J.J. Stark
September 10-11, 2016
Field Time
IGNITE
CLASS 10
Inductive
Bible Study (IBS)
Refiner
and Purifier
2
“But
who can endure the day of His coming?
And who can stand when He appears?
For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and
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 of righteousness.” –
Malachi 3:2-3 (NKJV)
The words spoken in these verses come
as a part of a prophecy the Lord has given to Malachi about the coming
Savior. Verse one tells of John the
Baptist coming as the messenger before Christ, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the
Lord…” (Isa. 40:3) What strikes me
though is the statement made in verse two regarding Christ: “For He is like a refiner’s fire and like
launderers’ soap.” This is a
powerful analogy describing the cleansing Jesus does in those who follow Him. Looking back at my life in recent weeks,
incredible evidence of this can be seen taking place in my life deeper than I
have ever experienced.
It is interesting the two items used to
describe this, and what their functions are.
A refiner’s fire firstly produces heat.
Although I have never actually witnessed the actual refining process of
gold and silver, I have had experience with some farrier (horseshoeing) forge
work, as well as some jewelry metalsmithing.
One of the coolest things ever is to apply intense heat to metal. For different metals it takes different
temperatures, but the primary goal of heating is to make the metal
moldable. Be it a steel horseshoe or a
brick of gold, it is almost always more difficult to shape when hard and
unyielding, and a piece of metal is nearly useless unless it able to be
shaped. The same is true with my heart:
if I do not yield and soften to the will of the Lord, then He cannot shape me
in to who He wants me to be, and thus I am worthless for furthering His
plan. Speaking specifically of gold and
silver, heat plays an even greater role in the process of refinement. High heat turns these precious metals from
solid to liquid, and it is in this state that the most crucial stage takes
place. Only in the liquid form is
refiner able to purify the metal, because without intense heat impurities that
may be settled on the bottom will not surface. It is also only from a molten piece of metal
that a jeweler can take and pour it into a beautiful form.
Launderers’ soap is a cleaning
agent. The first thing that comes to
mind when I think of laundry soap is the removing of stains and brightening of
colors. Why soap works the way it does,
is because its molecular makeup is capable of bonding to foreign objects and,
as an abrasive, cause them to loosen from the what they are attached to. It is just like how Christ’s blood washes
over us as believers and removes all stains, as written in Hebrews 9:13-14, 13
“For if the blood of bulls and goats and
the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of
the flesh, 14how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?”
These are the conditions in which
Malachi 3:3 continues to define our King of Kings: “He will sit as a refiner and 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 of righteousness.”
I am able to take hope in this, and that despite the valleys to come, I
can “2…count it all joy when ‘I’
fall into various trials, 3 knowing
that the testing of ‘my’ faith
produces patience.” God has, is, and
will continue to purge, purify, and refine me more into His likeness so that I,
just as a son of Levi, can offer my life as a living sacrifice of righteousness
to Him.
Application: I will share this IBS with my roommates, and
discuss with them the things God has refined in me.
