The Refiner’s Fire
Posted on | August 27, 2010 | No Comments
as written July 10, 2008
1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.
2 But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify [me], and purge [me] as gold and silver, that [ I ] may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
“Curious about this scripture in Malachi, a woman called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest in silver beyond her curiosity about the process of refining it. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest, so as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman, thinking of the line “He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,” asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
The man answered, “Yes, I not only have to sit here holding the silver, but I have to keep my eyes on it the entire time it is in the fire. For if the silver is left even for a moment too long in the flames, it will be destroyed. So I keep a close and watchful eye on it – for the refining process is delicate and can take a long time. You see, I watch carefully when the silver is in the hottest white flames of the fire, and the impurities will rise to the top. Only in the highest heat, though, will they rise.
And I take the silver out of the fire, and use my metal tools to pound it out on an anvil to destroy the hard to remove imperfections. The fire can only bring them to the surface, then only my metal can remove them. This process can be repeated many times in the course of refining just one piece of silver. But each piece, no matter how big or small, deserves and receives the same amount of attentiveness and care. I throw no piece of my silver away, and no matter how unclean they come before me, all are made pure by my hand.“
The woman was silent. Then she asked him, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?”
He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s the easy part – when I see my image reflected in it.”
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