The threshing floor in the Bible has a number of different meanings. Read on to learn about the spiritual significance of threshing floor and the power of the threshing floor.
In the Old Testament, it is used as a symbol for God’s authority over people. He is the one who threshes out their sins and takes them away, leaving only good things behind.
The threshing floor in scripture is a place of separation and revelation. A place where the harvest was prepared by separating the grain from the useless straw for the purpose of exposing and collecting the most valuable part of the crop.
In the New Testament, it’s used to describe Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. He was beaten, bruised, and bloodied—but he rose again! This shows us that we don’t need to fear death or suffering; Jesus will always be there for us when we need him most.
The Threshing Floor In The Bible
In the Bible, the threshing floor was a place where grain was stored and threshed to be made into flour. The floor was usually made of hard ground, and it was common for farmers to leave their threshing floors outside so they could be used year-round.
The word “threshing” comes from the Old English word “thrēst,” meaning “to beat or strike.” Farmers used their feet to stomp on their grain after it had been harvested, which separated the husks from the kernels. They then used tools like flails (which were like wooden clubs with leather straps attached) or wooden beaters called flails or flail-sticks to break up these husks even further into smaller pieces.
Farmers would also use a device called a winnowing fan (also known as an Egyptian windmill) to separate more chaff from their grain. The winnowing fan worked by blowing air through a funnel into a container—the chaff would fly away while the remaining grain fell down into another container below.
The threshing floor is a place where crops are threshed to separate the grain from the stalk. In the Bible, God commands Abraham to build an altar on his threshing floor. The Bible also refers to a “holy” or “sacred” threshing floor that was used for sacrifices.
What Is The Spiritual Significance of The Threshing Floor
The threshing floor is one of the most important aspects of the story of Ruth and Boaz. Their story emphasizes that there is an undeniable need for a redeemer whom we can easily reach out to as long as we acknowledge our need.
The threshing floor is a significant symbol in the Bible, which is mentioned both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the threshing floor is used in the daily agricultural lives of men.
It is a flat surface, usually smooth, that is used during the harvest of grains. This space was used before equipment and machinery were invented. It was used to separate the grains from the chaff by manual separation.
Usually, the animals crush and break the sheaves of the grains on the trashing floor, or people manually use sticks to break the sheaves apart. As a result, the grains would be separated from the husks.
The final separation would be done by tossing the grains upon the wind, thereby finally separating those still with husks and those already edible. The process is called winnowing.
Although the threshing floor is an ancient way of processing agricultural produce, it is still very significant in our lives as Christians today.
The Old Testament mentions the threshing floor through the story of Ruth and Boaz, the direct descendant of our Lord Jesus Christ, and, because of this, the threshing floor is an important symbol of Christianity.
Ruth and Boaz
The story of Ruth and Boaz actually begins with Ruth marrying someone else before being widowed. During this time, it was difficult for a woman to be a widow and survive on her own.
Usually, a woman with this kind of predicament would be redeemed by her husband’s nearest kinsmen, as it is written in Leviticus 25:25
“If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold.”
Because of this instance, Ruth was encouraged by Naomi, her mother-in-law, to go down to the threshing floor as it is written in Ruth 2:20,
“The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.”
Ruth was to go to the threshing floor and wait for Boaz to finish tending to the barley, and then lie down for the night at Boaz’s feet. This was a symbol of longing—to be redeemed by Boaz in this society.
It is written in Ruth 3:2–8 and 14–16.
Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”
“I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered. So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.
When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down. In the middle of the night, something startled the man; he turned — and there was a woman lying at his feet!
So she lay at his feet until morning but got up before anyone could be recognized, and he said, “No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor.”
He also said, “Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and placed the bundle on her. Then he went back to town.
When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?” Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”
Ruth followed Naomi’s suggestion. During this time, women who lay for the night in the same room with a man would be automatically considered wives, so Boaz and Ruth became married.
Ruth was redeemed from her predicament and thus created a long lineage of what would be the descendants of Jesus Christ.
Symbolic Judgment
The threshing floor, in this particular situation, was a symbol of judgment or the symbol of heaven and hell. In a threshing floor, the chaff symbolizes the destruction of the wicked, according to Psalm 1:4, “Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.”
This was prophesied by Hosea, the prophet, in Hosea 13:3, as it is written.
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.
The New Testament attests to this in Matthew 3:12, as it is written,
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.
The threshing floor was more of a symbol of the burning of evil in this world and it resonates with what happened with Ruth and Boaz.
Boaz was able to redeem Ruth and, in effect, the prophecy of Jesus happened. Ruth is one of the five women in Jesus’ lineage who is named.
The Separation Between Good and Evil
This brings us to the last meaning of the threshing floor, which is the separation between good and evil, in a spiritual sense. While the threshing floor is a physical space for chaff and edible rice to be separated, it symbolizes far more.
In this particular story of Ruth and Boaz, it can be seen that Ruth symbolizes the believer, while Boaz symbolizes the redeemer, which is our Lord Jesus Christ. Boaz was a very kind man and a very generous one as well. Ruth trusts Boaz amidst her obstacles.
Their story is a reflection of what happens in our spiritual threshing floor and that is the fact that we are being guided and redeemed by Jesus Christ as long as we show humility in ourselves to ask for it.
We have to be reminded that we are the grains that are being divided by nature as well. We sin and, therefore, we have husks, but Jesus Christ separates us from that sin through His salvation.
In Hebrews 2:11–15, it is written,
Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.” And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.” Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
What Does This Mean?
The threshing floor is one of the most important aspects of the story of Ruth and Boaz and is also important to modern-day Christians. It emphasizes that there is a need for us to have a redeemer and that we can easily reach out to Him as long as we acknowledge our need.
Jesus Christ is our redeemer in this threshing floor world. We are the rice with husks, and He redeems us by separating the husk from us so that we may be worthy to face our God, the Father.
The Power Of The Threshing Floor
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The harvest and preparation of grain for use as food requires the separation of the kernels from the stalks on which they grow. Because most harvesting today is done mechanically, the significance of a threshing floor and its usefulness as a symbol is somewhat lost to us. A threshing floor was a large, open, hard surface, so threshing floors were often located on hilltops. After bundles of stalks were laid on the surface of the floor, oxen were repeatedly led over the piles until the dried plants were broken up. Then the wind was used to separate the heavier kernels from the chaff by tossing the mixture in the air, an action called winnowing.
The threshing floor formed a backdrop to the love story of Boaz and Ruth in the book of Ruth. This was a departure from its frequent association with sexual promiscuity (Hosea 9:1). Another famous threshing floor in the Old Testament is the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite ( who is also called Ornan in 1 Chron 21), which became the location of Solomon’s temple (2 Sam 24).
After observing people, the psalm writer used the process of threshing as a symbol to demonstrate that, while differences may not always be obvious, the winds of adversity in life will separate people with substance from those who have no true connection with God. “Wicked people are not like that. Instead, they are like husks that the wind blows away” (Ps 1:4).Threshing is often used as a symbol for God’s judgment; trials separate those who truly believe in him from those who do not.
ABUNDANCE OR JUDGMENT
A busy threshing floor was a symbol of a plentiful harvest; a bare one indicated famine and perhaps God’s judgment. Joel 2:24 speaks of that abundance as a sign of God’s blessing if the people repent: “The threshing floors will be filled with grain. The vats will overflow with new wine and olive oil.” And in 2 Kings 6:27, the king in Israel laments that he is helpless to supply food to his starving people: “If the LORD doesn’t help you, how can I help you? I can’t give you something from the threshing floor or the winepress.” He is using the presence of food as a symbol of God’s providential care.
The Old Testament includes a number of instances where threshing is specifically used to describe the results of conflict between nations, sometimes carrying out the ultimate judgment of God. Isaiah 21:10 says, “You, my people, have been threshed and winnowed. I make known to you what I heard from the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel,” as the prophet describes in symbolic terms the fall of Babylon. And Amos 1:3 anticipates God’s retribution against Syria: “This is what the LORD says: because Damascus has committed three crimes, and now a fourth crime, I will not change my plans. The Arameans have crushed the people of Gilead with iron-spiked threshing sledges.” Those who cruelly treat others will themselves be judged harshly.
The New Testament age opens with John the Baptist applying this threshing floor picture to God’s plan for humanity. When he announces the coming Messiah, John pictures him as a farmer who is about to finalize his harvest: “His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clean up his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into a barn, but he will burn the husks in a fire that can never be put out” (Matt 3:12).
MUZZLING THE OX
Later, in explaining the value of financially supporting those whose calling makes them ministers and teachers within the church, Paul appeals to the simple principle God spelled out in Deuteronomy 25:4 about allowing the oxen who were harnessed on the threshing floor to remain unmuzzled, so they might eat part of the grain they were helping produce. Paul notes, “Moses’ Teachings say, ‘Never muzzle an ox when it is threshing grain.’ God’s concern isn’t for oxen. Isn’t he speaking entirely for our benefit? This was written for our benefit so that the person who plows or threshes should expect to receive a share of the crop. If we have planted the spiritual seed that has been of benefit to you, is it too much if we receive part of the harvest from your earthly goods? (1 (Cor 9:9-11). Although the original command in Deuteronomy applied to animals, Paul pointed out its symbolic application to preachers, who should be financially compensated for their work.