Compelling Love

By Marla Krause

The Lord is coming with a fan in His hand. John the Baptist, the forerunner, declared it, and then Luke and Matthew both wrote it. The very word “fan” brings to one’s mind a picture of someone stirring the air rapidly enough that you would feel a cool breeze. All of us, on some hot summer day or evening, have used a fan to cool ourselves.

But that’s not the Biblical definition of a fan. In the Bible the word “fan” refers to a winnowing instrument. Wow! What a difference! Vine’s “Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words” tells us that a fan is “a winnowing shovel or fan with which grain is thrown against the wind, in order to separate [it from] the chaff.

And while this is true in agriculture, it also has a deeper meaning. It is used in the Bible to bring a picture into our minds of a process God uses which separates nations and individual souls toward their destinations. People and nations are given choices, and how each one chooses will determine their destinations. Those who choose to go with Christ will go in one direction, and those who do not so chose will go in another direction.

Matthew 7:13-14 (NKJV)
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Every person is responsible for their own response to Jesus Christ; and also are nations. “… by His own blood He entered in once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrews 9:12b)

Remember that in the garden there were choices to be made. The choices for Adam and Eve were between which tree was good to eat and which tree was not. The voice of the world manifested through a serpent tempting them to eat from the wrong tree, and this brought DIS-ease and death into the world. Mankind continues to fall for this temptation every day. Disease is rampant (“our outward man perishes”) and sooner or later all will die. Every soul entering into the world since Adam is born into this fallen nature.

So, from the beginning were two voices: God’s Voice and the serpent’s voice. There were two ways: the way of God, or the way of the world.  And, there were two trees. One tree brought light and revelatory knowledge being in relationship with God, and the other tree brought experiential carnal knowledge learned by making wrong choices.  This, the Bible calls “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”. We all know this pattern having tasted of it.

Christ came to recover that which was lost and to “renew the inward man day by day”.

2 Corinthians 4:16 (NKJV)
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

And now we are living in the days spoken of by the prophets. Their prophecies are rapidly coming to pass. God sent His Word through the prophets who spoke of the day when the Holy One of Israel would come and separate those who followed one way from those who followed another way. Let’s look at what Isaiah said.

Isaiah 41:4-20 (NIV)
4 Who has done this and carried it through,
calling forth the generations from the beginning?
I, the LORD—with the first of them and with the last—I am he.”
5 The islands have seen it and fear; the ends of the earth tremble.
They approach and come forward; 6 they help each other and say to their companions, “Be strong!” 7 The metalworker encourages the goldsmith, and the one who smoothes with the hammer spurs on the one who strikes the anvil. One says of the welding, “It is good.” The other nails down the idol so it will not topple.
8 “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, 9 I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
11 “All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. 12 Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all.
13 For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, “Do not fear; I will help you. 14 Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, little Israel, do not fear, for I myself will help you,” declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
15 “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff. 16 You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up, and a gale will blow them away. But you will rejoice in the LORD and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 “The poor and needy search for water, but there is none;
their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 18 I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.
19 I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, 20 so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

This passage is saying that Israel will be a sharp instrument in God’s hand which threshes the nations. These enemy nations are pictured here as mountains and hills, proud and powerful, but they get threshed, fanned, winnowed. Israel is to grind them to nothing (“bring them to naught”).  And, like a fan that separates grain from the chaff and the wind carrying away the chaff, so will judgment be executed through Israel.

Malachi 4:1-6 (NKJV)
1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.  And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” Says the LORD of hosts, “that will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.  3 You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” says the LORD of hosts.  4 “Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.  5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. 6 And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

The first coming and the second coming here are connected together. John the Baptist came in the “spirit and power” of Elijah (Luke 1:17), but John testified that he was not Elijah (John 1:21). However, Elijah would still come again before the great and notable day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5). Christ, the Messiah, would be and still is God’s only provision for Jews and Gentiles to escape the curse. He became a curse for us by hanging upon a tree. He is “the Lord of our Righteousness”.

Let’s read one more prophecy about the “latter days”. Here is one from the prophet Micah:

Micah 4:1-3 (NKJV)
1 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the LORD’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it.
2 Many nations shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion the law shall go forth,
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 He shall judge between many peoples,
And rebuke strong nations afar off;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore.

A steady stream of “people flow into” Jerusalem. Those who have visited and returned report how they have been changed, how God’s presence is there, and how the atmosphere feels peaceful. God sends His Word ahead and His prophets speak of it, and then He brings it to pass.

Matthew and Luke wrote that the Lord is coming with a fan in His Hand.

Matthew 3:10-12 (NKJV)
10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Matthew Henry says that Christ sits as a Refiner. He writes,

The visible Church is Christ’s floor. The temple, a type of the church, was built upon a threshing floor. On this floor there is a mixture of wheat and chaff. True believers are as wheat, hypocrites are as chaff; these are now mixed, good and bad, under the same external profession. There is a day coming when the floor shall be purged, and the wheat and chaff shall be separated.  But it is the day of the last judgment that will be the great winnowing, distinguishing day, when saints and sinners shall be parted forever. Heaven is the garner into which Jesus Christ will shortly garner all His wheat, and not a grain of it shall be lost; and there is no chaff among them. They are not only gathered into the barn, but into the garner where they are thoroughly purified.

Jesus himself taught his disciples about this in a parable.

Matthew 13:24-30 (NKJV)
24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’
28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’
29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

Jesus taught them again:

Matthew 25:31-46 (NIV)
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’  41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’  45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’  46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

J. Dwight Pentecost explains it this way:

When Christ comes the second time, He will be enthroned in heavenly glory. He will sit on David’s throne (2 Samuel 7:16 and Luke 1:32-33).  While on David’s throne, Christ will not only rule over Israel but will rule over the Gentiles as well.  But since no unsaved person can enter His millennial kingdom, it will be necessary to separate the saved from the unsaved in the Gentile nations.

We cannot enter by our own righteousness because we have none. We can enter only by the Lord our Righteousness.  So in the words of Paul for us to likewise pray,

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua Messiah. Amen. (1 Corinthians 15:57)

Marla Krause, 10/8/2011