A Time of Testing
Threshing: separating the grains from the chaff. In Biblical times, animals would crush and break the sheaves of the grains on the threshing floor or harvesters with large sticks would break the sheaves apart by beating on the grain. The goal, and end result, would be that grains would be separated from the husks.
The next step would be that the results from threshing would, usually using some form of a pitchfork, be tossed up into a gentle wind. This process was called winnowing and the result would be edible grains that would be gathered and stored.
On the threshing floor, the chaff symbolizes the destruction of the wicked in Psalm 1:4, “Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.”
In Hosea 13:3 the similar is said, “Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.”
Then in Matthew 3:12 it is said, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Friends, brothers, sisters, this is the time of judgment. It is a separation of chaff (those who bow to the material) and the wheat (those who seek after God). If you cannot see this to be so plainly evident in the events of our time – a time like no other before it – I pity you.
With these trying times comes amazing things. Mystery Wisdom has been around for all of mankind’s history. However, early in his development, the general populace was unable to see these Truths clearly, intellectually, independently. Then mankind entered into the stage of intellectual development. It was the age of enlightenment, the age of technological advancement, the time of great human achievement. But with such great power comes great responsibility. And that responsibility has waned, it has been cast aside as the few grew in power over the many via these intellectual advancements. But the populace as a whole too has developed their intellect.
And now we have entered the age of Spiritual Enlightenment – the age of rising Spiritual Consciousness. We no longer need others to tell us or show us ‘the way’. If you have ears to hear and eyes that see, you will recognize this awakening within yourself. Things are beginning to look somehow different. The curtain has been pulled aside and you see the fallacy of the world in which we live. We have been hornswoggled into believing that what we experience with our limited physical senses constitutes all that exists, all that is real. But you are beginning to question these concepts and something nags inside to know the Truth.
Times of great testing and threatened defeat are always times of great revelation (The Urantia Book)
If your thoughts cause you to rail against what is said here, again – I pity you. I really do. Pity is defined as, “sympathetic sorrow for one suffering, distressed, or unhappy”. This is what I feel toward all of humanity at the moment – a sympathetic sorrow.
However – if you are one who feels – or knows! – that an awakening is taking place, not only within but all around you, then “oorah!” We seem like few, but in fact we are the many. We are the 7000 who have not bowed to baal and are ready to serve God in this time of threshing.
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12)