REFINED BY AFFLICTION

"Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." (Isaiah 48:10).

 

"And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness." (Malachi 3:3).

 

Once we, as Christians, have submitted our lives to our heavenly Father, He begins a process of purging and purifying, of training and chastening, which is meant to remove from us all self-will, and transform us into the image of Jesus our Savior.  There is one word which I think best describes this process and the effect that it has on the individual that is exercised by it – that word is REFINED.

 

The Word of God is full of the history of men and women who, by faith, placed their lives in God's hands and, as a result, went through this refining process to become useful, spiritually mature children of God.  They accomplished God's divine purpose on earth, and left a living testimony behind them that has blessed and encouraged many generations of believers ever since.  Even today, the stories of these faithful men and women quicken faith in all who read of their deeds and believe.  All of these saints of old were common people like you and me.  They all had to be purged and chastened, and taught by God the Father; and most often, the instrument that God chose to use in their lives to accomplish this refining (and uses in our lives also) is "the furnace of affliction."  The Apostle Peter describes it like this: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.” (1 Peter 4:12).

 

It is evident throughout scripture that God refines His people through trials and afflictions.  Consider the following verses: 

 

·        “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes.” (Psalms 119:71). 

·        “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy word.” (Psalms 119:67). 

·        “I know, O LORD, that Thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.” (Psalms 119:75). 

·        “O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction.” (Jeremiah 16:19).  “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2Corinthians 4:17). 

·        “Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.” (James 5:10). 

 

Jesus Himself was a partaker of afflictions while He walked in flesh and blood.  The Bible tells us, “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth...” (Isaiah 53:7).  Scripture also makes it plain that the Lord has a great love for His children and walks with us through every trial that we face in life.  “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” (Isaiah 63:9). 

 

One of the best examples of God's refining work in an individual is the life of Jacob.  When Jacob and his twin brother Esau were born, God said to their mother Rebekah, "The elder shall serve the younger."  (Genesis 25:23; Romans 9:12)  So, from their birth, it was established that God would bless Jacob over his brother Esau, who was born just moments before him.  Rebekah favored Jacob and so she undoubtedly shared this word from the Lord with the son whom she loved so dearly.  Esau made it easy for Jacob later in life, though.  When Esau one day returned famished from hunting and saw that Jacob had prepared a meal, he readily gave up his birthright to Jacob for a mere bowl of stew (Genesis 25:29-34).  From that point it became clear to Jacob that the dominion was his. 

 

Now God had clearly spoken concerning His purpose for Jacob, and that should have been sufficient for him to trust and wait upon the Lord to fulfill it.  After all, he had the testimony of his grandfather Abraham and how he had waited so long for the promised seed to be born to him and Sarah.  God proved Himself faithful even when it appeared that their bodies were no longer able to conceive children.  Jacob's father, Isaac, certainly had told him many times how he was that promised seed and through him and his offspring God would raise up a people as numerous as the stars of heaven.  He also must have heard the story of how Abraham had tried to fulfill the promise in his own way by having a child with Sarah's handmaid Hagar - and he knew well enough how that turned out!  Jacob was a clever man, however.  When the time came for him to receive his father's final blessing, he seized upon a plan to deceive his dad, and fulfill God's purpose through his own efforts.  He should have instead waited upon God to fulfill his sure Word in His time and manner.  Because of his "cleverness" and self-dependence, his deception worked great wrath in his brother Esau, and Jacob was forced to flee from his home and family and go to his uncle Laban's house in Padanaram (Genesis 27:1-40).

 

On his way to Padanaram, God appeared to Jacob in a dream and showed him a ladder set upon the earth and reaching to heaven, and on this ladder the angels of God were ascending and descending.  What a revelation!  God made it very clear to Jacob that access to Himself was the work of His hand only - none of man's methods would avail him to reach to God.  This vision was a glimpse of Jesus Himself, the ladder of God Who opens a portal to the Father.  Jesus Himself alluded to this story when He told Nathanael, "Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."  (John 1:51)  In this place God spoke to Jacob and told him, "I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of." (Genesis 28:15).

 

Dear friend, can you hear the voice of your Father speaking to you these words?  Jesus said, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."  Why is it, then, that when we're in the midst of turmoil, we so quickly assume that He's not with us?  Can't we see that it is through such day to day struggles that we learn to hear His voice, and wait patiently on His working in our lives?  Even the seemingly insignificant hassles of life which we think God isn't interested in become opportunities for Him to instruct us, and prepare us for something greater down the road.  After all, if we can't overcome in the "little" things now - showing patience, graciously taking criticism, suffering unjust actions against ourselves without losing our "cool," etc. - how do we expect to endure when our faith is tried by the fires of persecution and tribulation that lie ahead?

 

Jacob reached his uncle Laban's home and served him for many years keeping his flocks in exchange for the hand of Laban's daughters.  During all his years of service, God was refining Jacob into the servant that He wanted him to be.  God wanted Jacob to see his own weakness, but realize how mighty He could be through him.  After 20 years of service to Laban, Jacob finally departed to return to Canaan.  Those twenty years of service certainly had the effect of refining Jacob into a more useful servant to God.  We see a different Jacob returning to Canaan then the one who had left.  He was more humble and less self dependant.  His faith was in God and not in himself. 

 

On his way back home to Canaan, Jacob had another encounter with God.  At the brook of Jabbok, he wrestled all night with the angel of the Lord until the Lord reached out and touched Jacob's thigh and made him lame.  From that time forth it was to be a reminder of his own weakness and fallibility, and of God's sure and unfailing power and purpose.  He was slowly learning that it was God Who gives strength and dominion, and that His grace would always be sufficient, for His strength is made perfect in weakness  (2 Corinthians 12:9).  After Jacob was wounded, every time he walked or tried to use that leg, it affected him; and he remembered his weakness.  So it is with us.  Once God deals with us in an area, and we have quit wrestling with God and trying to work it out in our own power and “cleverness,” then we find that He is more than capable to work what He wants in us.  Through everything that Jacob suffered, he became settled, mature, and REFINED.

 

God has said, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," and also, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Isaiah 55:8 and Proverbs 14:12).  Once we belong to the Lord, it is His desire to reveal Himself to us.  The carnal, natural mind is not subject to God and to His ways, however.  Our ways, no matter how noble they may seem, are in opposition to God’s purpose.  We cannot understand God’s ways with the natural mind, for they are foolish to to us and contrary to the way in which the world appears to work.  “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:14).  Therefore, when we are born again, God sends His own Spirit into our hearts to teach us of Himself.  “For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:10).  Once we are saved, we do not become perfected overnight.  Little by little, God teaches us His ways and we begin to mature, walking in the light that He sheds on our pathway.  Jesus said of the Spirit, “And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment...I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.  Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear [from the Father], that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.” (John 16:8, 12, 13).  Through the afflictions that we suffer in this life, and by the Spirit of God speaking the Father’s will to us, we begin to learn that God’s way is the best way.

 

It would be nice if we could just hear God’s voice and walk perfectly in His will without ever straying; but as the old song goes, it takes “a meltin’ and a breakin’” for us to learn not to trust in the flesh.  We can take comfort in the fact that we are not alone in this, however.  Scripture says, “The same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” (I Peter 5:9).  Every child of God is going through the same refining – no one is exempt.  We can also be confident in the fact that any suffering that we experience while going through trials will ultimately work to perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle us in the faith (I Peter 5:9).  God knows what He’s doing!

 

As we come through each trial, we grow stronger for the next.  We begin to look for God’s hand and His will in everything that befalls us.  We learn what God means when He instructs us to acknowledge Him in all our ways.  Then, when we can view the things that come our way not as hindrances to our spirituality, but as opportunities to grow in faith, we will experience the peace of God that passes all understanding.

 

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (James 1:2-4).  This passage always seemed like a paradox to me.  I would try to pass through my trials and temptations with a big smile on my face in an effort to show my joy.  One day the Lord let the scales fall from my eyes so that I could more fully understand the scripture.  What the Lord showed me was that it wasn’t the “diverse temptations” that I needed to find joy in, but the “knowing this.”  Knowing what?  Knowing that the trying of my faith works patience!  Praise God!  My trials and afflictions are working something good and profitable in me!  I don’t have to pass through difficulties and allow them to destroy me.  I can come out of those times richer than I went in.  I can count it all joy because my Savior is on the throne and He is working to make me more like Him.  His eye is on the righteous and His ear is open to their cry.  I am in His hands and not at the mercy of circumstances!

 

“But let patience have her perfect work.”  Too many times we try to run away from the affliction or trial.  We cry out for deliverance because we just can’t take any more.  We must let patience have her perfect work, though.  If we don’t, sooner or later we’ll have to pass that way again until we learn what God wants us to.  If we endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, we will come through stronger and wiser, and better equipped to help those who also are passing through trials. 

 

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (James 1:5).  You say you don’t understand what the Lord is trying to work in your life?  Ask Him!  He won’t scold or find fault with you.  He wants you to know His will.  Oftentimes we are so set in our ways that He has to really shake us to get us to see something of ourselves.  We pray for more love, more peace, more faith, more patience, but act surprised when something comes along to try these things.  If we desire His love, then He allows someone very unlovable to enter our life so that we will learn that our love is insufficient, but His is unconditional.  If it’s patience we desire, look out!  No matter what it is we need from God, He is willing and able to supply it, but we must first come to the end of self before we will rely on that supply.  When gold and silver are refined, they are put placed in a crucible over intense heat until they are melted to liquid.  Once this happens, the impurities come to the top where the refiner can skim them away.  We too must experience intense heat in order for our impurities to become evident.  It is more for our sake than the Lord’s.  He knows they’re there all along – it’s we who often can’t see our own faults and weaknesses.  Our righteousness is self-righteousness, and it is like filthy rags to God.  Christ must be the center  and source of our spiritual life.  He is our love; He is our peace; He is our patience.  In fact, He is our everything!  “But of Him [God] are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30, 31).

 

Moses was one whom God called for a mighty work.  There was some refining that the Lord had to accomplish in Moses also before He could use him for His ultimate purpose.  Moses certainly had a burden for what God was calling him to do, but he had his own ideas about how to accomplish God’s will.  One day he saw an Egyptian smiting one of Hebrew brethren, and so Moses took matters in his own hands and killed the Egyptian.  Then, the next day as he was trying to break up a fight between two Hebrews, the one who did the wrong said, “Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?  Intendest thou to kill me as thou killedst the Egyptian?” (Exodus 2:14).  Then Moses knew he’s made a serious mistake!  There are many well-intentioned brothers and sisters who launch out into something that the Lord did not call them to do, or in a way that He did not direct, only to find that they have caused a lot of needless problems for themselves and for others.  Oh, how we need to cease from our own labors so that the Lord can work through us!  Moses was forced to flee the country and live in the land of Midian for forty years.  It was there that God met with Moses and refined him for the work that He wanted him to do.

 

Moses was tending sheep for his father-in-law Jethro when the Lord appeared to him.  As he led his sheep to the backside of the desert God revealed Himself to Moses in a burning bush.  When Moses saw it, He said “I will now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush is not burnt.” (Exodus 3:3).  As Moses approached the bush the angel of the Lord spoke to him and said, “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” (v. 5).  It was there that God revealed His purpose and calling for Moses’ life.  God is just waiting for us to turn aside from our own purpose – our will, our entertainments and distractions, our goals, and plans – to come and learn the lesson of the burning bush.  You see, this bush was engulfed in flames and yet it wasn’t being consumed to ash because it was being replenished at the same rate in which it was burning up.  This is the key to how God wants to operate in our lives.  He is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24;  Hebrews 12:29) and He wishes to burn up, not just all the sin in our life, but the self will and self dependence that we all rely on naturally.  This may seem like all loss to many and no gain, but as the Lord burns away the dross, He is also replenishing us with the new life that is in Jesus Christ.  John the Baptist understood this principle and affirmed it when he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30).  When we can learn to present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God then we, too, stand on very holy ground indeed.  Christ is going to “thoroughly purge His floor” so that all the chaff is destroyed and only the pure wheat is left.  He is doing this by refining us in the furnace of affliction.

 

After God refined him in the wilderness, Moses was no longer so eager to do things on his own.  He had come to realize and appreciate the importance of waiting on the Lord.  Then he could understand God’s will and why the Lord had dealt with him in the way that He had.  In the end Moses became a willing vessel who was ready to seek the Lord’s will above his own and “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” (Hebrews 11:25).

 

So, ask of God, and He will give you the wisdom to understand what He is working in your life.  That word of wisdom will then give you hope and patience to believe that all things do indeed work together for good to those who love God, and are the called according to His purpose.  “Remember the word unto Thy servant, upon which Thou hast caused me to hope.  This is my comfort in my affliction: for Thy word hath quickened me.” (Psalms 119:49, 50).

 

“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.  For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” (James 1:6).  Nothing wavering!  We must hunger and thirst to know and to do God’s will.  “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” (v. 8).  Such a person is constantly in confusion, always up and down, and never established or settled in his faith.  He who trusts in the Lord with all his heart, though, can say with Job, “When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10).

 

“Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: but the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.” (James 1:9, 10).  God does not deal with all of us in exactly the same way.  Knowing our individual weaknesses and faults, He allows just enough heat to refine us, and nothing more.  Like a master refiner God’s eyes never leave the crucible until the process is complete.  The brother of low degree may be victorious under normal circumstances, but he may be allowed to learn humility and dependence on God by being exalted.  The rich man, on the other hand, may need to be brought low so that he will learn not to trust in uncertain riches.  Let them both rejoice!  Almighty God is perfecting His nature in them, and in each case, He knows what it takes to do that.  The Apostle Paul said, “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” (Philippians 4:12).  “Everywhere and in all things” we too are instructed!  The lesson that the Lord wants us to come away with then is this: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:11).  

 

When my wife and I were very young in the Lord, I was laid off from my job for many weeks.  We were living pretty “close to the bone” in those days and because I didn’t get an unemployment check for a few weeks, we were running out of meat and couldn’t afford to buy any.  We had enough of everything else to get us by, but we had eaten almost all the meat that we had.  One afternoon we sat down to our last meal that would contain meat for awhile.  Now we would have survived fine without meat, but the Lord had been teaching us in the scripture about His promises to provide for His own and we believed that we could take Him at His word.  So we sat down and bowed our heads to our heavenly Father, reminding Him of His promises and affirming our faith in what He had shown us.  We firmly believed that we didn’t have to hint to our family or friends that we had a need – we knew they would help us in an instant if we did – we just needed to let our Father know and He would take care of us.  As soon as we finished that prayer there came a knock on our front door.  When I answered it, it was a friend from our church fellowship who walked in with a large paper grocery bag in his arms.  He walked over to our table and set down the bag saying, “I hope I’m not offending you, but I just came from my dad’s farm and he just butchered a cow and needed to clear out his freezer from all the old meat to make room for the new.  Can you guys use all of this?”  Our friend was single so he couldn’t use much of it himself.  He began to pull out steaks and roasts and ground beef, and all the time we were shouting and blessing God for His provision.  Our friend was amazed and blessed once we told him how we had prayed.

 

During this period God provided many needs for us even before we could pray about them.  Once, we were out of potatoes and when we opened our back door, someone had left just a bag of potatoes there for us.  Another time we needed toilet paper and found that someone had left a package at our door.  By our need we learned that we could trust God to supply those needs both then, and in the future.  I can say that in almost 50 years He has always been faithful to take care of my wife and I and our five children.

 

“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man.” (James 1:13).  Let no one think that God tempts us with evil.  He does not!  He does, however, allow things to come our way in order to perfect us.  Satan is the tempter, and he is like a roaring lion that walks about seeking someone to devour.  God will only let him go so far.  God’s eye is always on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry.  The Bible tells us that God is faithful, and that He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bare.  Often He provides a way of escape to His children when they call out to Him.

 

“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.  Do not err, my beloved brethren.” (James 1:14-16).  It is the lusts of the eyes, of the flesh, and the pride of life that lead us to sin.  These are the things that God, through His Son Jesus Christ, has given us power to overcome.  These things work spiritual death in us.  It is these things that have brought on the world all of the corruption, cruelty, and depravity.  It is the Lord Jesus and His righteousness that is the world’s only escape and salvation.  Without Him there is no hope, but thanks to God we have the victory in Christ!

 

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not to thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:5, 6).  It would be good for us to remind ourselves of these verses every day so that the Lord might direct our paths.  We should not have to be goaded to do God’s will every step of our time here on earth.  We should study to learn God’s voice and seek to discern His direction.  God tells us in Psalm 32, “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye.  Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.  Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass him about.” (Psalms 32:8-10).  We don’t need to be like the horse or mule that require unusual and painful methods to get them to follow our direction.  Instead, if we keep our eyes on Jesus, He can guide us with just a look, and we will see and respond.  As we progress with the Lord we should be increasingly aware of His leading, and more and more fearful to trust in our own feelings or notions. 

 

God is speaking to His church today that they be “zealous therefore, and repent.” Time is short, and the days are dark and getting darker.  We need a zeal for God – a zeal to rid our lives of anything that is unclean or that is a snare to our spiritual progress and relationship with Christ.  If we draw close to God, He will draw close to us.  Let us look unto Jesus and take hope in all our afflictions knowing that we are being refined by the Master.  He wants to see the “peaceable fruit of righteousness” in us.  Then we will reflect the image of the Creator in these earthen vessels. 

 

One final word I would say.  Afflictions enter our lives for a wide variety of reasons.  We have been made subject to vanity, and finding ourselves in sinful flesh we must humble ourselves and become obedient to God, learning to walk in His Spirit and not in our fleshly instincts.  Afflictions aren’t always because there is something wrong in our life.  Sometimes we suffer needs so that we can be witnesses of God’s faithfulness to others who are watching our lives.  As death works in us (death to self), then we can minister the life of Christ to others who see our good conversation in adverse circumstances.  We must never be judgmental of others who are going through difficult times.  They are servants of another, and to their own Master they stand or fall.  Instead, let’s pray for one another that God will be glorified and that we will come to understand the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings as we experience them in our flesh. 

 

I’m reminded of the three young Hebrew men who were cast into a furnace of fire in Babylon because they would not bow to an idol.  What a terrifying, violent proposition that they had to face.  It was certain death!  God did not let that happen though.  They were cast into their “furnace of affliction” but found there the presence of Jesus Himself in the form of a fourth man who walked with them in the flames and protected them from destruction!  God always walks with us also through the flames.  He sits as a “refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi.” Amen!