Refinement
“But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver…”
Malachi 3:2-3a, NIV
Language is so inadequate when talking about God. As if words could possibly be found to express something, someone so beyond us! The use of metaphors and analogies have often been employed in both Scripture and theological writings as poor substitutes for the ineffable. The most familiar metaphors are likely those in the New Testament, especially in John’s Gospel, where Jesus repetitively uses statements beginning with “I am.” There, Jesus said, among others, “I am the bread of life,” (John 6:35) “I am the good shepherd,” (10:11) “I am the light of the world,” (8:12), and “I am the true vine.” (15:1) These “I am” statements continue to point toward and elucidate God’s great self-revelation in Exodus 3:14, “I am who I am,” and reveal Jesus as Himself being a sign of Yahweh in the flesh.
But long before these disclosures, the Old Testament made use of metaphors for trying to explain the Inexplicable One. God was seen as a rock in Deuteronomy 32:4, a viticulturist in Isaiah 5:4-7 and the breath of life in Job 33:4. A frequent metaphor used, and one of my favorites, is that of a consuming fire. Too often we modern Protestants read the word “fire” or “flame” and we think of the torturing fires of hell. Yet, most of the time when we read of fire in the Bible, it is the purifying fire of God’s love[1] or a physical manifestation of God’s glory. Think of the burning bush Moses encounters in Exodus 3 …
What? Love as purifying fire? Fire is not annihilating or arbitrary in this case, as it is in a wildfire, but it turns something worthless in and of itself into something brilliant and new. How else are gold and silver refined, made pure? Well, through targeted, sustained and extreme heat which breaks and separates the dross — the mineral waste — from that which can then be crafted into something strong and beautiful. What an apt analogy for the life of ongoing conversion into which Christians are called!
It is painful, this refining fire. In Isaiah 48:10, the prophet speaks of God testing the house of Jacob through the furnace of adversity. Life is our refining fire. Through the challenges of our lives, the trials and struggles, God is purifying us, refining us, through and by His fiery love.
Ponder, this Lent, how God’s refining fire has formed you in the past and discern what might still need refining in your walk with Christ.
[1] Richard Rohr, “Hell, No!” (Albuquerque, NM: Center for Action and Contemplation, 2014).
