THE GOLDEN GRAIN OF GOD

 

During His ministry, the Saviour related a lot of His teachings to the agricultural practices of His day. I love it when I come across examples of this in the scriptures because it takes me back to my European upbringing.

When the Saviour says that ‘the angels are waiting the great command to reap down the earth, to gather the tares that they may be burned’, I am immediately taken back to the wheat harvests that I witnessed in my youth.

The angels are waiting eagerly to reap as “all eternity is pained” because ‘all flesh is corrupted’ (D&C 38:11,12).  If all flesh is corrupted why gather and burn the tares only?  Because interspersed among the tares is something very valuable, ‘the golden wheat’…..

When Jesus visited the Nephites, He gave them the same warning He gave to Peter. He told them that Satan desired to have them that he may sift them as wheat (3 Nephi 18:18; Luke 22:31). I know something about this process. It is called ‘threshing’.

In agriculture, the process of threshing removes the thin, dry, scaly husks around the grains of wheat which act as a protective barrier as the wheat matures. Once the wheat is harvested, this casing, called ‘chaff’ has to be removed as it is not digestible by humans.

The thrashing happens either through a machine or among the less affluent farmers, manually by hand. I have memories of my grandfather sifting the wheat in a broad, round wooden sieve, shaking it from side to side to loosen the chaff from the wheat. It was a very vigorous process. The wheat was then thrown up lightly and the chaff blown away by the wind while the wheat which was heavier fell back into the sieve. This sifting was essential to expose and gather the golden grain.

I picture Satan greedily and viciously sifting us as wheat in a wooden sieve. He wants us as he wanted Peter because every grain is as important to him as it is to God:

In essence, Jesus was saying: “Peter, Satan wants you in his harvest. He wants to harvest your soul and bring you into his granary, into his garner, where he will have you as his disciple’. It is the same figure we use when we say that the field is white, already to harvest. And we go out and preach the gospel and harvest the souls of men. Satan wanted Peter, he wanted to sift him as wheat or to harvest his soul.”  (Sermons and Writings of Bruce R. McConkie, ed. Mark L. McConkie [1998], 127).

In 1830 the Lord issued a call for the ‘weak things of the world’ to thresh the nations by the power of His Spirit (D&C 35:13). As the missionary labours expanded, The Lord’s granary grew and continues  to grow to this day. We are the ‘weak things of the world’ but His Spirit is the mighty force of conversion which is gathering the golden wheat.

Satan might have attempted to sift Peter but he did not succeed in harvesting his soul. He is attempting the same with us because as the saints of the Saviour’s Church, we are valuable not only to God but to the world also. We stand as an ensign to the nations. Peter was important in the infancy of the Church but we are important in the winding up scenes of the world.

The Church has to stand to fulfil its divine destiny as the Kingdom of God. Our value is greater than we realise. May we be strong enough to survive the sifting and garner each golden grain of God.  

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art:  Ready to Harvest by LeafyTreeCo)