World

When our Heavenly Father is finished using them!

Wheat and Barley

In the pursuit of an answer, let's first delve into the interpretation of the prophecy found in Revelation 6:6. Here we see that a "quart" of wheat costs the equivalent of a day's wage-denarion" in the original Greek-as does 3 quarts of barley.

Actually, quite a few Bible translations obscure the meaning of this prophecy as they employ unhelpful interpretations for the Greek word "denarion." This refers to the denarius which was the most common Roman coin in earlier New Testament times. Though this currency had experienced some minor inflation by the time that Apostle John recorded the Book of Revelation, as best as we can tell it was still considered the equivalent of a laborer's daily wage. The Bible itself confirms this- in Matthew 20:2, we read of a vineyard owner who "[---] agreed to pay them a denarius for the day" to work for him.

Just how expensive are these grain prices? Here we can make some calculations that will provide a perspective relative to the living standards of our day.

Let's begin with wages. The average annual income in the world today (in US terms) is estimated at $7,439 (a figure including both high- and low-income countries). Assuming a 5-day work week, that would amount to $33 per work day. 1 Were the "black horse" to appear today, just how much would it cost to buy either one quart of wheat or three of barley? As a rough estimate, about 150 times higher than the price of unprocessed grain today. Next, let's turn our attention to the food adequacy of this amount of grain. How long would that much grain sustain a person? In the original Greek, the term interpreted as a "quart" is the ancient dry-goods measure, the "choinix." This measure, though sources are somewhat imprecise on its size, is probably equivalent to 1.2 dry quarts or 1.3 liters.

Therefore, assuming that the average household in the world today would have approximately 1 worker per a household of 3.5 people (which indeed is representative of the average household size worldwide), then could one measure of wheat or three quarts of barley sustain a household of this size? Barely. Both wheat and barley have approximately the same caloric content (about 90 calories per ounce). And, as there are roughly 40 ounces in one "choinix," one day's wages could acquire at maximum 3600 calories of wheat or 10,800 calories of barley. However, let's not forget that there are more days in a week than there are workdays. Making that adjustment, that would allow only 2750 calories of wheat per day, for example.

According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) the average person in the world today consumes a little over 2700 calories per day. For illustration, assuming that humankind maintains this same level of consumption, it appears that 100% of a laborer's daily wages and more would be required to supply a household with sufficient food at that prophesied time. Even in this case, a family could only eat barley-the coarser grain-and not wheat. Barley was considered the poor man's flour in Old Testament times. It was more difficult to process because of its hard husk and didn't have quite the same favorable baking properties as wheat. Today, barley is the most important feed for livestock.

Having made these comparisons to conditions of our day, we can well understand why the voice in Revelation 6:6 said " --- do not damage the oil and the wine!" These items would surely be high-priced foods during that time. Also, this may explain why meat is not mentioned. Meat is much more expensive than grain. After all, some livestock-for example poultry and cattle-are grain-fed, requiring as much as three and more pounds of grain to produce a pound of meat.

Next and finally, we focus in on another strange feature of this prophecy. Wheat during that time is three times as expensive as barley. Today, if you were to transact on the Winnipeg commodity exchange, wheat and barley prices would be broadly similar-about $200 per metric tonne. Why then will wheat prices soar to 3 times that of barley at the time of the third seal? Again, we can only speculate. Barley usually yields about 50% more in bushel terms per acre than wheat. However, it is also a hardier cereal grain that can grow under more diverse conditions than wheat. Perhaps growing conditions at that future time will favor barley.

Buy a bag of 50lb of organic Non-GMO, white flour while you still can. I would vacuum seal it in smaller bags, label it and put it in the freezer for a few days just for good measure then remove it and just put in your reserves.

The damn Chinks want us all DEAD.