UNREFINED

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“I have made you a tester of metals and My people the ore, that you may observe and test their ways. They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander. They are bronze and iron; they all act corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely to burn away the lead with fire, but the refining goes on in vain; the wicked are not purged out. They are called rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them.”

Jeremiah 6:27-30

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

If God commissioned you to be His prophet and wanted to send you out into the world to relay His messages, what do you think He would say about the people you would be trying to convey the message to?

In other words, how would God describe our attitudes and behaviors to a newly selected prophet?

Well, maybe we need not go any further than our scripture passage from the closing verses of Jeremiah 6 to find the answer. Look at these words again:

“I have made you a tester of metals and My people the ore, that you may observe and test their ways. They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander. They are bronze and iron; they all act corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely to burn away the lead with fire, but the refining goes on in vain; the wicked are not purged out. They are called rejected silver, because the Lord has rejected them.”  Jeremiah 6:27-30

What did the Lord have to say about His people?

It wasn’t exactly complimentary, was it, but it was true. We can always expect the Lord to tell it like it is.

His people had openly sinned against Him, choosing wickedness over righteousness when they decided to worship and follow false gods and idols. In doing so, they rebelled against God, His will, and His word. And once one sin took hold, a whole bevy of other ones followed including slander and corruption.

It was obvious that no matter how hard God tried, His people rejected Him and, in doing so, became unrefined.

You’ve heard of the refining process, haven’t you?

A metal typically has impurities within it that need removed in order to make the metal more valuable (the higher the purity, the higher the value). To get rid of the impurities, metals with a low melting point are heated until they become liquid and the metal runs away separated from the impurities that have a much larger melting point. The result is a purer metal than what you started with.

The scriptures often talk about this refining process for metals as an analogy for what the Lord is trying to do with each person He created. He is always trying to refine them so they can be free of spiritual impurity (better known as sin) and become purer through the process, filled with His righteousness and holiness. He does this through the fire of His Holy Spirit who is always being used by the Lord to guide us toward being the people He wants us to be.

But what happens when we choose to reject the Lord’s refining process?

We become unrefined, evil and wicked in the eyes of the Lord because we refuse to submit to the Lord’s transformation. The refining is done in vain and all we end up is rejected by the Lord because we have allowed our value to be tainted by sin. It’s not that God ever stops loving us but we take away from our usefulness when we reject refinement. Like junk metal, we lack worth and merit when it comes to fulfilling the Lord’s plan.

Back to my original question. If you were commissioned as a prophet today, how would the Lord describe His people?

Would He commend us for our righteousness and obedience to His will, way, and word? Or would He simply use the word “unrefined” as a way to describe our stubborn disobedience and disrespect toward Him?

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com