The Winnowing Fork of God

Let me start by making sure we understand the agricultural terms I will be using. Before the days of mechanized wheat combines that do everything except bake the bread, people used simple tools to complete the process of getting wheat from the field to the oven. First the wheat was cut down by reapers with a sickle and bound in bunches called sheaves. The sheaves were taken to a hard surface – a threshing floor – and either beaten with sticks or trodden by animals. Once the grains of wheat were released from the stalk and hull, people used a large fork – the winnowing fork – and tossed the grain and chaff into the air so the wind could blow away the unwanted elements. The remaining grain fell to the threshing floor and could then be scooped up to be ground into flour for baking. Whew!

Who cares? I care because the imagery of harvesting grain is used throughout the Bible to describe the experience of believers. In Matthew 13, Jesus shares the parable of the weeds in the wheat. Jesus explains to his questioning disciples that the wheat represents believers and the weeds are “sons of the evil one.” He explains that, “at the end of the age” His angels will sort out the weeds from the wheat. This is usually interpreted to refer to judgment at the end of time.

I believe there is another possible interpretation. God has been separating weeds from wheat throughout the history of His people. It began with driving Cain away from his family. Then there was the major drama of the flood which saved a tiny remnant. Time and again God used separating forces to separate a people to Himself: plagues, serpents, earthquakes, Assyrians, Babylonians. God’s winnowing fork has been dipping into history from the beginning.

Each of the instances mentioned above were in the midst of God’s redemption story confirming the fact that His selection process will not be suspended until the Last Day. A note in the Faithlife Study Bible on Daniel 8:17 says that, “In apocalyptic literature, references to end times can connote the cessation of a particular activity [italics mine], a future period of God’s wrath manifested in judgment, or the end of time.” Many are predicting that the long-term effects of the COVID 19 restrictions will mark the “cessation of a particular activity,” namely, life as we have known it. I suspect God is using this situation to accomplish His will. (Of course He is; He always is.)

I have begun to wonder if the effects “social distancing” are more significant than the virus itself. Death from the virus is tragic. But one must be clear-headed. Far more people died from the Spanish Flu in the last century than the highest estimates of predicted deaths from COVID 19: the Spanish Flu took perhaps 50 million worldwide and over 600,000 in the US alone. Tens of thousands have died from flu each year since 2012. More recently, between 60,000 and 80,000 people died in the 2017 flu season in the US. (Statistics are hard to pin down.) Outside of the individual tragedies that families and friends suffered in those events, little changed in society as a whole.

Social distancing and shutdowns make things different in this COVID 19 crisis; certainly, anyone who depends on an income from work is being greatly affected. Those of us who have other means of living are inconvenienced by closed stores and such, but we are not going to be destitute. The long-term effects, however, are startling. According to one economist, shutting down the economy will cause between one million and four-and-one-half million businesses to fold, depending on how long the shut-down lasts. That will be devastating. Undoubtedly, many people tie their trust to a job rather than to God. They must be asking, “If I am trusting my job for my daily bread, what do I do now?

More to the point for believers is the closing of houses of worship. We have all heard it said -- I have said it here: it is not the building that constitutes the church; it’s the people. Even though many mouth these words, there are a great many people who still tie their faith to brick and mortar. (See “What is the Church?”) Christian researcher, Barna , recently revealed that fewer than one in five adults read their Bibles throughout the week. I suspect the number of families who worship at home between Sundays is a small fraction of the Bible readers. They must be asking themselves, “If the only time I worship is “in church,” what do I do now?

With both Sunday worship and daily employment on hold for so many people, I can imagine God calling us to bring our faith back to where it belongs: in God and God alone. If God is winnowing out the weak Christians, the church will be stronger for this crisis. Charles Spurgeon once said, “We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith, to tear off the rotten bough of self-dependence, and to root us more firmly in Christ. The day of evil reveals to us the value of our glorious hope.” We need God’s perspective now more than ever. Our entire lifespan on earth is an infinitesimal speck on the calendar of eternity. Pray that as the Heavenly Reaper threshes and winnows during this crisis, He will find us to be the wheat of hope, fit to be spiritual bread for His heavenly kingdom here on earth.