I wish to begin our message with an illustration: There was a dedicated Christian woman who once visited a tourist attraction, which happened to be a working replica of a pioneer village; and one of the manned displays she observed was a silversmith shop.
The woman watched the silversmith as he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He then explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were the hottest, in order to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; and then she recalled the verse which says, “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.”
She then asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered yes; that he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?” He smiled at her and answered, “Oh that’s easy, when I see my own image in it.”(1)
On that thought, let us now stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word found in Ezekiel 22:17-22.
Introduction to God’s Refining Fire (Ezekiel 22:17-22)
17 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, tin, iron, and lead, in the midst of a furnace; they have become dross from silver.” 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. 21 Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in its midst. 22 As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have poured out My fury on you.”
Ezekiel was describing the nation of Israel during the Babylonian exile of 587 B.C. Israel had gone astray from the Lord by worshiping foreign gods and idols. Because the people would not repent and turn to the Lord, God allowed the holy city of Jerusalem to be invaded by the Babylonians and the inhabitants of the city to be taken captive. The Lord spoke to Ezekiel and revealed that the Babylonian exile was a process of purification of the nation of Israel, and His means of purification was similar to that used of a refiner of precious metals.
The process of refining metals, described very simply without all the complicated details, works like this: A silversmith or goldsmith unloads ore in a large cauldron called a crucible, or smelter, and the ore is melted down. As the ore melts, all the impurities and worthless metals such as bronze, tin, iron, and lead, which are called dross, float to the top and are either burned off or skimmed off.(2)
In this passage Ezekiel was describing the Babylonian exile as the melting down of Israel and the separation of the godly (the silver) from the unrighteous (the dross). Ezekiel saw those who were taken into captivity as people who were being set apart as fine silver. They were separated from the dross of the idol worshippers and polytheists, and they would one day return to Jerusalem as true worshippers of God alone.
Those who escaped being taken captive, and who remained in Jerusalem, continued worshipping foreign gods and idols. They were seen as dross in the eyes of the Lord to be consumed by fire, and the walls of Jerusalem were as the walls on a refiner’s crucible. The people remaining in Jerusalem would be burned spiritually by the heat of God’s judgement.(3) The prophet Jeremiah spoke of the remaining inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, “The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; the smelter refines in vain, for the wicked are not drawn off. People will call them rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them” (Jeremiah 6:29-30).
The Purpose of God’s Refining Fire
Ezekiel described the Babylonian exile as being a refiner’s fire; so what was its spiritual purpose? There is a praise song by Brian Doerksen entitled, “Refiner’s Fire,” which provides us with an idea of what it was all about. This song says, “Purify my heart, let me be as gold and precious silver . . . Refiner’s fire; my heart’s one desire is to be holy, set apart for you my Master, ready to do your will.”
In Psalm 24:3-4 we read, “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, nor sworn deceitfully.” The purpose of God’s refining fire was for spiritual purification, and this was the primary reason why God refined the nation of Israel. He wanted to set apart a group of people having clean hands and pure hearts to worship and serve Him alone.
Malachi 3:2-3 further describes God’s refinement and purification process of Israel. We read, “For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.” The Babylonian exile was like using laundry detergent, for afterward a large “Tide” of people later returned to Jerusalem with clean hearts; and God heard them “Cheer” because they were free and ready to serve the Lord with gladness.
Zechariah 13:9 also reveals why the Lord refined the nation of Israel. The Lord declared, “I will bring the one-third through the fire, I will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people;’ and each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God’.” The Lord placed Israel in a great crucible, or smelter, in order to set apart a people for Himself who would call upon the name of the Lord and offer up sacrifices to the God of Israel alone. The purpose of God’s refining fire used on Israel was for spiritual purification.
Experiencing God’s Refining Fire
A good question to ask is, “Do believers experience God’s refining fire?” The answer to this question is yes! The next question is, “What is the evidence of the Lord’s process of purification in our lives?”
Two Bible verses provide some insight on how God purifies one’s heart and soul. Psalm 66:10 states, “For You, O God, have tested us; you have refined us as silver is refined.” Isaiah 48:10 says, “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” We experience God’s refining fire through testing or trials; and Isaiah calls this testing “the furnace of affliction.”
In the Bible, God’s testing is sometimes called “chastening.” In Revelation 3:19, Jesus said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” Listen closely as I share with you Hebrews 12:5-11:
My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
We are tested because God loves us. A father will discipline a child because he loves him and wants to correct the child’s wrong actions in order to protect him from future harm. In the same way, God chastens us. The heat of God’s refining fire comes upon us and cleanses us from unrighteousness; and we can know and recognize the Lord’s refining fire in our life whenever we are going through trials and difficulty.
When we experience trials it is not a time to complain, for the Lord is molding us into His image. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 the Lord told the apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” When we are going through trials we are being perfected in Christ, and this is a reason for us to trust and lean on the Lord. Paul’s response was, “Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (v. 9).
Our next question might be, “Why does God try us? Many bad things can happen to us in this life. How can the Lord, who is merciful and kind, do evil things to us?” The answer to this question is that God doesn’t do evil things to us. His chastening occurs when He turns His face from us. Isaiah 59:2 says, “Your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” Our sins can sometimes lead the Lord to turn away from us; and God’s chastening, or refining, happens when He allows us to experience the consequences of our own sinful choices.
I wish to point out, however, that when God turns His face from us it is not always because we are living in sin. There are times when the Lord turns away from us for a short time even though we are faithful to Him. He allows us to be subjected to the natural laws of this world in order to prove our faithfulness, and to be a witness of God’s power to rescue us from the fire. Satan rules this world, and the laws of this world lead to sin and death.
God is not the one who harms us, but He sometimes allows us to be subjected to a sinful and fallen world. This is what happened to Job. We read that Satan asked the Lord to remove His hedge of protection from around him, and the Lord did just that (Job 1:10-11)! Even though Job had not sinned, God turned away from him for a short time so that Satan could test his faithfulness.
In the book of Daniel, we read that the faithfulness of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego was tested in a fiery furnace when king Nebuchadnezzar had them thrown into a furnace for not bowing down to a golden idol. Even though they were faithful to the Lord, God allowed them to be thrown into the fiery furnace in order to bring glory to Himself through their willingness to die for their faith.
Though they were in the fire, and it appeared as though the Lord was nowhere in sight, they were neither harmed by the fire nor were they alone. In Daniel 3:25 king Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Jesus was in their midst all along. Through this situation God revealed that He has the power to rescue His people from the fire.
If you are experiencing trials and trouble right now, then you are likely under God’s refining fire. Maybe God has turned His face from you because of your sin. If you are living in known sin, then He will turn away from you in order to allow you to realize that you cannot survive apart from Him. If you try to live without the Lord in your life, then your own sins will cause you great difficulty.
Time of Reflection
We just read in Revelation 3:19 where the Lord said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten,” but that is only the first part of the verse. The remaining portion says, “Therefore, be zealous and repent.” If you are being chastened then it could be because you are living in sin. The chastening will not cease until you turn away from your sin, and look upon the face of God once again. Repentance is simply turning away from sin, doing a “180,” and spiritually walking in the other direction. If you decide to turn from your sin, then God will rescue you from the fire. I would like to conclude our message this evening by reading a short poem:
He sat by a furnace of seven-fold heat,
As He watched by the precious ore;
And closer He bent, with a searching gaze,
As He heated it more and more.
He knew He had ore that could stand the test;
And He wanted the finest of gold –
To mold as a crown for the King to wear;
Set with gems of a price untold.
So He laid our gold in the burning fire,
Though we fain would have said Him nay;
And He watched the dross that we had not seen,
As it melted and passed away.
And the gold grew brighter, and yet more bright;
But our eyes were so dim with tears,
We saw but the fire – not the Master’s hand –
And questioned with anxious fears.
Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow,
As it mirrored a form above
That bent o’er the fire – though unseen by us –
With looks of ineffable love.
Can we think it pleases His loving heart
To cause us a moment’s pain?
Ah! No, but He saw through the present loss
The bliss of eternal gain.
So He waited there with a watchful eye,
With a love that is strong and sure;
And His gold did not suffer a whit more heat,
Than was needed to make it pure.(4)
This evening, if you are a Christian, you are destined to be a part of the metal in the crown of our Lord Jesus Christ; and because of this great privilege you will often be tested and tried by the refiner’s fire, so that you will be purified and worthy to be placed upon His holy brow. James admonished, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4).
I also wish to extend an opportunity for you to know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, if you don’t already know Him; for He is the one who can rescue you from the heat and flames of hell. Romans 10:9-10 says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
NOTES
(1) James Kirkland, SermonCentral: www.sermoncentral.com/illustrations/illustrations-about-refiners-fire.asp (Accessed April 9, 2012).
(2) D. M. G. Stalker, Ezekiel (London: SCM Press, 1968), p. 187.
(3) Thomas H. Leale, Ezekiel, The Preacher’s Complete Homiletic Commentary (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1890), p. 270.
(4) Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), pp. 374-375.
