Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to
go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 1 Chronicles 21:18
Threshing
is process of tearing up the wheat stalks and removing the unwanted part
(called chaff) to get to the desirable kernels of wheat to make bread. This all happens on a flat surface wide
enough to handle pounds and pounds of stalks.
The
Bible compares the idea of threshing with judgment day.
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But
after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy
to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 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 3:11-12
The
unwanted parts will be the unbelievers.
The valuable wheat will be the believers. Once day Jesus will return and separate the
two.
This
threshing floor that David purchased in Araunah became the site for Solomon’s
temple.
Then Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in
Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father
David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah
the Jebusite, the place provided by David.
2 Chronicles 3:1
What
separates the believer and unbeliever is forgiveness of sins which the temple
represented. The threshing floor is a
metaphor for the separation process.