It’s been so hot recently, that as I write this, the “real feel” outside is about 107 degrees. I joke about it being so hot this far South, that it’s like we’re on Venus, which is just a little dot on the Florida map, but maybe it’s a little cooler a few miles up North, but no… I’m also thinking about it could be worse, like how heat can be used to refine metal, and in reality it could be a lot hotter, out of the frying pan and into the fire. I wonder about how hot it must have been for old metal workers, those who refined raw iron ore. These were called smelters who worked in a foundry. Imagine how hot it must have been for a smelter in the heat of Summer, who had to put on thick leather overalls and special clothes, to protect themselves from molten metal splashes. They would wear special facemasks to protect their faces and eyes from the blinding light. They had to stoke the fires up with huge billows, fanning the roaring flames that were under giant smelting pots to get the temperatures in them up to several thousand degrees.
As the smelter dumped in the raw ore, it instantly would start melting and flowing as the smoke and sparks would shoot out. Up to the top of these pots would float all the slag, these are the impurities that get exposed in the refining process. And the smelter had to skim off the slag, until what is left is pure metal, strong and shining, with such a clarity that it’s like a mirror on the surface. But for a precious metal, like gold, the smelter would keep skimming the surface until he could see his face reflected in the mirror-like sheen on the surface.
Isn’t this the whole point of examining our spiritual lives, so that our impurities are exposed? It’s why our hearts need to be refined like the purest gold – until we reflect God’s light like pure 24 carat! That’s also why we need the refiner’s fire, which is exactly what Malachi also talks about in Chapter 3:3. It’s like our slag has to come to the surface to be skimmed off. In the process of being refined and purified, Jesus wants to see his face reflected in each of us individually. We call this process sanctification.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote about heat and the heart a little differently in chapter 17:7-14, as Jeremiah writes: “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat, or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit. The human heart is most deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; it is hopelessly dark, a puzzle that no one can figure out. Who really knows how bad it is? “But I know!” the Lord says, “I search all hearts! I examine secret motives! I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”
If we examine ourselves in the light of God’s Word of truth, we won’t be bothered by the heat of the refining process. We can also learn from Jeremiah that our own hearts can be deceitful, and that we often try to hide from the truth. Maybe we don’t want the Refiner to search our hearts and examine our secret motives. Jeremiah goes on in this same passage, and his words dig a little deeper, to expose the hidden places of the human heart, but it’s to put our broken hearts back together with divine healing and salvation, as Jeremiah puts it:
“Like a cowbird that cheats by laying its eggs in another bird’s nest, so is the person who gets rich by cheating. When the eggs hatch, the deceit is exposed. What a fool he’ll look like then! Sooner or later, those who cheat, who get their wealth and power by unjust means, will lose their riches, and at the end of their lives, will become poor powerless fools. But we will worship at your Throne—eternal and glorious God! From early on, your exalted Sanctuary was set on high. O Lord, all who turn away from you, the hope of Israel, will be disgraced and shamed. They will be buried as deserters with nothing to show for their lives, for they have forsaken you Lord, the Fountain of Living Water. God, pick up the pieces. Put me back together again. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise!”
Seems that 107 degrees isn’t so hot after all, staying refreshed in the Lord’s Fountain of Living Water!
Blessings in the Refiner Jesus,
Pastor Jonathan