THRESHING.
Charles Spurgeon · Talks to Farmers
"For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither
is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten
out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised;
because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of
his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen."--ISAIAH 28:27, 28.
THE art of husbandry was taught to man by God. He would have starved
while he was discovering it, and so the Lord, when he sent him out of
the Garden of Eden, gave him a measure of elementary instruction in
agriculture, even as the prophet puts it--"His God doth instruct him to
discretion, and doth teach him." God has taught man to plough, to break
the clods, to sow the different kinds of grain, and to thresh out the
different sorts of seeds.
The Eastern husbandman could not thresh by machinery as we do; but still
he was ingenious and discreet in that operation. Sometimes a heavy
instrument was dragged over the corn to tear out the grain. This is what
is intended in the first clause by the "threshing instrument," as also
in that passage, "I have made thee a sharp threshing instrument having
teeth." When the corn-drag was not used, they often turned the heavy
solid wheel of a country cart over the straw. This is alluded to in the
next sentence: "Neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin."
They had also flails not very unlike our own, and then for still
smaller seeds, such as dill and cummin, they used a simple staff, or a
slender switch. "The fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin
with a rod."
This is not the time or place to give a dissertation upon threshing. We
find every information upon that subject in proper books; but the
meaning of the illustration is this--that as God has taught husbandmen
to distinguish between different kinds of grain in the threshing, so
does he in his infinite wisdom deal discreetly with different sorts of
men. He does not try us all alike, seeing we are differently
constituted. He does not pass us all through the same agony of
conviction: we are not all to the same extent threshed with terrors. He
does not give us all to endure the same family or bodily affliction; one
escapes with only being beaten with a rod, while another feels, as it
were, the feet of horses in his heavy tribulations.
Our subject is just this. _Threshing_: all kinds of seeds need it, _all
sorts of men need it_. Secondly, _the threshing is done with
discretion_, and, thirdly, _the threshing will not last forever_; for so
the second verse of the text says: "Bread corn is bruised; because he
will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart,
nor bruise it with his horseman."
I. First, then, WE ALL NEED THRESHING. Some have a foolish conceit of
themselves that they have no sin; but they deceive themselves, and the
truth is not in them. The best of men are men at the best; and being
men, they are not perfect, but are still compassed about with infirmity.
What is the object of threshing the grain? Is it not to separate it from
the straw and the chaff?
_About the best of men there is still a measure of chaff._ All is not
grain that lies upon the threshing-floor. All is not grain even in those
golden sheaves which have been brought into our garner so joyfully. Even
the wheat is joined to the straw, which was necessary to it at one time.
About the kernel of the wheat the husk is wrapped, and this still clings
to it even when it lies upon the threshing-floor. About the holiest of
men there is something superfluous, something which must be removed. We
either sin by omission or by trespass. Either in spirit, or motive, or
lack of zeal, or want of discretion, we are faulty. If we escape one
error, we usually glide into its opposite. If before an action we are
right, we err in the doing of it, or, if not, we become proud after it
is over. If sin be shut out at the front door, it tries the back gate,
or climbs in at the window, or comes down the chimney. Those who cannot
perceive it in themselves are frequently blinded by its smoke. They are
so thoroughly in the water that they do not know that it rains. So far
as my own observation goes I have found out no man whom the old divines
would have called perfectly perfect; the absolutely all-round man is a
being whom I expect to see in heaven, but not in this poor fallen world.
We all need such cleansing and purging as the threshing-floor is
intended to work for us.
Now, _threshing is useful in loosening the connection between the good
corn and the husk_. Of course, if it would slip out easily from its
husk, the corn would only need to be shaken. There would be no necessity
for a staff or a rod, much less for the feet of horses, or the wheel of
a cart to separate it. But there's the rub: our soul not only lieth in
the dust, but "cleaveth" to it. There is a fearful intimacy between
fallen human nature and the evil which is in the world; and this compact
is not soon broken. In our hearts we hate every false way, and yet we
sorrowfully confess, "When I would do good, evil is present with me."
Sometimes when our spirit cries out most ardently after God, a holy will
is present with us, but how to perform that which is good we find not.
Flesh and blood have tendencies and weaknesses which, if not sinful in
themselves, yet tend in that direction. Appetites need but slight
excitement to germinate into lusts. It is not easy for us to forget our
own kindred and our father's house even when the king doth most greatly
desire our beauty. Our alien nature remembers Egypt and the flesh-pots
while yet the manna is in our mouths. We were all born in the house of
evil, and some of us were nursed upon the lap of iniquity, so that our
first companionships were among the heirs of wrath. That which was bred
in the bone is hard to get out of the flesh. Threshing is used to loosen
our hold of earthly things and break us away from evil. This needs a
divine hand, and nothing but the grace of God can make the threshing
effectual. Something is done by threshing when the soul ceases to be
bound up with its sin, and sin is no longer pleasurable or satisfactory.
Still, as the work of threshing is never done till the corn is separated
altogether from the husk, so chastening and discipline have never
accomplished their design till God's people give up every form of evil,
and abhor all iniquity. When we shake right out of the straw, and have
nothing further to do with sin, then the flail will lie quiet. It has
taken a good deal of threshing to bring some of us anywhere near that
mark, and I am afraid many more heavy blows will be struck before we
shall reach the total separation. From a certain sort of sins we are
very easily separated by the grace of God early in our spiritual life;
but when those are gone, another layer of evils comes into sight, and
the work has to be repeated. The complete removal of our connection with
sin is a work demanding the divine skill and power of the Holy Ghost,
and by him only will it be accomplished.
Threshing becomes needful for the sake of our usefulness; for the wheat
must come out of the husk to be of service. We can only honor God and
bless men by being holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.
O corn of the Lord's threshing-floor, thou must be beaten and bruised,
or perish as a worthless heap! Eminent usefulness usually necessitates
eminent affliction.
Unless thus severed from sin, we cannot be gathered into the garner.
God's pure wheat must not be defiled by an admixture of chaff. There
shall in nowise enter into heaven anything that defileth, therefore
every sort of imperfection must come away from us by some means or other
ere we can enter into the state of eternal blessedness and perfection.
Yea, even here we cannot have true fellowship with the Father unless we
are daily delivered from sin.
Peradventure some of us to-day are lying up on the threshing-floor,
suffering from the blows of chastisement. What then? Why, let us rejoice
therein; for _this testifies to our value in the sight of God_. If the
wheat were to cry out and say, "The great drag has gone over me,
therefore the husbandman has no care for me," we should instantly
reply--The husbandman does not pass the corn-drag over the darnel or the
nettles; it is only over the precious wheat that he turns the wheel of
his cart, or the feet of his oxen. Because he esteems the wheat,
therefore he deals sternly with it and spares it not. Judge not, O
believer, that God hates you because he afflicts you; but interpret
truly and see that he honors you by every stroke which he lays upon you.
Thus saith the Lord, "You only have I known of all the nations of the
earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." Because a
full atonement has been made by the Lord Jesus for all his people's
sins, therefore he will not punish us as a judge; but because we are his
dear children, therefore he will chastise us as a father. In love he
corrects his own children that he may perfect them in his own image, and
make them partakers of his holiness. Is it not written, "I will bring
them under the rod of the covenant"? Has he not said, "I have refined
thee, but not with silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace of
affliction"? Therefore do not judge according to the sight of the eyes
or the feeling of the flesh, but judge according to faith, and
understand that, as threshing is a testimony to the value of the wheat,
so affliction is a token of God's delight in his people.
Remember, however, that as threshing is a sign of the impurity of the
wheat, so is _affliction an indication of the present imperfection of
the Christian_. If you were no more connected with evil, you would be no
more corrected with sorrow. The sound of a flail is never heard in
heaven, for it is not the threshing-floor of the imperfect but the
garner of the completely sanctified. The threshing instrument is
therefore a humbling token, and so long as we feel it we should humble
ourselves under the hand of God, for it is clear that we are not yet
free from the straw and the chaff of fallen nature.
On the other hand, the instrument is _a prophecy of our future
perfection_. We are undergoing from the hand of God a discipline which
will not fail: we shall by his prudence and wisdom be clean delivered
from the husk of sin. We are feeling the blows of the staff, but we are
being effectually separated from the evil which has so long surrounded
us, and for certain we shall one day be pure and perfect. Every tendency
to sin shall be beaten off. "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a
child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." If, we
being evil, yet succeed with our children by our poor, imperfect
chastening, how much more shall the Father of spirits cause us to live
unto himself by his holy discipline? If the corn could know the
necessary uses of the flail, it would invite the thresher to his work;
and since we know whereunto tribulation tendeth, let us glory in it, and
yield ourselves with cheerfulness to its processes. We need threshing,
the threshing proves our value in God's sight, and while it marks our
imperfection, it secures our ultimate cleansing.
II. Secondly, I would remark that GOD'S THRESHING IS DONE WITH GREAT
DISCRETION; "for the fitches are not threshed with a threshing
instrument." The poor little fitches, a kind of small seed used for
flavoring cakes, were not crushed out with a heavy drag, for by such
rough usage they would have been broken up and spoiled. "Neither is a
cart wheel turned about upon the cummin;" this little seed, perhaps the
carraway, would have been ground by so great a weight; it would have
been preposterous to treat it in that rough manner. The fitches were
soon removed from the stalks by being "beaten out with a staff," and the
cummin needed nothing but a touch of a rod. For tender seeds the farmer
uses gentle means, and for the hardier grains he reserves the sterner
processes. Let us think of this, as it conveys a valuable spiritual
lesson.
Reflect, my brother, that your threshing and mine _are in God's hands_.
Our chastening is not left to servants, much less to enemies; "we are
chastened of the Lord!" The Great Husbandman himself personally bids the
laborers do this and that, for they know not the time or the way except
as divine wisdom shall direct; they would turn the wheel upon the
cummin, or attempt to thresh wheat with a staff. I have seen God's
servants trying both these follies; they have crushed the weak and
tender, and they have dealt with partiality and softness with those who
needed to be sternly rebuked. How roughly some ministers, some elders,
some good men and women will go to work with timid, tender souls; yet we
need not fear that they will destroy the true-hearted, for, however much
they may vex them the Lord will not leave his chosen in their hands, but
will overrule their mistaken severity, and preserve his own from being
destroyed thereby. How glad I am of this; for there are many nowadays
who would grind the tender ones to powder if they could!
As the Lord has not left us in the power of man, so also he has not left
us in the power of the devil. Satan may sift us as wheat, but he shall
not thresh us as fitches. He may blow away the chaff from us even with
his foul breath, but he shall not have the management of the Lord's
corn: "the Lord preserveth the righteous." Not a stroke in providence
is left to chance; the Lord ordains it, and arranges the time, the
force, and the place of it. The divine decree leaves nothing uncertain;
the jurisdiction of supreme love occupies itself with the smallest
events of our daily lives. Whether we bear the teeth of the corn-drag or
men do ride over our heads, or we endure the gentler touches of the
divine hand, everything is by appointment, and the appointment is fixed
by infallible wisdom. Let this be a mine of comfort to the afflicted.
Next, remark that _the instruments used for our threshing are chosen
also by the Great Husbandman_. The Eastern farmer, according to the
text, has several instruments, and so has our God. No form of threshing
is pleasant to the seed which bears it; indeed, each one seems to the
sufferer to be peculiarly objectionable. We say, "I think I could bear
anything but this sad trouble." We cry, "It was not an enemy, then I
could have borne it," and so on. Perhaps the tender cummin foolishly
fancies that the horse-hoofs would be a less terrible ordeal than the
rod, and the fitches might even prefer the wheel to the staff; but
happily the matter is left to the choice of One who judges unerringly.
What dost thou know about it, poor sufferer? How canst thou judge of
what is good for thee? "Ah!" cries a mother, "I would not mind poverty;
but to lose my darling child is too terrible!" Another laments, "I could
have parted with all my wealth, but to be slandered cuts me to the
quick." There is no pleasing us in the matter of chastisement. When I
was at school, with my uncle for master, it often happened that he would
send me out to find a cane for him. It was not a very pleasant task, and
I noticed that I never once succeeded in selecting a stick which was
liked by the boy who had to feel it. Either it was too thin, or too
stout; and in consequence I was threatened by the sufferers with condign
punishment if I did not do better next time. I learned from that
experience never to expect God's children to like the particular rod
with which they are chastened. You smile at my simile, but you may smile
at yourself when you find yourself crying, "Any trouble but this, Lord.
Any affliction but this." How idle it is to expect a pleasant trial; for
it would then be no trial at all. Almost every really useful medicine is
unpleasant: almost all effectual surgery is painful! no trial for the
present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous, yet it is the right trial,
and none the less right because it is bitter.
Notice, too, that God not only selects the instruments, _but he chooses
the place_. Farmers in the East have large threshing-floors upon which
they throw the sheaves of corn or barley, and upon these they turn
horses and drags; but near the house door I have often noticed in Italy
a much smaller circle of hardened clay or cement, and here I have seen
the peasants beating out their garden seeds in a more careful manner
than would naturally be used toward the greater heaps upon the larger
area. Some saints are not afflicted in the common affairs of life, but
they have peculiar sorrow in their innermost spirits; they are beaten on
the smaller and more private threshing-floor; but the process is none
the less effectual. How foolish are we when we rebel against our Lord's
appointment, and speak as if we had a right to choose our own
afflictions! "Should it be according to thy mind?" Should a child select
the rod? Should the grain appoint its own thresher? Are not these
things to be left to a higher wisdom? Some complain of the time of their
trial; it is hard to be crippled in youth, or to be poor in age, or to
be widowed when your children are young. Yet in all this there is
wisdom. A part of the skill of the physician may lie, not only in
writing a prescription, but in arranging the hours at which the medicine
shall be taken. One draught may be most useful in the morning, and
another may be more beneficial in the evening; and so the Lord knows
when it is best for us to drink of the cup which he has prepared for us.
I know a dear child of God who is enduring a severe trial in his old
age, and I would fain screen him from it because of his feebleness, but
our heavenly Father knows best, and there we must leave it. The
instrument of the threshing, the place, the measure, the time, the end,
are all appointed by infallible love.
It is interesting to notice in the text the limit of this threshing. The
husbandman is zealous to beat out the seed, but he is careful not to
break it in pieces by too severe a process. His wheel is not to grind,
but to thresh; the horses' feet are not to break, but to separate. He
intends to get the cummin out of its husk, but he will not turn a heavy
drag upon it utterly to smash it up and destroy it. In the same way the
Lord has a measure in all his chastening. Courage, tried friend, you
shall be afflicted as you need, but not as you deserve; tribulation
shall come as you are able to bear it. As is the strength such shall the
affliction be; the wheat may feel the wheel, but the fitches shall bear
nothing heavier than a staff. No saint shall be tempted beyond the
proper measure, and the limit is fixed by a tenderness which never deals
a needless stroke.
It is very easy to talk like this in cool blood, and quite another thing
to remember it when the flail is hammering you; yet have I personally
realized this truth upon the bed of pain, and in the furnace of mental
distress. I thank God at every remembrance of my afflictions; I did not
doubt his wisdom then, nor have I had any reason to question it since.
Our Great Husbandman understands how to divide us from the husk, and he
goes about his work in a way for which he deserves to be adored for
ever.
It is a pleasant thought that God's limit is one beyond which trials
never go--
"If trials six be fix'd for men
They shall not suffer seven.
If God appoint afflictions ten
They ne'er can be eleven."
The old law ordained forty stripes save one, and in all our scourgings
there always comes in that "save one." When the Lord multiplies our
sorrows up to a hundred, it is because ninety-and-nine failed to effect
his purpose; but all the powers of earth and hell cannot give us one
blow above the settled number. We shall never endure a superfluity of
threshing. The Lord never sports with the feelings of his saints. "He
does not afflict willingly," and so we may be sure he never gives an
unnecessary blow.
The wisdom of the husbandman in limiting his threshing is far exceeded
in the wisdom of God by which he sets a limit to our griefs. Some escape
with little trouble, and perhaps it is because they are frail and
sensitive. The little garden seeds must not be beaten too heavily lest
they be injured; those saints who bear about with them a delicate body
must not be roughly handled, nor shall they be. Possibly they have a
feeble mind also, and that which others would laugh at would be death to
them; they shall be kept as the apple of the eye.
If you are free from tribulation never ask for it; that would be a great
folly. I did meet with a brother a little while ago who said that he was
much perplexed because he had no trouble. I said, "Do not worry about
_that_; but be happy while you may." Only a queer child would beg to be
flogged. Certain sweet and shining saints are of such a gentle spirit
that the Lord does not expose them to the same treatment as he metes out
to others; they do not need it, and they could not bear it; why should
they wish for it?
Others, again, are very heavily pressed; but what of that if they are a
superior grain, a seed of larger usefulness, intended for higher
purposes? Let not such regret that they have to endure a heavier
threshing since their use is greater. It is the bread corn that must go
under the feet of the horseman and must feel the wheel of the cart; and
so the most useful have to pass through the sternest processes. There is
not one among us but what would say, "I could wish that I were Martin
Luther, or that I could play as noble a part as he did." Yes; but in
addition to the outward perils of his life, the inward experiences of
that remarkable man were such as none of us would wish to feel. He was
frequently tormented with Satanic temptations, and driven to the verge
of despair. At one hour he rode the whirlwind and the storm, master of
all the world, and then after days of fighting with the pope and the
devil he would go home to his bed and lie there broken-down and
trembling. You see God's heroes only in the pulpit, or in other public
places, you know not what they are before God in secret. You do not know
their inner life; else you might discover that the bread corn is
bruised, and that those who are most useful in comforting others have to
endure frequent sorrow themselves. Envy no man; for you do not know how
he may have to be threshed to make him right and keep him so.
Brethren, we see that our God uses discretion in the chastisement of his
people; let us use a loving prudence when we have to deal with others in
that way. Be gentle as well as firm with your children; and if you have
to rebuke your brother do it very tenderly. Do not drive your horses
over the tender seed. Recollect that the cummin is beaten out with a
staff and not crushed out with a wheel. Take a very light rod. Perhaps
it would be as well if you had no rod at all, but left that work to
wiser hands. Go you and sow and leave your elders to thresh.
Next let us firmly believe in God's discretion, and be sure that he is
doing the right thing by us. Let us not be anxious to be screened from
affliction. When we ask that the cup may pass from us let it be with a
"nevertheless not as I will." Best of all, let us freely part with our
chaff. The likeliest way to escape the flail is to separate from the
husk as quickly as possible. "Come ye out from among them." Separate
yourselves from sin and sinners, from the world and worldliness, and the
process of threshing will all the sooner be completed. God make us wise
in this matter!
III. A word or two is all we can afford upon the third head, which is
that THE THRESHING WILL NOT LAST FOREVER.
The threshing will not last all our days even here: "Bread corn is
bruised, but he will not always be threshing it." Oh, no. "For a small
moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee."
"He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger for ever."
"Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
Rejoice, ye daughters of sorrow! Be comforted, ye sons of grief! Have
hope in God, for you shall yet praise him who is the health of your
countenance. The rain does not always fall, nor will the clouds always
return. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Threshing is not an
operation which the corn requires all the year round; for the most part
the flail is idle. Bless the Lord, O my soul! The Lord will yet bring
home his banished ones.
Above all, tribulation will not last forever, for we shall soon be gone
to another and better world. We shall soon be carried to the land where
there are neither threshing-floors nor corn-drags. I sometimes think I
hear the herald calling me. His trumpet sounds: "Up and away! Boot and
saddle! Up and away! Leave the camp and the battle, and return in
triumph." The night is far spent with you, but the morning cometh. The
daylight breaks above yon hills. The day is coming--the day that shall
go no more down forever. Come, eat your bread with joy, and march onward
with a merry heart; for the land which floweth with milk and honey is
but a little way before you. Until the day break and the shadows flee
away, abide the Great Husbandman's will, and may the Lord glorify
himself in you. Amen.