Sifting Wheat
- Angelique Strothers
- Aug 21, 2012
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 12, 2020
Sifting Wheat
Luke 22:31-32
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to have you, to sift you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you that your faith should not completely fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen and build up the faith of your brothers.” (The Living Bible)
So, this scripture picks up during “The Last Supper” right after Jesus tells the disciples that one of them will betray him, but just before he goes to pray at Gethsemane. In the text, Jesus says that Satan has asked to sift Peter as wheat (some manuscripts say all the disciples, but the statement is directed at Peter. This makes sense given the comment about reaching back and helping his brothers because Jesus says that on this rock—Peter—He would build His church). Sifting is the final step in the harvesting process before storing/meal prep. Let’s take a look at the harvesting process…
The Harvesting Process:
Cutting and Transporting Ripened Grain – We are cut down to size. But only when we are ripe. What this says is that when we are at the place where we are ready to be tested; God allows us to be cut down to size; He allows our pride to be cut down.
Binding Grain Into Sheaves – We are caught up (bound) in our sin. We get hooked and can’t break free.
Transporting Grain to Threshing Floor – Self-explanatory; our sin carries us farther than we want to go, to places we never wanted to be and keeps us longer than we want to stay.
Threshing Grain – This can be done 3 ways (i.e. with a flail, with an ox-driven threshing instrument with sharp metal “teeth”, or by being trodden out by the oxen themselves). In other words the grain is beaten, it’s crushed down and pressed out! This part of the process is painful by design! This is where we’re battered by the people and places that we’ve allowed sin to carry us to. The very folks we thought were on our side, the very people we thought were friends, even our family or we ourselves perpetuate this process; but this is where the beating comes in.
(above is a flail in use)
5. Winnowing Grain – The threshed wheat, straw and chaff are tossed up in the air and the grain (what is good) will fall to the floor, the straw is blown by the wind over to the side of the threshing floor (this is used to feed animals and create a space for animals to rest—this isn’t necessarily bad stuff, but it has a different purpose than the wheat), then the chaff (what is utterly and completely useless) is carried off in the wind or sometimes, as is referenced in Matt. 3:12 and Luck 3:17, it is burned up.
6. Sifting – Finally, the grain that is left on the threshing floor is sifted. Sifting is the final separation of remnants of chaff, tares(noxious weeds—read footnote) and rocks/pebbles.
So, when Satan is asking to sift Peter (the disciples) he’s not just asking to “sift” them; what he is saying is he wants them … US cut down, caught up, carried away, Crushed, Discombobulated and then sifted away to what seems like nothing (at least compared to what it used to be).
Well, unfortunately for Satan and fortunately for us; there are some things he MISSED when he presented his DESTRUCTIVE analogy to God to ask permission to sift us…
Cutting –We can only be cut down when we’re ripe! (1 Cor. 10:13) So WHEN (cuz’ it is coming) these times come, know that we are being tested this way because we are ripe, we are ready! No farmer will harvest until the harvest is RIPE!!!!
Threshing – Even the painful processes have a purpose. In the threshing process, while it hurts for us to be “raked over the coals”, beaten, bruised, walked all over; what happens in those times is that we find out who is for us and who’s against us; that is, we find out who is wheat (like us), who is straw (not useless, but not for same purpose—everyone can’t come on your journey—so they may be good people, but if God says let go, then LET GO), and who is chaff (who is utterly and completely useless in your life; who is covering and masking your anointing, your purpose, your gifts just by their very presence in your life).
Winnowing – While the devil means this process to utterly and completely discombobulate us and disorient us so we can’t find our way back to the Father, this process works for our good, because once people’s true colors are shown in the threshing process, this winnowing/shaking up process separates those who are not meant to/able to contribute to our lives anymore.
Sifting – Finally, while Satan means to get joy out of watching us sifted into what seems like a pile of nothingness, sifting does the work of weeding out those who are better at hiding their true identity; the sleepers. Sifting gets rid of those who made it through the threshing and winnowing and so their peeling at the edges, but they still manage to put on a good charade and look like they belong in your life.
What we find in Jesus’ words (that your faith should not fail completely OR that you won’t completely lose faith) is that in this harvesting process we have a CHOICE:
We can allow the tests to batter us, beat us, tear us down to nothingness and give up. We can lose all faith and be resolved to staying in our mess among the straw and chaff…
OR
We can choose to remember God’s Words (1 Cor. 10:13); we can choose to remember that Jesus is pleading for us in prayer (Luke 22:31-The Living Bible) and we can hold on to the fact that while the enemy means this to take us out, God only means it for our BEST (not just our good) and we can hold on to the FAITH that says, I may not see the light at the end, but I know this tunnel won’t go on forever, so I’ll keep driving.
Relevant Questions:
Which option do you choose?
As believers, will we praise AND worship (corporately and privately) even as we’re going through the harvesting process?
Light At The End of the Tunnel:
While the devil means to watch us be broken and beaten down to what seems like a pile of useless nothingness, God seeks to strip us of everything hindering us from becoming a loaf of FRESH, HOT (on fire for God), DELICIOUS bread (which is the body of CHRIST– Luke 22:19). Every person has a purpose and every purpose has a process! The question then is; will you persevere?
Bless God & God Bless,
THE Writer’s Pen, Angel
a.k.a.
Angelique
Footnotes:
1. Noxious: harmful or injurious to health or physical well-being OR morally harmful; corrupting; pernicious
Comments