Eureka!

 

As threshing separates the wheat from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue.  --Christian Nestell Bovee

Over the last two weeks in my study of Isaiah, I have felt like a California prospector in 1849.  Usually having limited resources, a gold prospector used a simple pan or sluice to extract gold from the sand.  He would scoop up a small amount of sand from a river or stream, and let water run over it to wash away the lighter minerals.  Gold was heavier, and would be left in the bottom of the pan when the sand and other minerals would be washed away.  Panning for gold was a process used as far back as Roman times, and was used by Spanish conquistadors in their conquest of South America in the 1600s.

A great deal of sand and other minerals would have to be sifted and washed downstream before gold was found.  However, whenever a miner or prospector found gold, he knew it was precious and valuable.  Finding nuggets of gold while sifting through tons of sand and washing with thousands of gallons of water made the whole process worthwhile.

Isaiah chapters 13 through 23 contain a series of pronouncements or prophesies concerning the enemies of Israel.  Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus (Syria), Egypt and others were warned by God that they would be judged severely for their sins.  Ironically, these nations had all been used by God to bring judgement upon Israel.

At this time, Israel was feeling oppressed.  Using an agrarian term, they were being threshed like wheat.  For those of us who did not grow up on a farm, in order for grains such as wheat and barley to be used for food, they must be harvested, and then the grains must be separated from the plant stems.  The most efficient way to do this without modern tractors and combines was to violently strike the heads of grain against a threshing floor, and then blow away the chaff, or remove anything left that was not grain.

2 Kings 13:7 described some of the persecution that Israel had endured. "For there was not left to Jehoahaz an army of more than fifty horsemen and ten chariots and ten thousand footmen, for the king of Syria had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing."  A variant spelling of the word threshing is the term thrashing, which usually describes corporal punishment or a severe loss at the hands of an opposing team.  Israel felt like they had been taken behind the woodshed and had endured a severe beating at the hands of their enemies.

Reading about the judgment of God, the wrath of God being meted out to His people--well, it's not fun.  It may bring to mind unpleasant things that have happened to us in the past: beatings we have taken (either deserved or undeserved), trials we have endured, or that we are going through currently.  Many of us may feel that we are being buffeted about by forces beyond our control.  After we are broken to pieces, then a storm comes with hurricane force winds, and all we can think is, "God, why?  Why me?"

It is at this point we need a Eureka moment, a gold nugget of scripture to give us hope.  Isaiah provides one.  Isaiah 21:10 says, "O my threshed and winnowed one, what I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce to you."

Stop.  Read that verse again.  Threshed is violently pounded and broken into pieces.  Winnowed is the removal of useless or unwanted debris (aka "chaff") so that all is left is the grain, the kernel of who you are and what you were meant to be useful for.  If you feel you have been threshed and winnowed, God has a message for you.

Isaiah 26:3 says, "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You."  You can have peace in your suffering if you keep your eyes on God.  If you remain faithful, God will overcome your enemies and will bring to pass His purpose for you.  To Him, you are more precious than gold, but even gold and silver must be refined by fire, so that the dross can be removed and the precious metal purified.

God will overcome, and His people will be used greatly by Him.  Micah 4:11-13 says, "Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, 'Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.'  But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand His plan, that He has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.  Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples; and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth."  Jeremiah 51:33 says, "For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:  The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come."

Eureka.  The time will come, and may now be, when God will use you for His purpose, and you will be purified for that purpose.  Psalm 30:4-5 says, "Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints, and give thanks to His holy Name.  For His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime.  Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning."  Take heart, my friend.  Joy is coming.