Baptism of Fire as a Wheat Harvesting Process
Matthew 3: 11-12
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Harvesting crops, especially wheat, is used in many scriptures. Think about the words the "field is white, ready to be harvested . . . " as one example. The threshing process that is part of the harvesting of grains and it is use many, many times on its own. In our modern culture most of the wheat or grains we interact with are in sliced bread we bought in a plastic bag from the grocery store or more recently had delivered directly to our house. Our interactions with wheat are in the form of toast or a sandwich. We no longer have much context in how the harvesting or threshing works. The people in Christ’s time did, so those listening to John the Baptist speak here would have all understood. As a side note, this is one of the reasons why the Lord has always sent prophets to his people of all times. The doctrine is the same, but we need new examples, new stories, new ways to understand. We need new ways to look at the word in our time. Understanding the world in ancient times is different than our world, is important to know even if the gospel is the same. All the airplane analogies we hear in general conferences recently would have made zero sense 150 years ago, let alone thousands of years ago. Let’s face it, all those farming analogies from years past need more explanation for most of us.
I'm no expert, and do not plan on giving an accurate explanation of farming techniques. I'm just attempting to connect the dots and meanings. Wheat, and other grains, grown on stalks are basically a form of long grass. The harvesting process includes cutting the grass stalks at the right time, letting them dry a bit in the sun, then thrashing them to break the seeds, or grains of wheat free from the stalks and leaves. Those broken stalks, leaves, and other non-grain materials are known as "chaff". That material when broken up is much lighter than the grain or the seeds. The process of separating the two is as simple as getting them into some sort of wind. The grains will fall, and the chaff will blow away. There are machines do to this in our modern times, or it can still be done by hand. The grain falls to the floor (or in a bucket, or bag, or container placed on the floor), while the chaff blows away in the wind. The chaff is then gathered and either used a bedding for animals or burnt in a fire to dispose of.
John the Baptist uses this as a way to think about the baptism of fire or of the Holy Ghost that comes after the baptism of water that he was performing. The Holy Ghost will separate out the grains from the chaff. The Lord gathers the grains and burns the chaff. He will gather the good in us, and burn away the bad. It is repentance, and following the Lord that allows us to become the grain and be gathered to safety. The fire will consume the chaff.
I may be pushing this analogy WAY to far, but the fire will only enhance the seeds helping them become the bread mentioned earlier. A seed becomes more due to the fire. The chaff is consumed in the fire and destroyed, the grains or seeds can be made into valuable life sustaining items like sandwiches.
Yeah, now that I see it, that is probably going too far with the harvest comparison.
