12 5 2021 The Refiner's Fire at Benton United Methodist Church

Pastor Brad Franklin talks about God’s refining fire and how to allow His work in you.

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Silversmiths would refine silver by putting it in a crucible in the hottest part of the fire, and they would effectively burn off any impurities, and then they would take the crucible out of the fire and pour out the pure silver. The fire gets rid of what is bad, the impurities in the silver or waste of the grain harvest.

Malachi talks specifically about the descendants of Levi being refined so that they can present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. The descendants of Levi, the Levites, were the priests. They were the ones authorized to make sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. But by Malachi’s time, they weren’t doing a good job.

He doesn’t tell us exactly what was wrong, but we can guess. They may have been skimming a bit off the sacrifices for themselves, they may have been taking advantage of their position, they may have been becoming full of their own importance, they may have become complacent and done a half-hearted job, or simply neglected their job. They’d become, if you like, impure. Their conduct needed to be refined.