Isaiah 48:10

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver

Refined, but not with silver

More severely, yet more exactly than silver (Stier)

Less strictly than silver (Cheyne)

It was a melting of a higher sort, the suffering which befell Israel doing for it the work of a furnace (Hitzig, Delitzsch)

Possibly, not with the result of gaining silver (A.

B. Davidson)

Refined, but not with silver

The Lord refines His people, but He exercises great discrimination as to the means by which He does so. A silver furnace is one of the very best for the removal of dross, and would seem to be well adapted for refining the most precious things, but it is not choice enough for the Lord’s purpose with His people. It is prepared with extreme care, and has great separating power, but the purging away of sin needs greater care and more cleansing energy than a silver refinery can supply. The greatest delicacy of skill is exhibited by the refiner, who watches over the process, and regulates the degree of heat and the length of time in which the precious metal shall lie in the crucible: this, then, might well serve as a figure of the best mode of sanctification, but evidently the figure falls short in its delicacy. The process of silver refining is, no doubt, one of the best arranged and most ably conducted of the works of man; but when the Lord sits as a refiner, He executes His work with greater wisdom and Diviner art. Silver refining is but rough work compared with the Lord’s purification of His people, and therefore He says, “I have refined thee, but not with silver.” The Lord hath a furnace of His own, and in this special furnace He purifies His people by secret processes unknown to any but Himself. No one would think of refining silver by the same rough means as they smelt iron, so neither will the Lord purify His precious ones, who are far above silver in value, by any but the choicest methods. More subtle and yet more searching, more spiritual and yet more true, more gentle and yet more effectual are the purifying processes of Heaven; there is no refiner like our refiner, and no purity like that which the Spirit works in us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

God’s refining furnace

The Lord has special dealings with each one of His saints, and refines each one by a process peculiar to the individual, not heaping all His precious metals into one furnace of silver, but refining each metal by itself. “I have refined thee.” “I have chosen thee.” Not “you,” but “thee.”

I. Between God’s election and the furnace there is this connection--that THE FURNACE WAS THE FIRST TRYSTING-PLACE BETWEEN ELECTING LOVE AND OUR SOULS. Before one solitary star had begun to peer through the darkness the Lord had given over His people unto Christ to be His heritage, and their names were in His book; but the first manifestation of His electing love to any one of us was--where? I venture to say it was in the furnace. Abraham knew little of God’s love to him till the voice said, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.” I do not think that Isaac knew much about God’s choice of him till he went up the mountain’s side, and said to his father, “Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offerings.” So was it with Jacob. Little did he understand the mystery of electing love till he lay down one night with the stones for his pillow, the hedges for his curtains, the skies for his canopy, and no attendant but his God. Certainly, Israel as a nation did not understand God’s election till the people were in Egypt; and then, when Goshen, the land of plenty, became a land of brickmaking and sorrow and grief, and the iron bondage entered into their souls, their cried unto God, and began to understand that secret word--“I have called My son out of Egypt.” They knew then that God had put a difference between Israel and Egypt. God finds His people in the place of trial, and there He reveals Himself in His special character as their God. Did He not say to Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry?” When did you first know anything about God’s choice of you? Was it not when you were in trouble--in many cases in temporal trouble? I make no kind of exception to another rule, namely, that we first began to learn electing love when we were in spiritual distress.

II. It is very clear that THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION DOES NOT CHANGE THE ELECTION OF GOD. If He chose us in it, then His choice stands good while we are in it and when we are out of it. If the very first knowledge we had of His electing love found us at the gates of despair, we can never be worse than we were then, nor can His love see less to rest upon. Yet have I known a great many fears cross the mind of God’s anxious people when the smoke of the furnace has brought tears into their eyes. No amount of trouble, no degree of pain, no possibility of grief can change the mind of God towards His people. The furnace may alter the believer’s circumstances, but not his acceptance with God. The furnace very often alters our friends. And the furnace changes us very wonderfully. Believe very firmly in the fixity of the Divine choice.

III. THE FURNACE IS THE VERY ENSIGN OF ELECTION. The escutcheon the coat of arms--of election is the furnace. You know that it was so in the old covenant which God made with Abraham. He gave him a type when the victim was divided. When a deep sleep fell upon the patriarch there passed before him a smoking furnace and a burning lamp, two signs that always mark the people of God. There is a lamp to light them, but there is also a smoking furnace to try them. “No cross, no crown.” If you think of our great Master’s dying will and testament, what is its prominent codicil? “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” That the Lord refines us shows His value of us.

IV. THE FURNACE IS THE WORKSHOP OF ELECTING LOVE. God has chosen us unto holiness. There is no man in this world chosen to go to heaven apart from being made fit to go there. Electing love uses the furnace to consume our dross. The Lord uses the furnace also to prepare the soul for a more complete fashioning. The metal must be melted before it can be poured into the mould, and affliction is used by the Holy Ghost to melt the heart and to fit it to receive the fashion and take the shape of the sacred mould into which heavenly wisdom delivers it. Besides, affliction has much to do in loosening a Christian from this world.

V. THE FURNACE IS A GREAT SCHOOL WHEREIN WE LEARN ELECTION ITSELF.

1. In the furnace we learn the graciousness of election. When a child of God in the time of trouble sees the corruption of his heart he begins to say,

“How can the Lord ever love me? If He has loved me, His affection must be traced to free sovereign grace.”

2. There, too, we learn the holiness of election, for while we lie suffering, a voice says, “God will not spare thee, because there is still sin in thee: He will cleanse thee from every false way.”

3. Then, too, we see what a loving thing election is, for never is God so loving to His people consciously as when they are in the flames of trouble.

4. It is at such times that God’s people know the power of electing love.

5. And it is at such times that the sweetness of God’s electing love comes home to the Christian heart, for he rejoices in his tribulation while he is conscious of the love of God.

VI. BY THE FURNACE SOME OF THE HIGHER ENDS OF A YET MORE SPECIAL ELECTION ARE OFTEN REVEALED, for there is not only an election of grace, but there is an election from among the elect to the highest position and to the noblest service. Jesus Christ had many choice disciples, but it is written, “I have chosen you twelve.” Out of the twelve there were three; and out of the three there was one, elect of the elect--that loving, tender John, who leaned upon his Master’s bosom. The furnace has much to do with this, as a rule, since it usually attends and promotes the higher states of grace, and the wider ranges of usefulness.

1. With the preacher this truth is seen; affliction makes him eminent. I do not think that the preacher will long feed God’s saints if he does not read in that volume which Luther said was one of the three best books in his library, namely, affliction. That book is printed in the black letter, but it has some wonderful illuminations in it, and he who would teach the people must often weep over its Chapter s. Men never bake bread so well as when the oven is well heated, nor do we prepare sermons so well as when the fire burns around us.

2. So is it with the Christian hero, he could never lead the host if he had not been chastened of the Lord in secret places. Calvin, that mightiest master in Israel, clear, upright, and profound, suffered daily under a list of diseases, any one of which would have made a constant invalid of a less courageous man; and, although always early in the morning at the cathedral delivering his famous expositions which have enriched the Church of God, yet he always bore about with him a body full of anguish. Nor could England find a Wycliffe, nor Scotland a Knox, nor Switzerland a Zwingle, except it be where the refiner sits at the furnace door. It must be so. No sword is fit for our Lord’s handling till it has been full oft annealed. So it will be with us if we would rise. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction

The use of the furnace

The twofold use of the furnace is--

I. TO PROVE OR TEST METALS.

II. TO PURIFY THEM, OR REFINE THEM BY SEPARATING THE DROSS FROM THE GENUINE. Discipline of every kind, is God’s chosen furnace to test and purify His people. (Homiletic Review.)

The furnace of affliction

A furnace is a fireplace or crucible for melting and refining gold or other metals (Proverbs 17:3; Proverbs 27:21). Sometimes it is the emblem of cruel bondage (Deuteronomy 4:20; Jeremiah 11:4). Also of judgments and severe and grievous afflictions, by which God punishes the rebellious (Ezekiel 22:18). By the furnace of affliction He also tries and proves His people. This furnace is--

I. AFFLICTIVE. It is composed of many severe trials, which are designed by the great proprietor and manager of this furnace, to purge and refine the souls of His people.

1. Sometimes they are tried by the scantiness of temporal things. This may be induced by want of employment; it may be the result of sickness; it may result from the injustice of man.

2. Frequently the saints are chastised with bodily afflictions.

3. Sometimes they suffer from bereavements.

4. They too have domestic trials of various kinds from ungodly relatives, refractory and disobedient children, &c. Thousands of God’s people have been in this furnace. Moses, David, &c. Even Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

II. THIS FURNACE IS DIVINELY APPOINTED. It is not the result of chance; afflictions arise not out of the dust; they are not the works of our enemies merely. They imply the moral government of God, and the wise and gracious arrangement of His providence. Every event is either His appointment, or has His all-wise permission. Such views of the subject have reconciled and supported the minds of the godly under their various afflictions. What a blessing that all is arranged by infinite Wisdom and Love!

III. THIS FURNACE IS NOT VINDICTIVE, BUT GRACIOUS. Divine chastisement may be a kind of punishment for sin committed. It supposes some fault, which it is intended to correct. But when men are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, it does not appear to be for sin. It may be for righteousness’ sake on the part of man, and for unrighteousness’ sake on God’s part. God will suffer persecution and reproach to befall us, when we are cold and indifferent in His cause. But such punishment is not like that inflicted on the wicked.

IV. THIS FURNACE IS DESIGNED FOR THE SPIRITUAL AND EVERLASTING BENEFIT OF THE CHURCH ONLY. Even as a furnace is prepared for the refining of gold, so afflictions are appointed for the saints who are compared to gold (Lamentations 4:2; Job 23:10). This intimates to us the high value which the Divine Being places upon His people. They are His jewels, His chosen, a peculiar people. &c., and it is His will that they should shine in the world, and exhibit the glory and power of His grace.

V. THIS FURNACE IS PROPORTIONATE. He will regulate its heat according to the circumstances of His people who may be placed there. “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver,” &c. As a refiner adopts this posture for minute inspection, and that he may quicken the fire, or lower its temperature, as a view of the process may intimate, so the Divine presence, inspection, and compassion may well comfort the afflicted saint (1 Corinthians 10:13; Isaiah 43:2; Hebrews 4:15). There can be no caprice, no unwise or intemperate anger in Him. Compassion is mixed with the severest dispensations, and a wise distinction made between the different members of His family. God often tries the faith and patience of such as have been long under tuition, and are like the elder branches of His household, while He spares the young and inexperienced.

VI. THE TENDENCY OF THIS FURNACE IS BENEFICIAL. “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” A more proper translation would have been, “I have tried thee,” &c. By affliction of various kinds I have proved thy faith, hope, patience, and love. The root of the matter is within thee. Matthew Henry gives this beautiful exposition, “I have made thee a choice one by the good which the furnace has done thee.” God has nevertheless chosen some in the furnace of affliction. He has met them there, and by His Spirit has subdued them, and brought them to repentance, faith, and consecration to Himself. The design of a position in this furnace is to purify the Christian from sin, to wean from the world, &c. Application--

1. Let the sublime design of this furnace induce patience and submission.

2. Remember the time of trial is but short. “Weeping may endure,” &c. Called the day of adversity; the hour of affliction; but for a moment.

3. What a furnace of infliction awaits the ungodly in the world to come. (Helps for the Pulpit.)

God’s people in the furnace

1. All persons in the furnace of affliction are not chosen. It is a great truth that every child of God is afflicted, but it is a lie that every afflicted man is a child of God.

2. The second preliminary remark I would make is on the immutability of God’s love to His people. Think not, when you are in trouble, that God has cast you off.

I. IF YOU WANT GOD’S PEOPLE YOU MUST GENERALLY LOOK FOR THEM IN THE FURNACE. Look at the world in its primeval age, when Adam and Eve are expelled the garden. They have begotten two sons, Cain and Abel: which of them is the child of God? Yonder one who lies there smitten by the club, a lifeless corpse; he who has just now been in the furnace of his brother’s enmity and persecution. A few hundred years roll on, and where is the child of God? There is one man whose ears are continually vexed with the conversation of the wicked and who walks with God, even Enoch, and he is the child of God. Descend further still till you come to the days of Noah. You will find the man who is laughed t, hooted as a fool, building a ship upon dry land, standing in the furnace of slander and laughter: that is the elect of God. Go on still through history; let the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob pass before you, and you may write upon all of them: “These were God’s tried people.” Then go down to the time when Israel went into Egypt. Do you ask me to find out God’s people? I take you not to the palaces of Pharaoh, but to the brick-kilns of Egypt. As we follow on in the paths of history, where were God’s family next? They were in the furnace of the wilderness, suffering privation and pain. Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, against whom the people took up stones to stone them: these were distinguished above their fellows as being elect out of the chosen nation. Pass through Judges and come to the time of Saul, and where was God’s servant then? He is in the furnace--wandering in the caves of Engedi, climbing the goat tracks, hunted like the partridge by a remorseless foe. And after his days where were the saints? Not in the halls of Jezebel, nor sitting at the table of Ahab. They are hidden by fifties in the cave, and fed by bread and water. I might tell you of the days of Maccabees, when God’s children were put to death without number, by all manner of tortures till then unheard of. I might tell you of the days of Christ, and point to the despised fishermen, to the laughed at and persecuted apostles. I might go on through the days of popery, and point to those who died upon the mountains or suffered in the plains. I suppose it shall be so until the latest age.

II. THE REASON FOR THIS.

1. It is the stamp of the covenant.

2. All precious things have to be tried. The diamond must be cut. Gold, too, must be tried. It was one of the laws of God, “Everything that may abide the fire, ye shall make go through the fire, and it shall be clean” Numbers 31:23). It is a law of nature, it is a law of grace, that everything that can abide the fire--every-thing that is precious--must be tried.

3. The Christian is said to be a sacrifice to God. Now every sacrifice must be burned with fire.

4. Another reason why we must be put in the furnace is, because else we should not be at all like Jesus Christ. If He walked through the flames, must not we do the same?

III. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE FURNACE?

1. It purifies us.

2. It makes us more ready to be moulded. What could our manufacturers do if they could not melt the metal they use? They could not make half the various things we see around us, if they were not able to liquify the metal, and afterwards mould it. There could be no good men in the world if it were not for trouble. We could none of us be made useful if we could not be tried in the fire.

3. Then the furnace is very useful to God’s people because they get more light there than anywhere else. If you travel in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, or in other manufacturing districts, you will be interested at night by the glare of light which is cast by all those furnaces. It is labour’s own honourable illumination. There is no place where we learn so much, and have so much light cast upon Scripture, as we do in the furnace.

4. One more use of the furnace--and I give this for the benefit of those who hate God’s people--is, that it is useful for bringing plagues on our enemies. Do you not remember the passage in Exodus, where “the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast”? There is nothing that so plagues the enemies of Israel, as “handfuls of ashes of the furnace” that we are able to cast upon them. The devil is never more devoid of wisdom than when he meddles with God’s people, and tries to run down God’s minister. “Run him down!” Sir, you run him up! Persecution damages our enemies; it cannot hurt us.

IV. THE COMFORTS IN THE FURNACE.

1. The comfort of the text itself--election. Let affliction come--God has chosen me.

2. You have the Son of Man with you in the furnace. Conclusion--There is another great furnace. “The pile thereof is of wood and much smoke, the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, shall kindle it.” Would you be saved? There is but one way. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” (C. H.Spurgeon.)

God’s glory concerned in our holiness

(with Isaiah 48:11):--We have a right to be made as pure as God can make us. This is our claim upon Him. He created us, and we have a right to demand that He should make out of us the best He can, and should do this refining work on the creatures He has called into being. It is His duty to burn up our dross, and bring out our full beauty and worth. Love demands that He should. (Mrs. H. W. Smith.)

Chosen in the furnace

In 1553 Sir Thomas Palmer was led from the Tower to be executed. He leaped upon the scaffold, red with the blood of four companions previously executed. “Good-morning to you all, good people,” he said, looking round him with a smile; “ye come hither to see me die, and to see what nerve I have. Marry, I will tell you: I have seen more in yonder terrible place (the Tower) than ever I saw before throughout all the realms that ever I wandered in: for there I have seen God. I have seen the world, and I have seen myself: and when I beheld my life, I saw nothing but slime and clay, full of corruption: I saw the world nothing else but vanity, and all the pleasure thereof nothing worth: I saw God omnipotent, His power infinite, His mercy incomprehensible: and when I saw this, I submitted myself to Him, beseeching of His mercy and pardon, and I trust He hath forgiven me: for He called me once or twice before, but I would not turn to Him, but even now, by this sharp kind of death, He hath called me unto Him.” (H. O. Mackey.)

The furnace needed for perfection of character

“He would be a nice person,” wrote George Eliot in one of her letters concerning one, who might have been many a modern prosperous man, “if he had another soul added to the one he has by nature--the soul that comes by sorrow and love.”