The Dross Purged
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on my name, and I will hear
Them: I will say, It is my people and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:9)
Grace transmutes us into precious metal, and then the fire and the furnace follows as a necessary consequence. Do we start at this? Would we sooner be accounted worthless, that we might lie doing nothing, like the stones of that field!
This would be to choose the less valuable part – like Esau, who took the hot stew, and give up the covenant, his rightful portion of his inheritance.
No, Lord; we will gladly be cast into the furnace rather than be cast out from Your presence!
The fire only refines; it does not destroy. We are to be brought through the fire, not left as dead ashes in it.
The Lord values His people as silver, and therefore he is willing to pay attention to purge away their dross (their sins, and tendency to sin again).
If we are wise, though the natural woman or man will want to resist, we shall welcome the refining process rather than choose to avoid it. Our prayer will be that our alloy may be taken from us rather than that we should be withdrawn from the crucible and turned out into the field to lie in repose, useless, or used only for the meanest of purposes, as to be a small part of a fireplace or wall.
We can be adopted to be one of God’s People put to use for the highest of purposes, and that is the direction we should seek.
O Lord, please give us the treatment! We are ready to melt under the fierceness of the flame. Still, this is Your way, and Your way is the best. Sustain us under the trial and complete the process of our purifying, and we will be Yours forever. Amen.
