March 10 - 1 Peter 1:7

These trials are only to test your faith,

to show that it is strong and pure.

It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold

-- and your faith is far more precious

to God than mere gold.

1 Peter 1:7

 

At the end of a Numbers 31 battle, "21 Eleazar the priest said to the men who were in the battle, "The LORD has given Moses this requirement of the law: 22 Anything made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin, or lead 23 ... must be passed through fire in order to be made ceremonially pure. These metal objects must then be further purified with the water of purification. ... 24 [Then] on the seventh day you must wash your clothes and be purified. Then you may return to the camp."

 

Now, I don't for sure, but I'd guess that this battlefield purification had something to do with blood stains. Touching blood, if you remember from Leviticus, was one of the things that would make a person unclean -- think potentially infectious. Therefore, the soldiers were told to wash their uniforms in water and sterilize their weapons with fire.

 

Fire purifies.  

 

And in today's lesson Peter reminds us that our faith -- which is as valuable to God as gold -- needs to be continually purified. This world's trials constantly splatter us with blood, cake us with grime, and drown us in the muck. But it's the trials that also reveal our true character.

 

• Whenever we confront evil, enduring those heated struggles are as a valuable as gold.
• Whenever we endure temptation, conquering that blazing desire is as precious as silver.
• Whenever we rise to the occasion, conquering stress has shown us what is like bronze.

None of us wants to endure the warmer parts of the process of purification, but it's then that we need to remember that the results are heavenly.

 

In Christ's Love,

a guy who's been

on a few gold rushes

(and grown deeper because

of a few trials)