Isaiah 48:10 ESV
“Behold I have refined you but not as silver, I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.”
Isaiah 48:10 NLT
“I have refined you but not as silver is refined, rather I refined you in the furnace of suffering.”
What does it mean for the LORD to refine us? What does it mean for silver to be refined? How do they do that? What’s the correlation between the refining of a human and refining of silver?
When a silversmith purifies silver he heats it to a high temperature and all the impurities are burnt away. In the same way trials and tribulations shape us to a new person and we become more reflective of the Lord reflecting the Light of Christ. Others can see the Light of Christ in us as well. So don’t ever think that the trial or tribulation you’re going through is punishment, it’s not punishment, it’s a learning lesson. One good thing to ask of yourself or of the Lord is whether He is trying to teach us something or if we have to something to learn from a situation that we are in that causes us tribulation.
1 Peter 1:6-7 ESV
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
1 Peter 1:6-7 NLT
“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold-though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
As we see here the trials and tribulations are just for a little while. They are meant to purify us to make us more like Jesus. And if we stay strong during these trials we will be able to have praise and honor and give glory to Jesus for when He is revealed to us. And when He is revealed to the world, the whole world of believers will rejoice. For all believers have been waiting for His coming back to the world. And also these trials and tribulations are just temporary compared to the eternity of Heaven, so we rejoice that we have this Promise from the Lord, if we just keep true to Him.
Sometimes like Job we are tested heavily but we see that Job kept his faith and integrity with God. And this is the type of faith the Lord is looking for when we are tested, for then He will see that our faith is genuine.
Characters in Refinement
Joseph was a son of Jacob, Israel, his favorite. He had gone through some refining as well in his life especially with such a large family.
One of the things that got the anger and jealousy of his brothers is when Jacob, his father, gave him a special coat of many colors. Being a favorite son of Jacob, his brothers were jealous for this reason as well. Joseph had a dream one night and when it was given interpretation it was of him being superior over his brothers and the brothers bowing to him. Another dream he had was that the sun, moon and stars all bowed down to him. This angered his brothers even more and Jacob, his dad, was shocked. While the brothers were out feeding the flock, Jacob had Joseph go and see how they were doing. They saw him far off and started conspiring with each other to do something to Joseph. First they talked of killing him but Reuben, one of the brothers said not to shed his blood. So they threw him into a pit and left him there and Reuben had a thought about going back to get him. Well, Reuben must not have gotten there in time because the brothers decided to sell Joseph to a group of people that brought Joseph to Egypt. He was sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. Potiphar’s wife wanted to be with Joseph but Joseph turned her down and she devised a plan and this plan got Joseph put in prison. While he was in prison he caught the eye of the prison chief and became a boss in the prison. A couple of Pharaoh’s men, the chief baker and the chief butler had made Pharaoh upset so they got sent to prison with Joseph in charge. Both men had dreams and Joseph interpreted the dreams. Joseph told the chief butler his dream, he would be restored and that when he gets out to remember Joseph, and the chief baker was killed because he displeased Pharaoh. The chief butler had forgotten about Joseph but 2 years went by and Pharaoh had a dream and wanted it interpreted but nobody could. Then the chief butler remembered Joseph and Joseph was brought to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. For this interpretation, Joseph was made second in command in Egypt. Egypt and the surrounding areas experienced a famine and the wisdom that Joseph had enabled them to save food for the 7 years of the famine. When the famine had reached Jacob and his family, he sent his sons to Egypt to get food. When they got there, they didn’t recognize Joseph in his Egyptian outfit, after some agonizing discussions Joseph finally revealed himself to his brothers. He told them he was not angry with them, that while they thought evil for him, God had intended it for good. This was the story of Joseph’s refining.
Next up we have who we call the ‘Father of Faith’, Abraham. Abraham definitely had many trials in his refining. The LORD called Abram, before he became Abraham, and told him he would be a father of many nations. He told Abram to leave his father’s homeland and go to another land. The LORD told him that the land of the Canaanites would belong to Abram’s descendants, which is where Abram went to. Then famine broke out and Abram brought his caravan to Egypt. Because of his wife, Sarai, her beauty, he told her to say that she is Abram’s sister so the Egyptians wouldn’t kill him. Pharaoh had found out and threw him out of Egypt. Abram and his nephew, Lot, departed back to the south where Abram just was. The land couldn’t support both of Abraham’s and Lot’s flocks, so Abraham let Lot decide where he wanted to go. Abraham was expecting children as the LORD had said ‘Abram’s descendants’. Sarah was old and past childbearing age. So to give Abram a child, she said to lay with her handmaiden who happened to bear a child and named him Ishmael. God told Abraham this wasn’t the heir He was talking about. Finally, in Abraham’s 100th year aand Sarah’s 90th year, she became pregnant with Abraham’s child whom they named Isaac. Abraham loved Isacc as he was the son with his wife. One day God came and told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham didn’t flinch a muscle. He told his entourage to leave them at the bottom of the mountain and went up with Isaac. Isaac gathered wood for the sacrifice all the while asking where the lamb was. Abraham told Isaac that the LORD will provide. So Abraham tied him up, bound him to the altar of the sacrifice and just as he was about to sacrifice Isaac, an angel of the LORD appeared and told him to stop. The LORD was just testing him to see if he would obey Him in all things. Abraham was going to sacrifice his only son. This was credited to Abraham as righteousness, and for that reason, we call him the ‘Father of Faith’.
Now we come to the story of my own refining.
I had gotten into another relationship of 5 years, these were some difficult years. I had an online relationship with a woman from another country when I had met Dolores and she made me give her up. At the time I had been drinking alcohol pretty much daily. When I met Dolores I was lonely for a female. Soon she had come to move in with me, but I came to find out later that she did a drug that I don’t like, and by then it was too late, I couldn’t kick her out. We used to have friends over at our apartment and we would get loud. One time the Housing Authority had us in their office and we had to cool it on the noise. One Christmas eve morning we got loud again and got summoned back to the Housing Authority. But this time Dolores’ friend bought a house in Springfield and we moved, just missing a possible eviction. Now as time went on so did the drinks. She wasn’t taking care of herself; I did the cooking, cleaned her, bathed her and helped her with clothes. Mostly I did it out of pity because she was so big and couldn’t live on her own. So I stayed, I became more depressed every day. But the hardest part was when she passed away. It was the night before Easter 2021. I had laid down and took a nap. When I woke up, she was dead on my lap. This was a very humbling experience as I had never been so close to death before. Then with her dieing, 3 weeks later the landlord kicked me out and I was homeless but I still worked and was staying in a shelter. After she died I had a rough 3 years as my drinking was getting out of control. So I decided to get help for my drinking problem and I’ve been sober ever since, after going into a biblical based rehab. This is where I had started my podcasts and this website, and my ministry as a whole. So, from being a drunken man to preaching the Word is quite a refining.
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