As the Master Blacksmith, how does God work this process in us? In Job 1:6–12 it states: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.”
In Job’s story we see that God rec- ognized a character flaw that need - ed refining. To accomplish this, He allowed Satan to act as the “heat source” by lowering the hedge of protection around Job. In the same way, God sometimes permits Satan to apply pressure on individuals, not to destroy them, but to make them pliable and easily shaped. Think again of the file. Once it is heated to working temperature, the blacksmith lifts it from the furnace with tongs and lays it on the anvil. With each blow, sparks fly, scale and impurities flake away. When the steel cools, it is placed back into the fire, reheated, and hammered again. This is repeated until the file begins to take on a new, rough shape.
But even then the work is not fin - ished. The steel, now strained and brittle from hammering, must be annealed once more—heated and cooled slowly—to relieve internal stress and prevent it from shatter- ing. Without this step, all the ham- mering would be wasted. Annealing may be repeated several times, with the final cooling done right in the forge as the fire slowly fades. Only then can the blacksmith re- turn the next day to refine the piece further shaping it with a grinder, a file, or a sanding block until its new form emerges. Solomon was inspired to record in Proverbs 27:17: As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. For most, weekdays in this present world are like being in the forge. Christians are continuously “heat- ed” by the trials and pressures of daily life. Then when God’s peo- ple assemble on the Sabbath, it is as though God brings His Church to the workbench—the local con- gregation—where He uses each member as tools in His hand to help shape one another. Continued on page 19
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