Wheat
“A land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in hills and valleys,
a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees”
(Deuteronomy 8:7–15).
The image of wheat is listed in God’s promise to His people. What might it mean for us today?
During early part of 2021 I noticed a plant take root just outside my window. Another weed to uproot and not spoil my tended flower bed. The rain came, and I allowed the plant to live another day. It liked the rain and grew straight and strong, almost visibly defiant. The sun emerged and as I inspected it I could see the close formation of its flower head, and, intrigued, allowed it to flourish.
Within a short period, the ears of wheat began to form and grow.
Living in a City, I realize that wind and bird must have dropped the seed into fertile ground to allow it to grow.
As the Israelite people began to settle the land they began to be an agricultural people, and many scriptures throughout the Bible refer to the fruit and grain of the land. Fruit and grain in the Bible are rich with Bible symbolism and below you will find some thoughts on the various species that have something to say to us today.
What does God want to say through an ear of wheat? Come with me, and let`s seek God`s gift and call. Sue
For agrarian peoples throughout history the repetitive nature of processes of planting and harvesting, grinding and milling, baking and cooking were linked inextricably to the natural world, God is present too, in the processes of the cosmos which are controlled by the other-than-human weather, rain and sun to water and ripen the crop.
Take your stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the Lord that he might send thunder and rain
1 Samuel 12:16
Then, using choice wheat flour and no yeast, make loaves of bread, thin cakes mixed with olive oil, and wafers spread with oil.
Exodus 29:2
When reading some of the Old Testament instructions about sacrifices and cleansing rituals, we may skip over them failing to see any relevance for today. One such instruction include wheat products in the ordination of Aaron and the priests. that also became a daily offering.
Just a thought
Have you ever considered where all that wheat came from for the children of Israel in their wilderness wanderings? Not all could have been brought from Egypt during their escape.
As they travelled, they could not have grown it, so may have traded for it, or used wild wheat that requires much harder work to refine and use It would cost, and sacrifice is needed.
All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
Mark 4:28-29
The wheat plant changes colour because its life is spent from producing its fruit. There’s nothing left. Its life cycle has ended. As the wheat plant matures, more of the plant’s energy goes to producing fruit than to sustaining its life. The stem can be split and much of it will be hollow straw!
Reflection
How mature are our Christian lives
that we give our all to produce fruit?
Tares look like wheat. The wise farmer will not try to separate them until harvest time. At that time they are easily distinguished. The tares stand straight and erect, but the wheat will bow its weighty head.
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Reflection
Proud, self-righteous tares, will be bound up for burning. The humbled, submissive, broken wheat, shall be gathered into the heavenly granary.
When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
... The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us
to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds,
you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.
Matthew 13:24-30
As our Saviour Jesus meets our need, but as the grain of wheat He meets fulfills God’s eternal plan. A seed is a container of life for reproduction. If it never gets sown into the ground, it’s hidden life can never be released and reproduced.. Jesus` death on the Cross provided for our redemption, and released new life of multiplication.
(John 3:16)
I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
John 12:24
Christ’s death as the one “grain of wheat” was for the purpose of bearing “much fruit.” The “much fruit” was the “many grains” brought by multiplication of Him in us.
Reflection - What harvest are we producing?
Before going to the cross, Jesus spoke of Himself as the grain of wheat falling into the ground to die.
Grain offerings and bread are often mentioned in the Old Testament and give pause to seek explanations....
When anyone brings a grain offering to the Lord, their offering is to be of the finest flour. They are to pour olive oil on it, put incense on it
Leviticus 2:1
In order to make coarse grain into fine flour, you must pound, grind, and sift it repeatedly. If a loaf of bread is made, leaven / yeast is added so that it will rise. After the dough has risen, it is kneaded, shaped into a loaf, and put into the oven to bake. After baking it becomes bread for consumption.
Reflection - Are you being refined?
"See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." Isaiah 48:10
Ploughing in Ethiopia
Jesus teaches with a parable about the sower and where the seed falls. It requires good soil allowing the roots to go deep. As Christians we need to grow our roots deep into God`s love to keep us strong and guided with access to the substance of heaven. It will determine our spiritual maturity as we bear fruit. - The reality of God moving, living and having His being through our lives. We can become an expression of God.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell
in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,
may have power...
Ephesians 3:16-17
Reflection
It`s not easy to grow roots into God`s love. Simple, but not easy. It`s a matter of trust, exposing our lives to be aligned with God`s will not our own. Ask God for grace to replace hindrances from moving forward with God, with an openness to His will.
At harvest, grain is cut with a sickle, gathered into bundles, and then threshed to separate the chaff from the grain. Threshing
of wheat, is a symbol in the Bible for judgment. Once threshed it is winnowed, the sorting of worthless chaff from the usable grain. The wheat is thrown into the air, and the light chaff blows away while the heavier grain falls. The winnowing of wheat, like threshing, is used to represent God’s judgment and separation.
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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.” Matthew 3:12
They do not understand His plan, that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
Micah 4:12
Reflection
What stage of harvest do you perceive you are in spiritually - reaping, threshing, winnowing or sifting? You go through the process because when all processing is complete, only the best of the wheat is brought forth. Though even then there may be a waiting before use. -
How about the wheat that was grown in the seven years of plenty in Egypt, in the time of Joseph, son of Jacob? The wheat stored at the beginning stayed in the storehouses for seven years, waiting to be distributed. Remember the 7 year stores of wheat before the famine in Egypt. (Gen 41:47-49)
Winnowing takes place where the wind can blow through the tossed grain separating the wheat from the chaff that is blown away.
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How often are they like straw before the wind,
like chaff swept away by a gale?
Job 21:18
Not so the wicked! They are like
chaff that the wind blows away.
Psalm 1:4
Reflection
When the wind comes, where do you fall?
How excited are you to be in the place of the wind of the Spirit to blow away the dross and bring freshness to your living?
Psalm 1 illustrates the need to be rooted in the right places - like trees beside water the provision of life, rather than chaff, the wicked that have no place.