“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you …Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true. ‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.”
Isaiah 43:1-10
Israel lived as a nation in the crucible of God’s relentless, purifying love. He was determined to make them an example and testimony to His own glory and power.
“What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
You will say to me then, ‘Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?’ But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.”
Romans 9:17-23
God is the Potter, we are the clay. He molds us as He sees fit according to His Master purposes and designs. And it is not in the purview of the clay to question the One doing the shaping work. Isaiah laughingly presents a lump of clay that suddenly questions the Potter, “Your work has no handles!” (Is. 45:9).
Most of us don’t shape pottery for a living, much less work in a refinery for gold, but we probably have some familiarity with the process of refining precious metals. And mostly we know it involves heat.
The verse that hit me hard as I lay on the very uncomfortable metal board in the MRI machine after surgery came from the old hymn.
“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flames shall not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.”
How Firm a Foundation
The first half encourages us that whatever trials and challenges we go through — however fiery they may feel — the all sufficient grace of God will supply all we need to get through them and be better on the other side. Of course, this is drawn from Paul’s experience.
“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
I have never felt so aware of my weakness and lack of control than these last two months since the seizures started in mid May. And I have fallen back on these verses that God is making me stronger through a deeper reliance on Him. “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” I continue to learn more about prayer and faith as each day forces me to trust more in the Lord — His plans, His power, His goodness, His love.
That MRI was especially revealing because the results of it would determine how much tumor was removed, where parts of the tumor were left and what the likely treatments might be for addressing the remaining pieces. In other words, my whole fate and future were being revealed by the bangs and beeps of the machine that surrounded me.
“I only design: thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.”
Having a brain tumor removed, puts words like this into an extreme level of meaning. It’s no surprise to me (or you) that there is dross (impurity) in my brain and life that God is working to remove and cleanse.
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:8-9
God does not stop with forgiving sin; He always goes on to cleanse and purify us from all unrighteousness. As C.S. Lewis said so vividly: “Our Lord is like the dentists,” Lewis says. “He will give you the full treatment.” We may just be looking for some relief from pain caused by our choices and go to God asking for that. But like a good dentist, God sees the cause of our pain and will root it out all the way.
This is God’s design for your whole life: “thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.” We can at least be encouraged that there is some gold in our lives that God sees and is determined to perfect.
“Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.”
1 Corinthians 3:10-14
The Day of the Lord will provide the final revelation and evaluation of the work we have done in this life. For now we must accept and submit to the purification and refining stage of the process in order to improve that end result.
One more encouraging detail that struck me since that MRI is how the Lord removes our dross and refines our gold. Again, the hymn was insightfully written. “Thy dross to consume.” The goldsmith heats up gold until it melts and the impurities rise to the surface so they can be skimmed off. Jesus heats up our lives to reveal our impurities but He removes these sins and blemishes by consuming them. He takes them into His fully human body on the cross. Just a few chapters after Isaiah 43:
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Isaiah 53:4-6
Jesus took our sin into Himself. He became sin for us on the cross. He consumed our every blemish and impurity.
So as we take communion together (7/20/25) Sunday, let’s reflect on this reality and rejoice that while Jesus consumed our dross, we have the great privilege to consume His righteousness.
“So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”
John 6:53-56
Jesus is determined to purify our every sin and blemish, to consume every last speck of dross in us. At the same time He is committed to refine our gold and shape us into the perfect vessels of glory He intends to enjoy and employ for eternity. So let’s learn not to resist the hands of the Potter but to rejoice that our holy God is so committed to our purification. Yes, the flames feel hot and uncomfortable in the moment. Yes, the process and results are out of our hands. But our God has reassured us over and over again that He is with us and is for us, for our good and His glory.
So let’s freely and joyfully surrender our dross to the Lord this week and place ourselves into His “righteous, omnipotent hands,” to be shaped and purified as He sees fit!