Amos 9:9-1
“For behold, I am commanding,
And I will sift the house of Israel among all nations
As grain is shaken in a sieve,
But not a ]kernel will fall to the ground.
10 “All the sinners of My people will die by the sword,
Those who say, ‘The calamity will not overtake or confront us.’
Recently, I have been pondering sifting, bread making and walking in the ways of the King.
We are yet a ways away from Shavuot, but one of the marks of the holy day was/is the waving of the two loaves before Yehovah, a waving that I believe represent the House of Israel and the House of Judah. The process for making the bread involves many detailed steps, one of the final ones being sifting. The flour was sifted, by tradition, thirteen times before it was fine enough for so holy a purpose.
For the grain of flour, being ground and sifted, sifted and sifted, must have felt like an eternity, but for those grains being included in the final loaves, it must have been gloriously worth it. They had been sown, grown, reaped, threshed, winnowed, parched, crushed (ground) then sifted, sifted and sifted before testing, baking and finally waving. At each step of the way, fellow grains, might we say, ‘friends and family’ fell away until they were left in the final pure and perfected hands full that would be used.
How often the process of following the Father, of growing in obedience has felt like crushing and sifting. How many along the way seemed like they would walk this path forever only to turn back at some level of refinement.
Many times I have looked around and been despondent at the ones who gave up or turned back, much like the thousands and thousands in Gideon’s original reaping. The sifted ones numbered a scant 300, yet Yehovah used them unconventionally to destroy a HUGE army of the fearsome Midianites
Do you feel like you are being sifted? Has the Father led you through one new test and new revelation after another until you feel as though you have no friends left yet you know the Father is leading and teaching and you cannot turn back? Fear not! Eventually, the sifting will end. Will you be left in the pile having submitted yourself entirely to the Father and His Word and ignored the tongue wagging of self righteous men?
If you have written the Father a blank check, be reminded, you no longer have a right to count the cost. Now, He has your permission to crush, sift, repeat.
If you’ve never asked to be sifted, I dare ya! It’s the only way to get closer to Him!
11:3 Restoration 