Hi --
 
I'd greatly appreciate any insights that any of you other "Doves" would care to provide.  I'm looking at the possibility of a "Barley Harvest" followed by a main ("wheat") harvest as a prophetic picture.  There are some problems.
 
I'm comfortable with the idea of two raptures, one for the Bride of Christ (or the Philadelphians) kept FROM the time of trial that is coming on the whole earth.  Subsequent to that is the harvesting at the end of the age, where the tares are gathered out first and bound in bundles to be burned.  The tares are the seed of the wicked one, and I think it's a lot more than just unbelievers.  I think it may literally be "seed" - that is, the efforts of the Nephilim to once again taint human genetics, and to infect humanity with a race that is, literally, of the seed of Satan.  (I assume you've read Genesis 6 and are also familiar with some of the work of Lynn Marzulli, Tom Horn and others.  If not, check out YouTube or Google videos.)  
 
The problem is this:  barley is a cheap grain.  It's worth about a third as much as wheat.  Why would the Bride of Christ be represented by an inferior product?  If the rapture, or gathering, of the Bride is represented by the barley harvest .... but, that seems to be what's going on when we read the symbolism in the book of Ruth.  It also squares with a Pentecostal rapture event.
 
Even the disciples appeared to have contempt for barley (if the disciples were being addressed) - Jesus said, "You say, 'It is yet four months to the harvest.'  But I say unto you, the fields are already white unto harvest." (John 4:35) In other words, Jesus' audience seemed to think the barley was barely worth harvesting.
 
The "first mention" of barley is Exodus 9:31 and sheds no apparent light to me.  The Egyptian barley crop was ruined by the plague of hail; the wheat was spared because it was a later crop and hadn't emerged yet.
 
The EARLIEST mention was probably that in Job 31:40 - part of another literary mea non culpa by Job, and the last comment he made in response to his three friends.
 
The last mention is Rev. 6:6 - And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine."  (Wheat makes another appearance in Rev 18:13 as one of the products of the merchants of the earth.)
 
All four items have prophetic significance, and the presence of all four on earth during the Tribulation is another problem.  Of course, it could be that this is the ramp-up to the Tribulation and the rapture hasn't happened yet.  Questions ... questions.
 
Any ideas?