Fire in the Bible Part 2 – Metal refined by fire

God teaches spiritual lessons when fire is used to melt metal.

Chapter 3 Fire and metal

The method of treating metal

In the first years of civilisation metal was found for the first time in rocky outcrops which showed above the surface of the ground. This didn’t produce enough metal for men’s needs so eventually men started to dig into the ground making what we now call as mines.

As the years past metal work became steadily more advanced with examples of highly advanced work in Ur about 1000 years before Abraham’s time.

In order to do the metal work it was necessary to firstly melt the metal so that it could be poured into moulds. The best way to melt the metal was by putting the metal into kilns. Initially a kiln was built that could build up what they regarded as being a high heat. However, it was found that even more heat was needed. How would they do this?

Well, in part one of this series we found that the more oxygen there was, the more fiercely the fire would burn. The early metalworkers discovered this fact and so therefore started trying to increase the heat by installing bellows. The bellows blew more air, and therefore more oxygen, into the furnace which would make the furnace burn faster and hotter. Hotter fires made better metals. And better metals could be used in more ways.

As the ore was heated the metal would sink to the bottom leaving the slag on top. This slag would be scooped off into a slag-pit leaving the metal at the bottom to cool and solidify thus forming a ingot. The ingot would have to be remelted in a crucible to further refine it before it could be used for casting into a mould. And that was basically all there was to making pure metal from ore.

The main metals produced were Gold, Silver, Lead, Tin, Iron and Copper. However, later on bronze came onto the scene which was a mixture of copper and tin. Also produced later was Brass which was an alloy of copper and zinc.

So it was in this context that in Old Testament times all metals that remained after going through the fire were viewed as being cleansed. In other words the firing process had removed all the slag and unwanted bits of ore leaving only the pure metal. In relation to this Numbers Chapter 31 and verses 21 to 23 has some interesting words:

Then Eleazar the priest said to the men in the army who had gone to battle: “This is the statute of the law that the Lord has commanded Moses: only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless, it shall also be purified with the water for impurity. And whatever cannot stand the fire, you shall pass through the water.

Refining metal and cleaning our mind

This process of refining metals through application of fire was perfect for God to use as a form of symbolism. The metals were regarded as being cleansed after going through the fire. Likewise the flesh of men will be cleansed once it has gone through the fiery trial that men face.

For a person to cleanse their flesh speaks of a spiritual process. It means a person seeks to reduce or remove the desires and influences of the physical, human nature (the “flesh”) and replace them with thoughts and actions that are aligned with the will of God. To do this we must actively choose to resist sinful inclinations and instead live a life guided by God and the example of his son the Lord Jesus Christ. A good way to change the way we think is through the trial of life where we must choose to follow God or follow our own desires.

Take Brass for example. Because its colour looked like the colour of flesh it was quite often used as an representation of the flesh. It like all other metals is formed once it has gone through the furnace. So, Brass, like all the other metals, is therefore a symbol of the flesh purified by fire. It is metal that has withstood the fiery judgement of our Heavenly Father, so as to become a pure metal with all the impurities removed. This is why Brass is used so many times in making items in the tabernacle.

In particular this symbolism can be seen in the court of the priests where the sacrificing and washing was performed. In that court there was the brass altar of burnt-offering and the laver, there were the two pillars of the porch and so on. They were all shining, impurity-free, brass for this represented purified flesh.

This was proven when we look at the incident recorded in Numbers Chapter 16 and verses 35 to 38. In these verses, we have the fire of God flashing forth against the Levites who rebelled against the authority of Moses and Aaron, the fire consumed the men leaving only the brass of their censers. The censers were left because they were incorporated in the brazen altar as a symbol of flesh purified by fire.

And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Tell Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to take up the censers out of the blaze. Then scatter the fire far and wide, for they have become holy. As for the censers of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives, let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they offered them before the Lord, and they became holy. Thus they shall be a sign to the people of Israel.”

So on one end of the spectrum we have the brass representing purified flesh, on the other end however, we have the slag or dross as representing the man who has not purified his flesh through the trying of fire.

As an example of this have a look at Ezekiel Chapter 22 and verses 17 to 22.

And the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace; they are dross of silver. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, to blow the fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord; I have poured out my wrath upon you.”

In these verses we see Israel in the flesh being represented as brass and other metals which are full of dross or slag. Their drossiness is seen in the abominations they practised in burning incense to reptiles, and filthy beasts and idols of every sort. And it is this drossy nature of the brass which distinguishes the Israelites from the fine or incandescent brass of Jesus Christ who is burning and glowing in a state of sinlessness.

This perfect sinless state of Jesus, refined by the fires of trial is seen in Revelation Chapter one and verse 15.

The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

Men and women are all in the impure state of brass where the dross is still mixed with brass. If we wish to draw close to God we need to go through the fiery trial of our lives gradually refining ourselves until we eventually become as incandescent brass at the coming kingdom soon to be set up on this earth.

The fiery furnace

Let us continually scoop off that dross or slag which corrupts our character to become shining metal before our Heavenly Father. For it is only in this state that we will be completely refined by the fiery judgement of our Heavenly Father. Let us therefore always remember that we all go through this furnace as we go through our lives. This is the furnace, in which this intense and glowing wrath of God is glowing.

And as we do this, let us remember those words found in Ezekiel when God was speaking to the people of Israel who were passing through the furnace of their time.

As I live, declares the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out I will be king over you. I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord God. I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant. I will purge out the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against me. I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Ezekiel 20: 33-38

God was saying in these verses that he would use His fiery furnace to purify the Jewish nation from the dross of sin, so that the dross in the form of the sinful men would be carried away. Of course, all nations whether they be Jew or gentile will pass through the fiery furnace. Their brass, therefore, is also to be gathered into the furnace, that it may be melted and refined under the intense fire of divine wrath.

The furnace will not only purge the nations of this earth but will also consume those who are not worthy to enter the Kingdom to be set up on this earth. In other words, God will remove all the slag or dross of sin from the surface of the molten metal.

If we are acceptable then we will be refined so that we might be like those four men of God that were in that furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. This event was recorded in Daniel chapter 3 and verses 19 and 25

Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. He spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated. And he commanded certain mighty men of valor who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace. Then these men were bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Therefore, because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”  “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”

In these verses we read of the furnace glowing with seven fold intensity. Three men are taken to the entrance of the furnace so as to be thrown in. The heat is so severe that it destroys the guards who are going to throw the three men in yet it has no affect on the men themselves. The three men walk around inside the furnace not suffering in any way. When one of the guards looks in he sees four men and not the original three men. The fourth man has the likeness of the Son of God.

These four men could walk to and fro within the furnace because they represented purified flesh. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego represent those people in a time to come who have not let the power of evil overcome them. These people along with the Son of God shall come forth from the furnace unharmed, unsinged, and unchanged by the fire.

The Bride of Christ

These people will be the Bride of Christ. These will be the people who will be accepted at the judgement seat. Let us all pray that we might be one of these number so that we too can walk through the furnace of God without being burn’t. It is these people who can walk through the furnace that will be described of in Micah Chapter four and verse 13.

Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples; and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.

Notice how these people will have feet (hooves) of Brass. They will have, in other words, been purified of sin. This concept of brass feet ofcourse is mentioned numerous times through the Bible. The verse we read a little while ago in Revelation Chapter one spoke of Jesus having feet of brass. We are also told in Ezekiel that the Cheribum has feet of burnished brass.

The symbolism of the four men in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace does not stop there. For there was a reason why there was exactly four men in the furnace and that was that they represent the Cherubim. The Cherubim is something mentioned many times in the Bible. It is an entity made up of four living creatures. And this is the connection between the Cherubim and the four men in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace. Later in this series we will go into more detail about the Cherubim for it has very close symbolic connections to fire.

Chapter 4 The images of fire

God used fire’s image to portray various images of himself.

His great glory

He used fire to show his great glory.

As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. Ezekiel 1:4

The scene sounds very spectacular to us. There is a great cloud with great swirls of fire coming to and thro back on itself. Who could doubt that it was a great creator behind this when hearing of this spectacle even if it was in symbol. And indeed we will look at the symbolism behind this scene later on.

His protective presence

God used fire to show his protective presence like in 2 Kings Chapter 6 and verse 17. In this verse we see Elisha’s servant feeling threatened by the oncoming enemy. 

Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

God showed protective chariots of fire around Elisha. If we have committed our life to God through baptism then we should also never worry as God’s fiery protective presence is always around about us.

His holiness

God used fire to show his holiness as in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 23 and 24.

Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

In this verse we can see that God is deadly serious about wanting a 100 % devotion of our lives to him. If we fail to do this then we may face his all-consuming wrath.

Giving our righteous judgement

God’s image through the use of fire shall be displayed as one who gives out righteous judgement. Just look at Zechariah Chapter 13 and verse 9.

And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver,     and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

All people of the land will be judged fairly and righteously according to their works. If we call on our Heavenly Father then he will hear us at the judgement seat.

Wrath against sin

Fire shall also be used to show God’s wrath against sin. This wrath can clearly be seen in Isaiah Chapter 66 and verses 15 to 16.

“For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will the Lord enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the Lord shall be many.

All those who continue to pursue their sinful ways will one day pay in a horrifying way for their failure to meet the commands of our Heavenly Father.

Let us ensure that we are not included in the group who will be punished for their worldliness.