By Ben Shiller Jacob
God Refines Our Hearts as Silver is Refined
The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold,
But the Lord tests the hearts.
Proverbs 17:3, NKJV
We see Yahweh portrays His relationship with His people and Himself to various substances. From first to last page of the Bible, we witness different analogies of His interaction with His chosen people. From potter and clay to vine and branches.
While I was reading Proverbs chapter 17, verse 3 stood out among other verses. Holy Spirit prompted me to ponder on this verse.
When we break this verse into multiple pieces, we would be able see 3 analogies clearly:
- The refining pot/ the crucible and the silver
- The furnace and the gold
- Yahweh and the hearts
Let’s look at the first two which are the crucible and the silver and the furnace and the gold because the process is same but different materials.
The crucible or refining pot and furnace are used for melting the silver and gold respectively. These metals when they reach smith’s hand are mixed with dross in other words impurities such as copper. A smith is well talented enough to look at the ore see how much he needs to work on it before the metal can be used in its full capacity. Only a professional smith can identify freshly excavated silver ore if it is a silver or not. Freshly drilled silver ore looks like nothing but a charcoal or dried lava. Once silver ore is passed through constant heat treatment, silver regains its lustre and can be used for numerous purposes.
The process of removal of impurities from silver and gold is tedious and time consuming. We are taught the various steps involved in this process in chemistry lectures. In market, we see these metals lustrous especially in jewelry and we are ready to pay whatever the price it costs to possess them. Because we know that they never lose their value and their quality by time. In fact, no one will treat them carelessly because of rarity and irreplaceable quality.
Because they are precious metals.
What makes them precious and exquisite? Indeed, their properties and functions make them stand out among their class.
Silver and gold are popular for their malleability (moldable), ductility (flexible), heat, and electricity conductivity, reflective properties (reflect light) and their scarcity.
When the goldsmith or silversmith receives drilled ores doesn’t have value until ores are refined from other impure substances.
How does smith refine silver or gold? Mostly through fire treatment.
Smith put the silver/ gold ore in a crucible or furnace and holds it in a flame of fire, positions at the center of the fire where severity of heat is the most. This refining process is so sensitive as over or under heating affects the quality of the metal. As I mentioned before, this process takes time, so the smith holds the crucible through out the process until metal shines brilliantly. Only smith knows when he should remove the metal from fire because he has a skilled eye for it.
Take away the dross from silver,
And it will go to the silversmith for jewelry.
Proverbs 25:4, NKJV
As King Solomon said in above verse, when the silver is completely devoid of impurities, removed from other substances as well as stains formed of external influences, the time has come for the silver to shine to its fullest capacity. For this purpose, gold and silver are created.
I was fully humbled by the Holy Spirit when I perused these two verses. This verse Pro 25:4 came across after few days and He guided me to ponder the whole process how a dazzling metal came out after a fire treatment. Previously, these lustre metals are refined by fire, they don’t have any use though they have the properties within them. Those qualities or properties are masked by other metals or substances which are not part of these metals.
Let’s go back to the verse Pro 17:3, where it says, But the Lord tests the hearts.
Here, Yahweh being the Smith and our hearts or soul being the gold or silver.
The process of testing or refining of our hearts begin when we are born again by the Holy Spirit, when we are redeemed from the darkness to the light.
Now our spirit is alive and active by this rebirth. But our soul needs to be sanctified and purified completely. Since we were in darkness means we did live and followed the works of darkness.
As we know, our soul comprises of our will, self, desire, emotion, memories etc.
Until the time of rebirth of our spirit, we have acquired various forms of evil/wicked nature which are the impurities King Solomon refers to the dross here.
Sin nature is in our blood. It is in our genes. Our genes are corrupted with programs of evil until we personally have an encounter with the Creator of Cosmos, Yeshua.
I had an encounter with Yeshua at the age of 25. Until this age, what I liked and did were evil. My consciousness was full of wickedness. This evil nature has power in us even after we are saved. Through active submission and yielding to Yahweh’s sanctification process of fire is the only way of perfection and reflection of Yeshua’s nature in us.
Majority of the born-again believers ignore and don’t pay attention to the sanctification process after salvation. I call this process, Character-Building Coaching in Yahweh’s school. This training can be joyful depending upon how believers take their Teacher, Holy Spirit into consideration. Training becomes hard to those who don’t listen to the Teacher of this school or pay attention to their Master on each module of their course. These so-called believers resemble the freshly drilled silver or gold ores. As they didn’t embrace the instructions of fire, their sin nature is still in their bloodline which would be the driving force of their life.
This is what Paul says in Romans:
For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
Romans 7:15, NKJV
End result of this ignorance, self-professed christians become a mockery to the world. They proclaim they belong to Jesus and HIs Kingdom but they are not. They are good with their words not in action. These group are talkers of the Word of God not doers. When the world looks at them, they don’t see Yeshua in them, yet they claim they have inheritance in the Kingdom of Light.
so my question is are we truly embrace the trials and suffering we have inour day to day life? If not, we must start assess and position ourselves in Yeshua.
Those who rejects the sanctification process of God, leads a fruitless and powerless Christian life.
The ultimate aim of various fire treatment is to bring out the evil nature or corrupted DNA from our bloodline.
Those who pay attention to it will come out as shining vessel to be used by Yahweh for His Kingdom purpose.
Shiller’s Takeaway
I encourage all of you who know Yeshua intimately, to embrace this process of sanctification which will enable us to bear many fruits of the light, increasing glory of Yeshua in us. Let’s concentrate on reflecting Yeshua’s image on us as pure gold and silver reflect light that falls on them. Once all the dross is taken out from us, it is easy for Holy Spirit to mold, flex, conduct his dynamic power through us for healing and transforming the earth. God will refine you by placing you in unfavourable circumstances, uncomfortable places, using people around you to challenge your character where you are weak. When we choose to endure and persevere in these circumstances create character in us.
Communion with a Contrite Heart
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this new life you gave us in Yeshua. Open our spiritual eyes to see the urgency to have Christ Character in us. Strengthen us today to challenge ourselves when we face undesirable situations to reflect Your likeness in us in Jesus’ name we pray – AMEN!