Rejected Silver, part Deux
Ok, well the setup for this: The praise of God tests us like metal that is refined through trial. As we endure trials, it is the response of God that shows us if we are pure silver, or if we come up wanting. His Word tells us if we pass the test.
In Jeremiah chapter 6, we also learn that the Word of God itself is sometimes the crucible that tests us. Let’s begin with the text:
I have made you a tester of metals among my people, that you may know and test their ways.
-Jeremiah 6:27
This verse is God directing His attention to Jeremiah, the appointed instrument for delivering God’s message to the people. Jeremiah’s message is not his own, but rather he communicates through sermons, letters, object lessons, and actions the Word of God. As such, the messenger of God is being assigned a role. Phillip Ryken, in his commentary, says “These verses start with God adding metallurgist to Jeremiah’s job description. Jeremiah had become an assayer, a tester of metals” (pg 115).
A simple application of this dramatic description of Jeremiah’s role as tester of metals is that the one who preaches, teaches, delivers, or simply reads the unadulterated Word of God to us, either individually or collectively, is an being used as instrument permitting God’s Word to test us. This means that the administration of God’s Word is at times painful and reveals our hearts before it can be our comfort and our peace.
They are stubbornly rebellious, going about with slanders, they are bronze and iron; all of them act corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed.
-Jeremiah 6:28-29
Ryken’s commentary here again is useful as he provides a crash course on metallurgy. Ore would be superheated and mixed with a lead compound. The lead would bind with stone, iron, and bronze, all of which would separate from the silver. As this process unfolds, Jeremiah stands witness to the outcome of this process. The bellows, representing God’s divine chastening is blowing hot and heavy. Ever feel like this? Burning away the dross, it may seem like nothing will remain after stripping away our many shortcomings.
It’s important to approach Scripture not only as an individual Christ follower. Often God’s chastening is not individual, but corporate. Jeremiah ministered to the whole people of Judah, including those already carted off to captivity. The chastening described is separating the wicked from the righteous in the same fashion that Jesus described the sheep and the goats and the wheat and the tares. Fiery trials reveal the remnant. It will reveal the remnant (those being saved) in our families, in our churches, in our generation. Fiery trials reveal the remnant. But fiery trials also refine the remnant, and for that we praise God!
Rejected silver they are called, for the Lord has rejected them.
-Jeremiah 6:30
Ouch. Remembering Proverbs 27:21, God’s Word in verse 30 here doesn’t even closely resemble praise. He calls them rejected silver. Listen, nothing stings quite like rejection. No one wants to be rejected. But, to be rejected by God? How devastating! But how completely necessary. If we expect that in trials our own righteousness would be displayed, we will be dismayed. Only the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, will remain when the fiery bellows subside. As the heat of the trials cool, will precious silver remain? Ponder for a moment the weight of the Lord speaking those words to us: Rejected silver!
Do not despair though, it is not the will of our God to leave us on this note. Take a moment and ask the Lord to, through His word, to test you.
In part 3, we will fast forward through those years of captivity to Malachi, where we are given the future hope of the Word of God, coming in flesh to refine us and make pure silver that is not rejected, but accepted in the sight of God.