Many people in God’s Church are going through severe trials. Some might wonder why God allows such trials, and what possible good could come from them.
Some brethren have gone through very unusual sore trials. We can bring much on ourselves through mistakes, lack of judgment or breaking God’s laws. But sometimes trials can come out of nowhere for seemingly inexplicable reasons. Does it seem strange to any of us that these trials afflict God’s people?
People in the Apostle Peter’s time had the same question. Notice his answer. “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy” (1 Peter 4:12–13).
Peter said not to think it strange when put through fiery trials. “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now ‘If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?’ Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator” (vv. 17–19).
Sometimes it is God’s will that we suffer, though we can take comfort in knowing He has a glorious end result in mind that transcends anything our minds can conceive. But to achieve that result, He sometimes must put us through fiery trials to refine us like precious metals. Although they may seem to last an eternity, trials are only temporary in the grand scheme of things.
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6–7).
Fiery trials test our faith, just as gold is tested in fire. Other than Jesus Christ Himself, no man in the Bible went through more severe trials than Job, who wondered why he was struck down by grievous afflictions. God allowed it for a purpose, but Job thought it was very strange. He could not see what God was doing with him, or why He was allowing it.
“Look, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him. But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:8–10).
Job realized that his trials would cause him to come forth as refined gold. Refining separates gold from other metals and impurities. God is putting all of us through a refining process to purge us of our impurities.
There are obvious parallels with our refining process and how gold is purified.
A grinding mill pulverizes high-grade ore into powder. God often must beat us down before He can even start working with us. Refractory ore is roasted to more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, burning off carbon. Ore without carbon is oxidized in an autoclave that uses superheated steam under pressure to free gold from sulfides.
We, too, sometimes feel as if we are put through extreme heat or pressure when in a fiery trial.
The ore is then leached with cyanide that dissolves the gold. Ultimately, the impure gold is sent to another refinery to be melted into bars of 999.9 parts per thousand pure gold. God is refining, purging, proving, trying and testing His people, too. He wants us to be pure and holy, to become perfect as He is perfect.
The Book of Proverbs plainly shows that God uses this refining process to test us. “The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts” (Proverbs 17:3; 27:21).
Gold has played a major role in civilization, and has been highly valued since man’s beginning. For centuries, it has been a universally accepted currency of exchange. It is the world’s most cherished and most versatile precious metal. The Romans knew it as “shining dawn.” A Hebrew word for it—zahab—means “to shimmer.” Gold is something valued as the finest of its kind.
In Daniel 2, we read of the famous dream King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had. Daniel was the only one who could interpret his dream. Magicians, astrologers, sorcerers and soothsayers were clueless, but God revealed the secret to Daniel in a nighttime vision.
Notice what Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar about the dream: “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay” (Daniel 2:31–33).
Notice that the value and quality of the metals decreases from the image’s head to its toes. God says that gold is the most valuable of the metals described.
“This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before the king. You, O king, are a king of kings. For the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength and glory… You are this head of gold. But after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours; then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which shall rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron…” (vv. 36–40).
God shows that gold is superior to silver, which is superior to bronze, which is superior to iron. Even today, men rank those metals in the same order. Gold is definitely the most valued of all of those metals.
Nebuchadnezzar then made an image about 90 feet tall, but it was made entirely of gold, not a mixture of other metals as he dreamed. It was undoubtedly an image of himself, because he was the head of gold.
“Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was 60 cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon” (Daniel 3:1). Its height-to-width ratio was 10 to 1.
Daniel’s three friends then went through a literal fiery trial, but they did not consider it strange. They were tried and tested as to whether they would obey God or man. Would they break God’s commandment in order to keep a man’s edict?
All citizens of Babylon were told that when they heard stirring symphonic music, they were to “fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up; and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace” (vv. 5–6).
This may have been the same furnace the Babylonians used to melt the tremendous amount of gold needed to build the towering image. It had to be stoked to create tremendous heat for the refining process.
All fell down and worshiped the gold image. This was a forerunner of the image of the beast that will be erected in the not-too-distant future in modern Babylon (Revelation 13:15). There will also be a death sentence on those who do not worship its image.
There were certain Jews who would not serve Nebuchadnezzar’s gods, or worship the gold image he had set up—just as many Jews and Sabbath-keepers will not bow down and worship the image of the beast.
An enraged Nebuchadnezzar ordered Daniel’s three friends to be thrown into the fiery furnace for not worshiping the gold image. The Holocaust in Nazi Germany was not the first time Gentiles put Jews in furnaces!
Nebuchadnezzar asked: “And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?” (Daniel 3:15). Notice their response: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up” (vv. 16–18).
They did not know the outcome of their fiery trial, but they were emphatic that they would obey God right to the end. They refused to break God’s second commandment, which forbids bowing down to a graven image.
In response, a furious Nebuchadnezzar ordered that the furnace be heated seven times more than usual and they be thrown into it. It was so exceedingly hot that its flames killed the men who threw them into it. God sent an angel to protect Daniel’s three friends so the hair on their head was not singed nor their garments scorched. Not even the smell of smoke or fire was on them.
God will often allow trials to test our character. Daniel’s three friends came forth from this trial as gold. “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10). God will sometimes refine and test us through afflictions and fiery trials.
The New Testament also shows that God wants our character to be golden. But it may take fire to determine it.
We see in 1 Corinthians 3 that gold is again listed as the most valued of substances, followed by silver. “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire” (vv. 11–15).
Paul shows that we are rewarded according to our works, which determine what sorts of rewards we will be given. Sometimes the only way God can determine our character is by putting us through fiery trials. They reveal whether our works are of gold, silver, hay or straw.
Gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals. A tiny ounce of gold can be hammered into a 100-square-foot sheet. It can be drawn into a wire that stretches five miles. It has been estimated if all the gold mined over the last 6,000 years were melted down, it would form a cube with sides of no more than 20 yards. The Gold Institute estimates the total amount of gold ever mined as 3.8 billion ounces. More than half of that has been since 1850.
Gold has shaped history. The California gold rush of the 1850s drew tens of thousands of people across the U.S. continent, uniting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. People were willing to endure tremendous suffering, and even die, for gold.
The ancient Egyptians mastered the art of beating gold into thin leaf and alloying it with other metals. Gold leaf is pure gold pounded into sheets applied to other surfaces. When King Tut’s tomb was opened in 1922, a 2,450-pound gold coffin and hundreds of gold and gold-leafed objects were found.
Before the Israelites left Egypt, they took with them articles of gold and silver. While there, they evidently also learned the science of beating gold into leaf. The Ark of the Covenant was overlaid with gold, and the mercy seat was made of pure gold. The tabernacle also had gold in it. Solomon used it lavishly in the temple.
The Israelites demanded that Aaron create a gold image for them to worship. Aaron told them to give him their gold earrings. He melted the gold down, and fashioned it into the infamous golden calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:4). Men have worshiped gold for millennia!
We read in the Bible that God compared Israel’s slavery in Egypt to being inside a blast furnace. It was a very fiery trial for them. (Deuteronomy 4:20; 1 Kings 8:51; Jeremiah 11:4).
Modern Israel, like ancient Israel, also will be enslaved because of escalating national sins, and will be plunged into a fiery furnace unlike any in history: “And it shall come to pass in all the land,’ says the Lord, ‘That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, but one-third shall be left in it: I will bring the one-third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested’” (Zechariah 13:8–9).
This refers to the Great Tribulation, the most horrendous punishment ever to afflict a people. The Americans and British will bear the brunt of it. God says He will allow it to “refine and test” them, to purge away their impurities so that they will come forth as gold.
Ezekiel was sent to Israel with a warning message. He took a barber’s razor, shaved his head and beard with it, then weighed and divided the hair. “You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after them” (Ezekiel 5:2).
This is describing the same thirds as Zechariah, who compared the punishment to a refining fire.
“You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. Then take some of them again and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; from there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel” (vv. 3–4).
Why will God allow this unprecedented affliction to come upon modern Israel? “And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations” (v. 9).
Outside Pocatello, Idaho, the world’s largest elemental phosphorus plant operated before it was shut down in December 2001. It used four massive electric furnaces to refine phosphate ore into a chemical, consuming nearly 15 percent of the state utility’s total electrical output. About 250 megawatts were used to fire up those furnaces.
One of the byproducts of its refining process was molten slag tapped from the furnaces and channeled into waste ponds. It was dross or scum that had to be removed from the elemental phosphorus. It was waste or foreign matter, an impurity.
Because of national sins, God considers His tarnished people dross. He will put them through tremendous heat to refine them and melt away their impurities.
“The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; they are all bronze, tin, iron and lead [not gold, but inferior metals], in the midst of a furnace; they have become dross from silver” (Ezekiel 22:17–18).
“Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have all become dross.… As men gather silver, bronze, iron, lead and tin into the midst of a furnace, to blow fire on it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. Yes, I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath and you shall be melted in its midst. As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so shall you be melted in its midst; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have poured out my fury on you” (vv. 19–22).
God promises to protect dedicated members of His Church from this Great Tribulation that will ultimately consume the entire world in a global conflagration.
Jesus Christ commends the Philadelphians, noting they have a little strength, have kept His word and have not denied His name: “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown” (Revelation 3:10–11).
Christ says that a fiery trial will come on the entire world to test the earth’s inhabitants, but those members of His Church who are faithful will be spared.
Notice Christ’s description of the Laodiceans, who dominate the last era of His Church. “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (vv. 15–16). “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich…” (v. 18).
The Laodiceans must pay for their lethargy by going through the Great Tribulation, so they can be refined. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent” (v. 19).
God will put His Church through a refining process. “And some of those of understanding shall fall, to refine them, purify them and make them white, until the time of the end; because it is still for the appointed time” (Daniel 11:35).
In God’s Church, we have seen many of understanding topple. The Bible shows that even God’s ministers will be refined before Christ’s return. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness” (Malachi 3:2–3).
Christ will refine His entire Church before His second coming, so all of us will be righteous. Christ wants all sin purged, so it will not be in His Kingdom.
“The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire…. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:41–43).
We are being refined so we can shine as glorified spirit beings, just as Christ now radiates power and light (Revelation 1:15).
“At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered…. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:1, 3).
We must first be refined to achieve that glory. Paul said sufferings are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). That refining process is intensifying as we approach Christ’s return.
“And he said, ‘Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white and refined” (Daniel 12:9–10). God will purge the wicked on earth like dross (Psalm 119:119).
Peter said we are not to think it strange concerning our fiery trials or be grieved by them. He said our faith is much more precious than gold and also is tested by fire. He concludes his last epistle by showing that God ultimately will purge the physical earth and universe, melting away all dross, impurities and sin with fervent heat, burning it up (2 Peter 3:10–11).
Should we, then, strive to make sure our character is golden? Yes! God is refining us, sometimes putting us through fiery trials so we can come forth like gold. We should not think it strange when we go through fiery trials, but rather realize that our Creator is forging us into His glorious image.
We should not consider fiery trials as something to be dreaded. Rather, they are golden opportunities!