Take Away the Dross

Bible Reading: Proverbs 25:1-10

Key Verse: Verse 4 – “Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the  finer.”

Key Words: Take away the dross 

Donald Grey Barnhouse tells the following in his book on God’s goodness:

“In the great bazaars of Istanbul, Damascus, or Cairo, you will see men sitting at their places in the section of the silversmiths.  Beside them you will generally find piles of United States twenty-five, fifty, and ten-cent pieces.  Thousands of travelers give American coins as tips, and all of those monies are melted back into silver and poured into little silver charms that are sold back to the tourists.  This is done in the most old-fashioned way.  I have watched a silversmith drop a coin into the molten silver; in a little while the coin is melted down under the hot fire.  Every once in a while the man gets up, lifts himself over the little bowl of silver, and goes back to sawing on some little pin that he is making, a silver clasp or ornament.  Again he will get up and look in the bowl; he will take a sieve and scrape off the scoria that is on the top.  He takes away the dross, and if you should ask him, ‘What are you waiting to see,’ he would say, ‘I keep it on the fire until there is no more scum; when I lean over it, I can see myself reflected there as in the best mirror.’”

That is what it means in Malachi when it says that God shall sit as a refiner of silver.  God says, “I am going to keep you in the fire until I see My face in you; this is what I’m working for.  I want to purge away the dross.  I want to make you like the Lord Jesus Christ.  I want you to understand the particularity of love that I’ve bestowed upon you, that I have called you my sons; and whom I love, I chasten and scourge

every son I receive.”

What to do: 

      ✞Always understand God desires to make you more valuable by removing the dross.

      ✞Always ask, “Can others see Jesus through my life’s actions and attitudes?”