Refiner’s Fire

As many of you have seen, whether in person or on the news, fire is powerful and devastating. However, fire is also refining. This is somewhat surprising. My dad studied geology in college, and he taught me that gold is refined when heat is applied to the metal and impurities are forced to the surface. We live near the Bobcat fire in Southern California. We could see the flames burn and spread as the smoke seeped into our home. We are grateful for the protection of God, as well as for the firemen who mightily fought off the fire. I watched in silence as my mind wondered about what I would take if we had to evacuate. I thought about the things that have meaning, the possessions I did not want to have destroyed, and that which is costly and would represent a great financial loss. Everything we own is a gift from God, but I was trying to choose what was a “must take” that could also fit in our car. As you know, on my own I cannot initiate this movement. Therefore, I decided that the most important thing to escape with is my life. I am grateful that I live with my parents, and we all agreed to grab each other and head out. Confronting the possibility of loss of life and possessions was a refiner’s fire that forced me to evaluate the things my heart clings to.

In the book of Genesis, God gives us an example of a refiner’s fire. God makes a covenant promise to Abraham that he and his barren wife Sarah would conceive and bear a son despite their old age. This son would not only be a tremendous gift to the couple, but the entire nation of Israel would descend from this child, and all nations would be blessed through him. God kept His promise; Abraham and Sarah bore Isaac. In Genesis 22, God tested Abraham. The test was to lay his precious son on the altar as a sacrifice to the Lord. Abraham was personally going through a refiner’s fire designed by God. Scripture describes Abraham’s faithfulness in carrying out the command, which is instructive to us in our consideration of what genuine faith in God looks like. Abraham passed the test with his unconditional, unswerving obedience. He did not complain, challenge God for His seemingly unloving plan, try to change God’s mind, or rationalize disobedience. After all, God promised innumerable descendants from this child. Nevertheless, Genesis only documents God’s command without further discussion. Even if Abraham did not understand the reason for the command, and even though he had waited years and years for Isaac’s birth, Abraham obeyed God. Abraham’s faithfulness was vindicated, because God did not go back on His promise given in Genesis 17:19: “I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.” The angel of the Lord called down from heaven and stopped Abraham before the killing blow. God had an animal sacrifice ready. Not a lamb, but a ram with curly horns stuck in the bushes nearby. The God of Abraham was good to spare Isaac and allow Abraham to shed the blood of an animal for the sacrifice. God knew that Abraham loved and trusted Him above all else, even if that meant sacrificing the son that God had given to him. 

Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.

James 2:20-23

From all that we have witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the California fires, we are more aware that life on this earth is not going to last forever. Many homes were destroyed, property was damaged, and lives were lost. This causes me to consider more candidly what cannot be taken away. Does anything last for eternity? At the metanarrative level, this account in Genesis foreshadows God’s only Son, the Lamb of God, who would be sacrificed for the sins of the world. God the Father would not withhold His Son, in order that we might have forgiveness of our sins and eternal life. Salvation saves us from eternity in the fiery furnace of Hell in order that we may have everlasting life with God in Heaven. 

John records a beautiful interchange between Jesus and Martha, Lazarus’ sister, during which he tells her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). Please escape eternal destruction; receive Christ today to be your Lord and Savior, not only for today, but for all of eternity. This is a gift from God. When you repent and believe, you receive it. Absolutely nothing on this earth lasts forever, but a relationship with Christ does. After His death on the cross, Christ resurrected from the grave. He was buried in a tomb and on the third day, He appeared alive to His disciples. After 40 days, He ascended to Heaven where He functions as our Great High Priest. The spirit of those who receive Christ as Lord will also experience bodily resurrection by virtue of our union with Him. Death takes everything we have away from us, except our relationship with Christ. After death, we get even more of Christ as we enter His presence. 

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