The verse puzzled a church group, they wondered what it said of God's character and nature. A women offered to find out the process of refining silver and tell them at the next study. She called a silversmith and asked to see him work. She mentioned no reason of interest beyond curiosity. As she watched, he held a piece of silver over the fire to heat up. He said "To refine silver, you need to hold it in the middle where the flame is hottest, to burn away all the impurities." She thought of God holding us in such a spot, then again about the verse. She asked if he had to sit in front of the fire the whole time. He said "Yes, not only sit here holding the silver but also watch, if it's left a moment too long in the fire, it will be destroyed." She was quiet for a moment. Then asked how he knew when the silver was fully refined. He smiled, "Easy: when I see my image in it" If you feel the heat of the fire, know God has His eye on you and will keep watching until He sees His image in you.
更新1:
I realize that this verse comes from the old testament, but what some of you are not acknowledging is that in the new testament God is no longer the vengeful angry God that He was in the old testament. Trish: the whole verse is this: "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." and Hellboy: the point of this whole thing was not the burning, but the love of God shown in the care it takes for the refining process. the Bible tells us that we will have troubles and imperfections, but we aren't expected to be perfect. that's why Jesus was sent: to save us from our imperfections. All you really have to do is accept God as the Creator, Jesus as the Savior and the Holy Spirit sort of as your guide to life. Life is too short to waste on thoughts of how horrible it is when it's so easy to get right with God and live well. I hope you change your mind.
更新2:
TeryakiBoy: I hope this means you might take a look at a Bible or maybe check out a church service. Glad you read it all before answering.
NerdF: I'm sorry that that is what you took from the passage in Psalms that you quoted. The point of that one was just as the Malachi 2:3 that Gruz quoted and as I said: in the old testament God was vengeful and angry. Psalms wasn't saying that God is a filthy drunk, it was using the anger associated with alcoholism as a description of how angry God could be when that was written. Thankfully God changed His mind and sent Jesus as our Savior because He didn't want to be angry with us anymore. I hope you change your mind as well.
For those of you whose responses obviously showed that I made you think or open your Bible, THANK YOU. That makes me feel the same way I did when I read the story I shared in the question: God is real and at work in our everyday lives, even in places we wouldn't really expect it, but especially when we are looking for Him
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I like Malachi 2:3 better.
"Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces" Malachi 2:3.
I have always loved this description. God purifies and refines us therefore count all trials as joy, but persevere and overcome.
I love your question. You get a STAR!
I was gonna answer-the guys a jeweler, but after reading your description, I think what you said is so right. Thats the nicest verse from the bible i've heard in a long time. (im no christian)
This is an easy one, and why Charles Jennens exluded it from his text Messiah, I do not know, because it would reconcile the Aria "But who may abide the day of His Coming" with the Chorus "And He shall purify the sons of Levi". Even in Malachi, the entirety of the passage reads: "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; 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 fuller's soap. And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will come near to uou to judgement: and I will be a swift witness afainst the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts." (Malachi 3: 1-5). The sons of Levi, remeber, were promised in the days of Moses the priesthood and the High Priesthood, but because of the sins of the sons of Eli (when the judge and prophet Samuel was still a boy serving under him), God rejected the Levitical priesthood because Eli's sons perverted judgement and stole from the offerings presented unto the Lord. Therefore, when the Messiah would come (according to the passage), he would purify (that is, make pure) the priests and the Levites, that they may return to their former status.
參考: Malachi 3: 1-5; I Samuel (I Kings) 3: 1-21
I could give two answers here . Starting with the simple answeer first. This verse says to me that He wants us to be perfect as He is perfect. st Matthew 5:48 - "Be ye perfect as your father which is in heaven is perfect. " But it takes Him and not some group of men to purify us it tkaes Melchisedecto do it . Hebrews 7:11 -" If therefore perection were by the Levitical priesthood , (for under it the people received the law ,) what further need was there that another should arise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron ? " I hope that answers your question sufficently my friend .
參考: KJV Holy Bible : Malachi 3:3 & Hebrews 7:11
Well, first, I'd want to read the entire passage; reading a single verse doesn't make any more sense from the Bible than reading a single sentence from "War and Peace."
Though I'm agnostic, from what you described about the verse and what the woman in the bible study group found out about refining silver, this is what I can say about what I think this verse means.
Like the silversmith who patiently takes the silver and holds it in the flame, God sits and patiently removes the impurities from each of his children. He must be careful not to leave any impurities, but conversely can't push a person too far the other way, lest they be destroyed.
And like the silversmith who must continuously watch the fire and the silver within, God must also carefully watch his people as they're being continuously refined. He'll only stop his watchfulness when a person is perfectly refined in his own image.
The verse simply means that God always has his eye on his children, watching patiently and carefully and removing those impurities until his children are perfectly in his image.
A fascinating metaphor for the nature of God, even if it still doesn't change my mind about things.
I like the verse, The story has good meaning, one thing that lacks from this message was that you said "God is not the same Angry vengeful..."
The thing people seem to not understand is that God, his words, and his law have not changed JUST because of Jesus.
The deal with the verse, and those not being able to understand it, is that the context can get altered.
Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you..." you know the verse I'm sure, it's context gets altered all of the time. If they took the time to read the verse for what it is, they wouldn't use it as often in the way that they do.
REMEMBER THE GREAT COMMANDMENT:
"THOU SHALT NOT KILL"????
(1 Sam 15:1-3 NIV)
Samuel said to Saul, "I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD. {2} This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. {3} Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'"
And remember when God killed the entire Earth during Noah's Flood? - How about God's "refining" JOB.???
If refining means killing all my children and giving me diseases and destroying everything I ever worked for, then you can keep your refining.
BIBLE: "...either way, you're gonna get the fire!!..."
If GOD really wants a bunch of mirrors praising HIM for eternity -
What kind of GOD do you serve?
I'll keep my impurities, thank you very much!
Maybe that's what he is doing as a hobby... but in reality he is much different!!!
The Bible writers tell us like it is when God the Father wakes up in the morning with a terribly hangover ready to punish somebody …
Psalm 78:65 “THEN THE LORD AWOKE AS FROM SLEEP, AS A MAN WAKES FROM THE STUPOR OF WINE”*
(*) Yeah… red eyes… vomiting all over… cursing like Hell… and lacking good judgment ready to begin a day of killing innocent babies and making his chosen people Israel starve to death in the Land Flowing with Milk and Honey!
