“For he [the Lord] is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap,
he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,
and he will purify the descendants of Levi
and refine them like gold and silver,
until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.”
Malachi 3:2-3

As we continue our worship series on the Minor Prophets this month I can’t help but remember a story sent out via email by Tsitsi Bergman a year or so ago. Using the above passage from Malachi this story touches on two of the very important messages we receive from the Minor Prophets: 1) Life isn’t always easy, 2) God’s love and care never ceases…

In the late 1800’s, a group of women enrolled in a Bible Study came across Malachi 3:3, “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” Since no one understood the verse, they commissioned one of their members to explore the process of refining silver and report back to them at their next study. The woman called a silversmith, making an appointment to watch him work and ask a few questions.

On the appointed day, she saw him hold a piece of silver over the fire, letting it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, a silversmith needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flame was hottest so that all the impurities would burn away. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse, that the Lord sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?”

He smiled. “Oh, that’s easy. The refining process is complete when I see my image in it.”

God Bless,
Pastor Troy