What happens when grain is Threshed?

Isaiah 27

When Isaiah uses the words, “On that day” he is talking about what we time critters call future, but the time is not specified.  This sea monster or serpent may be a metaphor for evil, it was used in Canaanite mythology, a very large aquatic creature, esp. a whale: the great leviathans of the deep.  What is important is “On that day” God will judge evil both seen and unseen, as stated in Ephesians 6, of the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 

Often, God uses the vineyard as a metaphor for His people, how God provides and cares for His people and how they choose to live independently of their provider and protector.  It matters not whom is rebelling against authority, they are left with a choice, just as the people of Judea, and the choice was to submit to God’s authority and be blessed, or reject it an experience judgment.

Isaiah sees a time in the future where God is able to once more bless His people, and the 

blessing would not be only for Judea, but for the whole world through them.  In verse seven 

a question is ask: “Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or have they 

been slain as their slayers were slain?”        (Isaiah 27:7 ESV)  We do understand that Judea 

goes through a judgment, but God always leaves a remnant, but those He used to punish 

His people are recorded in Isaiah 37:36, “And the angel of the LORD went out and struck 

down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, 

behold, these were all dead bodies.”  We also know how God judged the Babylonians in the 

sixth century B.C.

Israel is not annihilated, but scattered, and the term as the east wind is used, HCSB states;  

“the east wind was a particularly hot, dangerous wind coming off the desert, depicting the 

picture of chaff being blown away.”  How often we get the wrong impression about parents 

and even more so about God.  I’m sure the people of Judea did not see any good during 

the time of judgment, the time of being scattered, for it was a time of cleansing, but it brought 

about a renewing of worship to the only true God.  When we look at what Isaiah calls the 

fortified city and how it will be deserted, we need to go back and look at Isaiah 24:10, where 

we see the “city of chaos, it is not a specific city, it represents evil people who are subject 

to God’s judgment.” (HCSB page1163)

What happens when grain is threshed, it is the separating of the wheat from the chaff; this 

is what is going to happen on that day.  The chosen people will return to God, not to seek 

His hand, but to seek His face.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice