The Refiner's Fire

In Psalm 105 we read about the providential hand of God in the life of his children. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant, whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in iron until the time that his word came.

The word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance.

Here we see the sovereign hand displayed in the life of Joseph, betrayed by his brethren, sold into slavery, brought low by circumstance, humbled, and then exalted. The Puritan Thomas Watson observed, Some are designed and cut out for higher service, to be eminently instrumental for God, and these must have a mightier work of humiliation pass upon them. Those whom God intends to be pillars in his church must be more hewn.

Paul, the prince of the apostles, who was to be gods and sin-bearer, to carry his name before the gentiles and kings, was to have his heart more deeply lanced by repentance. And it's true, friends, if God has chosen you for something more, by being bred for his people and useful to him, then be prepared for some very drastic handling by God in his refiner's fire. God builds his servants through his divine process of reducing and decreasing.

Gold must be reduced to its purity in the furnace of affliction. A branch must be trimmed back and decreased before it can grow more fruit. If we desire further usefulness to God, then we must submit to both the refiner's fire and the divine pruning knife.

We must be willing to be reduced to nothing so he can be everything through us. But the word I want to focus on in our passage today is the word tried, where our text reads, The word of the Lord tried him. That word in the original Hebrew means to refine, to test.

It speaks of the purifying process of the refiner, who heats metal, takes away the dross, and is left with a pure substance. A tradesman like a goldsmith or silversmith is pictured here as he sits over a boiling cauldron of fire, performing his refining work, heating the fire and purging the precious metal of all its impurities. There is Joseph.

Imprisoned with Pharaoh's chief baker and chief butler, Joseph interprets their dreams. One is hanged and the other set free, and Joseph pleads with the butler to speak a word to the royal court on his behalf. But think on me, when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mansion of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.

Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him. God wasn't through with Joseph yet. There was still some need of more refining.

Joseph sat in that prison for another two long, dreadful years, betrayed by his brethren, forgotten by man. Perhaps you, friend, are going through a trial, and you feel forgotten by friends, and even betrayed by brethren. Or perhaps you are in some adverse circumstance, where your world has suddenly come crashing down like waves on a rocky cliff, and it's a hard place, and you feel forgotten.

But remember this. When the silversmith places a silver into the fire, he never once takes his eyes off the silver. The devil will tempt you to make you feel that you are forgotten of God, but God has not forgotten you.

He is there with you in the fire, like he was in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. There in the flames was a fourth man in that furnace, the Lord Jesus Christ. If God has providentially placed you into trial, we must rest in the fact that God is always good, and God is always on time for our good and His purpose.

Like it says in Romans 8.28, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. I'll never forget the story Dr. Stephen F. Oldford shared with me. He related to me that when he was a young man, he visited his uncle in England who had a pharmacy.

He walked into the shop and found his uncle in a back room, bent over a table full of mixing bowls and glass bottles of various colored chemicals. The man would take a little of this and a little of that, and pour them into the bowl, and then mix them up to produce a medicine to help someone. Then Dr. Oldford said, God is like that.

He is the divine alchemist who takes a little of this and a little of that in our life's trials, and then mixes them together for our good and for His purpose and His glory. I like that, friend, and it's true. The next time you are being tried in the fire, remember these things we discussed today, and stand on His word and rest in His grace, and He will pull you through for His glory.