Dr. Mike Murphy
September 18, 2022
He had never been so sore in all his young life. Every muscle in his body ached. For days now he had worked the wheat, finding himself day after day on the threshing floor. Hour after hour each day he would swing the flail, breaking the chaff, or the husk that covered the grain. For countless hours he would beat it with the flail, then to do nothing more than to winnow it, pitching the grain into the air and watching the chaff blow away. With each swing of the flail, and each pitch of the grain, his muscles reminded him how much he wished this job would end. But the fire in his muscles were not the worst of the burning. Despite covering his face, each breath also brought with it pain. The chaff so filled the air that it permeated his lungs, and with each cough irritated his throat. He could feel the particles fill his throat and mouth even as he slept. And each night as he finished, his eyes looked like they were filled with blood. Hours after he finished, his sight would still be blurry, and the scratching would just not stop The chaff so irritated his eyes he wondered if he would ever see things clearly again.
All he know is he wished he was done, that he was anywhere but here. He father had promised the aging, neighboring farmer that he would help him with his crop. He wondered each day if this was a lesson he was being taught. Often times he had complained as he helped his father in the family business, laying rock from daylight until dusk. But as he again swung the flail, he vowed to himself he would never be heard complaining again. The heft and burden of the rock did not begin to compare to the weight the chaff was placing on him.
Wheat and chaff. What a difference we see when we look at both. Wheat is full of life, placed in the ground and nourished, it can produce for us a great harvest. It can feed countless people, producing foods that can both satisfy our taste and our hunger. A simple look at the Market, and you will see just how precious and valuable wheat can be. How important and necessary it is in sustaining the lives of many around us. Chaff, on the other hand, is a different story. Chaff has no life to be found in it. It can never grow, only capable of rotting. It produces nothing, no food can be made from it. It cannot sustain us, and it is not capable of satisfying us. It is of absolutely no value, and can only be thrown into the wind or burnt into dust.
It is for this reason the Bible gives us examples of wheat and chaff. The psalmist tells us, “The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.”(Psalm 1:4). Hosea warned, “Therefore they will be like the morning cloud and like dew which soon disappears, like chaff which is blown away from the threshing floor, and like smoke from a chimney.”(Hosea 13:3). Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar of a future day, “Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.”(Daniel 2:35). Job pleaded with the Lord, “Will You cause a driven leaf to tremble? Or will You pursue the dry chaff?”(Job 13:25). Isaiah told the His people, “But the multitude of your enemies will become like fine dust, and the multitude of the ruthless ones like the chaff which blows away; and it will happen instantly, suddenly.”(Isaiah 29:5). And John the Baptist foretold of Christ, “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”(Matthew 3:11-12).
As we look around us today, we see the words of the prophets being repeated. But often as the prophets experienced, the laughs are heard, the denials are seen, and the words are ignored. As we walk through the doors of many of our churches today, we hear the echo in the voices of the prophets calling out to us, warning us. As we enter our sanctuaries, we hear the flails hitting the threshing floor of so many of our churches, The striking of the flails ring loud as they seek to produce a harvest. But as the flails stop and the air clears, we begin to get a close look at the harvest that should fill our floors. Not a grain of wheat can be found, only chaff fills our structures.
As we look at the fields we call our churches, it is no wonder that our harvests have failed. Those who have been appointed to tend our fields, often have no desire to be farmers. They plant our fields with everything but wheat. They fertilize the fields with foreign and poisonous products. The stalks of wheat that should fill our fields go unfed and without water, drying up where they stand, never producing the essential grain that alone can sustain so many around us. Grain that is needed to plant future fields that will also nourish us. But as the crop is gathered, those who tend our fields find no shame in the harvest. Instead they try to convince us that what lies on the threshing floor before us is not chaff, but wheat.
How soon they forget the words that Paul gave us. “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.”(James 3:1). Those who are called by their own glory, not called to glorify the Lord. The words they speak from our pulpits often tell us of a god, but do not teach us about God. They are filled with words that do not contain one syllable of His Word. They speak as if they are full of a newfound knowledge, but not an utterance is heard of His profound wisdom. They choose to ignore the words that Jeremiah gave us, "The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw(chaff) have in common with grain?" declares the LORD.”(Jeremiah 23:28).
They tell us that His Word is changing, that what was spoken in the past does not carry the same meaning today. They tell us that what we thought was His Word, is not His Word at all, but nothing more than the words of men. They so often speak words that are not meant to encourage us, but meant to confuse us. They then make themselves at home in the midst of that confusion, feeding off of it, and making themselves wealthy from it. But as they waller in the mud of their confusion, they forget the words that was spoken to the church in Corinth. “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace”(1 Corinthians 14:33). No peace can be found in confusion, but can only be found in Truth. In Truth we may not hear the words we wish to hear, the words so many who speak from our pulpits desire to say. But in Truth we will always hear the words we need to hear, the words that will bring a true peace that He alone so desires for us. Words that are given to those He has truly called to speak.
So many who have regularly visited our fields, now find no reason to return to our fields. With each visit they found our fields more and more desolate, empty of the wheat they sought, the wheat that alone could nourish them. They no longer heard the voice of a peaceful farmer as they arrived at our farms, but found themselves being approached by charlatans looking to sell them chaff they tried to disguise as wheat. Our farms have quickly become known as houses of chaff, not houses of The Lord where wheat could be found. Wheat they so longed for, wheat they so desired.
As so many of these that falsely tend our fields today continue to loudly and boldly speak, those who have truly been called to be the farmers of our fields are being heard less and less. The peaceful voice of the farmers is being drowned out by these confusing voices. And I fear that in the days that await us, their voice will be silenced more and more. We watch today as our threshing rooms become more and more empty, and as our fields stand barren without a sign of crops growing. If we do not run these charlatans from our fields, and turn in the direction of these true farmers, I fear the threshing floors will soon be left empty. The flails and winnowing tools will be locked away, no longer to be used. Our fields will no longer be seen, sold to the world around us. And the doors of our threshing rooms will be locked, no longer able to produce the wheat that we so desperately need to feed this world today. The world will gaze upon our fields and see nothing but dust in the wind, and they will look upon our threshing floors and see nothing more than the remnants left of the chaff.
Praying our fields will once again be found full of wheat.
