Jeremiah 51:2 and 17
- I will send foreigners to Babylon to winnow her and to devastate her
land; they will oppose her on every side in the day of her
disaster.
"Every man is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is
shamed by his idols. His images are a fraud; they have no
breath in them.
One of Jeremiah’s last messages was to the great empire of Babylon. God
had used it to punish his people for their great sins of idol worship and pride….but
he was done and now Babylon would be punished for its great sins too. God
wanted to spare the remnant of people he had allowed to survive there…so now
was the time to separate them back apart from the people he would destroy.
God used the process of winnowing wheat to help the people understand
his intentions. The wheat was harvested in its entirety….then the pieces that
had been cut were thrown high in the air.
The wind naturally blew the unwanted pieces of the plant away so they
could gather the important grain from the pile of harvested pieces.
It struck me as I read that God constantly winnows us still to this day.
We live in a world that is a mixed bag of believers in God and all the other
idols or false gods people create to worship. He allows strong winds…or sometimes easier
breezes…to toss us up into a confusion….so our well laid plans are interrupted while
he allows that wind to blow the unneeded chaff from our lives.
I had a week like that. No real
strong winds…just an easy constant breeze of friends he sent my way…supervisors
over my teaching job…and scripture that I read each night…that reminded me that
I am definitely far from perfect. I had
a sense of the one thing I had done right each morning…but throughout the day
were small situations that reminded me I have much work to do before he can
fully use me. I didn’t fully realize that God was trying to speak to me till I
read this chapter last night…and heard all my selfish responses to the people
he sent to teach me this past week replayed in my head. I definitely did one thing right…but the
three things I did wrong each day had me traveling in the wrong direction.
If I truly want to fall madly in love with God…I have to be open and willing…even
eager to go to the threshing floor every day. I have to be always thinking
about what needs to be winnowed from my life…and allow God to separate it from
my daily routines. Then I need to let him burn that chaff up…so I cannot return
to it ever again. John the Baptist put it best in Matthew 3:11-12… “I baptize you with water for
repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than
I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and with fire. 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."
Father…thank you
for the reminders that I am still a sinner and sin multiple times a day. Forgive
me for puffing myself up once again to the point that I didn’t even recognize
your soft voice trying to help me. Show me how to place myself regularly in
your threshing room…so you can help me remove all traces of sin from my life.
Show me how to let it blow completely away…even let your spirit consume it with
holy fire so it cannot return to my life. Amen.
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