sure guarantee. God can, and does, deal with us as having the Spirit; that makes our position most serious. Great indeed and glorious is the gift of the Spirit, but how solemn!
So that the fire accompanies the baptism of the Spirit, and then what is worthless in relation to us is dealt with; verse 12 says, “Whose ... fan is in his hand, and he shall thoroughly purge his threshing-floor, and shall gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable”. The chaff I apprehend here is more than the flesh in a person who has the Spirit; it includes this, for there is no place in God’s realm for that at all. The chaff is general and includes not only what is in persons, but the persons themselves as unbelievers. Christ will do this; a most solemn matter, whether it be extraneous conditions in believers, or whether it is persons taking the place of believers who are not such at all, but are worthless. The Lord must have His threshing-floor; it is the place of separation of the wheat from the chaff.
Threshing is a violent operation. In the process we may feel scarcely able to endure it, and think it cannot be the product of love, but it is! The pure grain must be secured, and it is a very important and great day in the believer’s history, when he arrives definitely at the understanding of what this process results in. He judges himself, but without the divine help in the threshing-floor, the use of the instruments in right hands, we shall not be equal to the task of disallowing, and [p. 394] severing ourselves from, all that is only fit for the fire. The Lord helps us against the flesh; but then He clears His threshing-floor of all that is useless. It is not exactly that it is evil, although useless things are that in a way, but the point is that the threshing-floor must be cleansed so that, whether it be elements in ourselves, or whether it be persons, there is this unquenchable fire of purification; for the Lord will have His threshing-floor clean.
There is much in oneself and in the gatherings too — elements allowed to lapse, or go on without any effort to deal with them. The Lord is patient in the execution of His service, but He looks for us to do things. He has given the assembly power of administration and has pleasure in the assembly fully exercising its prerogative. “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30) was on account of their discreditable behaviour in the assembly. That is in principle fire, and certainly is clearly the thought of the threshing-floor. Why should we hinder the service of the Lord and His activities by the allowance of things that manifestly deserve judgment! So “whose ... fan is in his hand, and he shall thoroughly purge his threshing-floor, and shall gather his wheat into the garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable”. He will do it. We, as knowing the Lord, wish to have conditions so that He can come in amongst us.
According to Revelation He walks among the golden candlesticks and observes everything; nothing escapes His eye. “These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass” (Revelation 2:18). So that we ought not to be content with right principles only, but with the walk that must accompany them, or the Lord will have to say, “I have against thee” (chapter 2:20).
The second scripture links on with what I am saying, that is, the possibility of having professedly the testimony in one’s house and not profiting by it. I refer to the house of Abinadab which is on the hill, a well-known [p. 395] section of Scripture. The ark was in his house — an improvised place — for many days. It is not said that he was a Levite, or his sons, still the ark is placed there and hence a great advantage is in the house; but has the principle of separation gone on there? Has there been the separation of the good from the evil; that ceasing to do evil and learning to do well? Has this been going on in this man’s house? What house is like it? Not another house in the world! The ark had been in it for many years, much more than twenty; any way a very long time; and one knows of houses which have been professedly in the testimony for as many years. Some indeed we can glory in; but others give very little evidence of positive movement in relation to the ark, in relation to the necessities of it, the requirements of it, what God has instituted as principles to govern it. So that we come to Nachon’s threshing-floor. The ark has been brought from this favoured house of Abinadab, which is on the hill, and his two sons are the active ones, driving the cart, one going ahead of it; the precious ark of God that was to be borne on the shoulders of the Levites, the priests of God, is put on a new cart. It is a sorrowful spectacle — coming out of the house of one professedly receiving and caring for the ark for so many years; and this is a searching and solemn matter for us.
Who knows what treatment was accorded to the ark while in this house of Abinadab? Why did not God forbid the use of the cart before the ark was placed on it? He did not! He waited until it came to Nachon’s threshing-floor. The obvious suggestion is the separation of the precious from the vile. The threshing implements are, as it were, in action; there is the burning up of the chaff, the burning up of all that has no place whatever in relation to the ark of God. Hence it was a sorrowful thing that happened, for when the oxen stumbled, Uzzah put his hand on the ark of God to steady it and, as I read in verse 7, “the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him [p. 396] there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God”. It was at the threshing-floor. How very solemn! It is pathetic. These men were brought up with the ark, they could look at it every morning, they could look at it every evening. They ought to have seen that in its surroundings there must be the separation of the precious from the vile, that there should not be the allowance of worldliness in that house.
This, evidently, they had failed to do, and now God is taking the matter up where they are to be reminded of it: at the threshing-floor of Nachon. We are to be reminded of it now, this very night, speaker and hearers; our continuance in the testimony depends upon it. We have our Bibles on our tables and at our morning readings! Thank God for every Bible in the house, and every reading and every prayer, but then what about the other requisites in a christian household? What about the allowance of foreign elements? What about the allowance of Philistine principles such as this new cart! These products evidently affected the house of Abinadab, and Abinadab suffered in his sons. They should have strictly maintained as to the ark the divine instructions furnished in the book of Numbers, but they did not, and hence suffered this judgment. The passage says, “There he died by the ark of God”. Doubtless Uzzah had often been by it, but how had he regarded it? In many christian houses the things of Christ may be treated with disrespect — young people doing it. Outwardly there was nothing great about the ark, you know what it looked like: it was literally a chest, small enough to be placed almost anywhere in the house, and it was in that house for a number of years, but who could tell what treatment they accorded it? It may however be gathered by the treatment of the ark as it issued forth from the house. Here are two men of the house, one going ahead of it, no doubt in a religious way, and the other driving the cart, and one of them dies by the ark of God: by it! How often had he been [p. 397] by it? Had he humbled himself then in the presence of God, had he read the third and fourth chapters of the book of Numbers, being governed by them, what a different man he would have been! God would speak to parents now and their households as to all this.
Then, in 1 Chronicles 21, we have the threshing-floor linked on with what I have been saying, and David himself is active; David again. What lessons we have to learn from David, and thank God we are learning. He, Peter, Paul, and Moses had in a way to suffer for us; their histories, including their failures, are given for our learning, and this is one of the most instructive chapters in that way. It tells us of error in David, and, this being judged, of one of the brightest parts of his life as in the service of God. It is a chapter that tells us how readily and quickly God will act for us in such circumstances as are mentioned. If we have strayed in any way, and if there is self-judgment with us, He is ready to act for us and things will open up quickly, as in Peter’s case. One often thinks of Peter’s recovery and how quickly the Lord appeared to him. Restorative grace is one of the elements of the assembly — “The Lord is indeed risen and has appeared to Simon” (Luke 24:34). How quickly recovery may take place! Why should anyone who needs it hinder it? There may be someone here who needs it.
Well, I am not speaking of the failure of David seen in this chapter, but of his recovery, and of his thoughts for God and the house of God, and of how the idea of a threshing-floor enters into the instruction. Why should it be there? David would understand something of it, he was right in the midst of it. Would he not remember what had happened a little previously? He would indeed. It is well to have, memories in this respect. The threshing-floor of Nachon would be in his mind in the night seasons, of which he speaks elsewhere — all spiritual people understand the night-seasons, when one is withdrawn from everything, and by oneself with the Lord. “My reins also instruct me in the night seasons” (Psalm 16:7). Our reins instruct us, the Spirit acts upon us in this sense. As delivered through the truth of Romans 7, the Spirit is free in us and we may have holy seasons of instruction. David had these experiences.
Ornan is active in this threshing-floor and his four sons with him. There can be no doubt that a feature of this picture is Ornan and his four sons. These are shy, but they are not like Abinadab’s sons, they are with their father and they are doing what is good and right: spiritually, they are separating the precious from the vile. It is good to see a father — a brother — and his four sons with him. However feeble they may be, as Gideon’s son was, yet they are with their father, and it is in the threshing-floor; it is in the place, spiritually, of separating the precious from the vile. How can we ever reach the house of God unless this principle is active? We cannot. The house of God is composed of persons: “whose house are we”, Scripture says (Hebrews 3:6); there is also the abstract thought of the house of God, and that is how it is first introduced in Scripture, but in the sense that God is there. The first one who uses the term is Jacob, and he uses it in that sense. He says, “How dreadful is this place”; for it is the place in which good is valued and evil refused unsparingly. The pure wheat must be set free from the husk, the useless thing that is to be burned with unquenchable fire; therefore, Jacob also says, “This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven”. He rose early in the morning and set up the stone, which had been his pillow, for a pillar, pouring oil upon it, calling the place Bethel, and saying, “This stone which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house” (Genesis 28:17,22).
The house here has the same character. There is no building yet, but David, like Jacob, calls it the house of God. The outstanding men affording instruction as to the house in the Old Testament are Jacob and [p. 399] David. Both name the house in an abstract sense. David’s exercise was, as we know, “I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob” (Psalm 132:4,5). He kept awake thinking of the house of God, and then he says (in his night seasons, as we may say), “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy” (verse 9). We cannot have the house of God and the service of God otherwise. The house, as I said, is not yet here concretely, it is a mere threshing-floor; but David has purchased that, he is in possession of it and names it. He says in the next chapter, “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel” (1 Chronicles 22:1). Like Jacob’s remarks, as I said, but much better; it was a great improvement because Jacob said, “How dreadful is this place!” David did not say that; no, he had come through the threshing-floor himself, he had been in the process; he had not been with God at Nachon’s, but he has now changed his mind: thank God! He was able to do it because he had been through the mill of God’s discipline. What exercises he must have had, and now, we may say, he understands it. So he does not say, This is a dreadful place, nor does he again ask that question, “How shall the ark of the Lord come to me?” (2 Samuel 6:9). He says instead, “This is the house of the Lord God”. He has viewed it in relation to the threshing-floor — the precious in him has been separated from the vile. So at the present time, whether it be elements in ourselves or whether it be persons, it is the same thought. If it be persons, we have to separate ourselves from them; for everyone that separates himself from such vessels of dishonour “shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use” (2 Timothy 2:21). So David’s word here is, “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel”. He has reached it, he is on sure ground; and one would yearningly [p. 400] seek that everyone here should get his feet on this ground.
This chapter, 1 Chronicles 21, shows the way to recovery and that recovery must cost something. So in reply to Ornan’s offer to give him the threshing-floor, David says, “Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price” — he is not going to pay less than the price; and, I can tell you, really, in a practical way, you get what you pay for. I am not now speaking of what God is to you, but of our side, that on these lines the more you pay, the more you sacrifice, the more you get. David says, I will pay the full money — that is the word. Ornan would give all, but no one who understands God, or the house of God, will take things on this line without price. The gospel is, of course, on the principle of without money and without price, but a great price has been paid; but on the line of appropriating things, there is a price; those who understand it say, I would not have it without cost. The price means surrendering; the giving up of things; sacrificing; and that is what marks the latter part of this chapter 21. The consequent result is acceptable by God, and that enters into what David says — “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel”. He is on sure ground.
As we read down chapter 22 our hearts are filled with the very wonderful wealth that is now there; not only what I must bring, but what is there — one hundred thousand talents of gold, and so on. Think of that wealth! This is the consequence of getting our feet planted, through this process, on the foundation of the house of God. David says, as it were, Everything must be secured. This is wonderful, David is consolidating the position, and he will never give it up. Thus he immediately introduces the thought of nails, a remarkable feature. We read of “A nail in a sure place” (Isaiah 22:23); that nail is Christ and we are in the house of God in that security. Can we afford to be outside it? Here it is said, “David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joists” (1 Chronicles 22:3). The allusion is to the truth and power of Christ’s resurrection, through which all is immutably secured.
In the last scripture I read, the threshing-floor of Atad comes in, in relation to Jacob; he is a dead man now. It is remarkable how much is made of death in Genesis, and it is by those who have faith. The world, characteristically, covers death up and modifies the idea as much as possible, but death is death, and faith understands it better than any; the worldling does not understand it at all. The first burying-place is bought by the father of all believers and paid for in “full money”. You will recall that David uses the same expression as to the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite. In Genesis 50 Moses is typically bringing in what Christ thinks of His beloved people; changing the whole character of death, for it is falling asleep through Jesus; it is through His power really; He does it. Can anything be more touching? If we face it (and, of course, we have to face it, for we are still mortal), can anything be more touching than the Lord Jesus putting the saints to sleep? Hence Abraham is concerned as to the position of those of his who had fallen asleep. It was just a field and a cave in it he bought, and he paid not only full money, but current money with the merchant; no spurious money, or discounted currency, but current money with the merchant; the face value as it were, is on it — that is the principle. There are those who depreciate the value of things, but, in the divine realm, money is to be maintained at its full parity; and that is Abraham’s point — current money with the merchant. In the presence of witnesses, the cave, the field, and the trees were all secured undeniably by current money with the merchant. But what does all this mean? Why should the Spirit of God give us so much as to “a possession of a sepulchre”? It is to bring Christ in in regard to [p. 402] those who have fallen asleep, for in truth we are all buried on this principle, our bodies are just as safe as are our spirits which are with Christ. Our spirits are safe there, and our bodies are secured too without question, on the principle of purchase.
How precious all this is! As we advance in years, it is just as well to face things. Death is not a terror at all; it is a temporary matter, it is a provisional state of things from this point of view. Our spirits are with the Lord, and faith says it is “far better”; and our bodies are taken care of: “Come, see the place where the Lord lay” (Matthew 28:6). Devout men carried Stephen to his burial — the place is known. The whole principle is in the cave purchased figuratively by Christ for the burial of His saints — they are all there; they are distinct from the unsaved; and, as one may say, He will go to the mouth of that cave and call forth all those buried in it.
Now what I had in mind was to show that this threshing-floor also has its voice. Has there been the separation of the precious from the vile, of the real corn, of the grain of wheat from the shell? If not then the threshing-floor has not had its voice. In such a case burial is not so happy; the departure to be with Christ is not so glorious or victorious as it should be. The death of a saint should be a witness to the power of christianity. This threshing-floor of Atad, which is said to be beyond the Jordan, from Moses’ standpoint, meaning that it was in Canaan, I apprehend is a testimony to the life of Jacob. Yet see how much is said of burial in Genesis. In this cave Abraham and Sarah were buried, Isaac and Rebekah were buried and there Jacob buried Leah; and he gets Joseph to swear that he (Jacob) would be buried there. What does all this mean, dear brethren? It is the action of faith; it is faith active in one who is dying. There is the threshing-floor, and he has been through it; the discipline of God has done its work in him. He is entirely clear in his last moments of all the rubbish and chaff; he dies [p. 403] gloriously; he is buried gloriously, and he will be raised gloriously. So for us, whether it be the falling asleep, the departure to be with Christ, or being raised or changed at His coming, the Lord is looking for victory in every one of us. Whether He changes our bodies as still alive, or raises us from the dead, He is looking for victory. As we fall asleep, if the whole moral process has been gone through, there is nothing left but the pure wheat for Christ. Stephen is really in the power of it; he hands over his spirit to Christ, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). There is no cloud on his conscience, or his mind; he asks the Lord to receive his spirit. How pleased was the Lord to do that! And Stephen has been with Him ever since; his body, too, is safe; and he will appear presently when the Lord Jesus stands at the graves’ mouths, and calls forth those who have done good unto the resurrection of life.