SPIRITUAL REFINEMENT
[p. 88] SPIRITUAL REFINEMENT
Malachi 3:3,4; Genesis 47:1 - 10; Genesis 48:15 - 20
I am thinking, dear brethren, of refinement. The idea runs through the Scriptures, involving what is “more excellent”. There is in natural and spiritual things a great variety in quality, and it is evident that, as in natural things, so in spiritual, quality is of great importance. So we are enjoined “to judge of and approve the things that are more excellent”, (Philippians 1:10). Of course we can never hope to do that, save as we begin by the exercise of our senses in discerning between good and evil. One is not fit for christian fellowship unless able to discern between good and evil; but to be able to judge of what is “more excellent” is in advance of this. As in the fellowship of God’s Son, we ought to be set for great things, and so we are enjoined to judge of and approve the things that are more excellent. The idea of refinement, as cognate with that of excellency, is prevalent throughout scripture, and we cannot disregard it, or speak ironically about persons of spiritual refinement, because there is such a thing. Indeed, what you get in the house into which the Lord went, according to Matthew 13 is this very thing. He spoke of a ‘treasure’. That would mean money, or things of value. But then He speaks also of a ‘pearl’. Persons of affluence are not always refined — sometimes painfully the opposite; but spiritually, wealth and refinement go together.
So the Lord proceeds from the idea of treasure, to what is refined — that is, a pearl, which would require certain skill and taste to value. Now that conveys exactly the thought of refinement. It alludes to the church, not as appearing in the early chapters of the Acts, but as under Paul. It is Paul’s church, as we call it, that the Lord had in His mind in regard to the pearl. It is Paul [p. 89] who really brings in fully the thought of refinement; he speaks of what is “more excellent”; not that the quality is foreign to Peter or the others, for they were all spiritually refined. Peter indeed speaks of the “excellent glory”, (2 Peter 1:17). Think of glory being graded! So that there is excellent glory. Peter is able to use superlatives in this sense, as much as Paul; but as I said, Paul gives us the full thought. The church is that in which you get the full idea of spiritual refinement; and we should not, dear brethren, think of it as something away in the distance, but as within our reach. We read in Isaiah 60:15 of Israel being made “an eternal excellency” — think of the richness of that expression! And then of such an utterance as the apostle Paul uses in Ephesians 3:21: “To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”. There is to be glory in that vessel “unto all generations of the age of ages”.
Now that is not to be regarded as something in the distance, but as brought near to us. That was the idea on the mount of transfiguration; the excellent glory was brought down within the range of Peter, James, and John, and there were persons in it who were perfectly at home there. The disciples were not at home within it then, they feared; but at a later date Peter would not fear to enter into that cloud. Moses and Elijah were there, and they were without fear, they were equal to it; and, beloved, God intends to make every one of us equal to the glory. He is going to present us “faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” — with exultation, (Jude 24). That is what is before Him, to present us there faultless.
I want to show how that thought was in the mind of Joseph. But in Malachi, you have the process which is involved. If we see the thing possible, then the next thing is to accept the process, for God has His way. He sits “as a refiner and purifier of silver”, we are told, chapter 3:3. It [p. 90] suggests a close watch, not something left for indifferent persons to do, or to be done by machinery — He does the work Himself. It is a process in regard to one person; He deals with us one by one — that is God’s way. The result, in His mind, is too important to admit of any less attention. He sits Himself as the refiner, and He has a definite end in view. I have no doubt it is that His image should appear in us, for His thought is that we are all to be “conformed to the image of his Son”, (Romans 8:29). A moral likeness to God is necessary here, for testimony; but the point in the mind of God is the image of His Son. All excellency is there. This process, therefore, in Malachi, although very exercising, has to be faced. “He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he will purify the children of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah an oblation in righteousness. Then shall the oblation of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah”, (Malachi 3:3,4).
That is what He has in His mind, and I venture to trace this process of refining in Jacob, because it is in him, of the three great patriarchs, that God intended to show what He could work out. What you see in Abraham is God’s call and purpose. They all went through their education as saints and will appear in the future accordingly, but Isaac is typically Christ risen. The whole mind of God is secured infallibly in Christ in resurrection. The purpose of God goes right through to resurrection and glory, in the person of Christ. Added to that is the idea of God working out His thoughts in a practical way down here. This appears in Jacob, and particularly in connection with the number “twelve”. God proposed to work out love in this man’s posterity. Light is a means to an end; government is a means to an end; but the end itself is love — that God is love.
So that if there is to be the demonstration of that, the vessels must be entirely subservient to the divine hand, so that they can be manipulated according to the wisdom [p. 91] of love. God selects for this purpose a man who had four wives, two of them maidservants; there were four mothers of the twelve sons. You may inquire, why should He take up persons in such circumstances? God loves to show what He can do — His handiwork. I say that as a matter of great importance. However crooked I may be, or whatever my history, God can make something out of me, in spite of it. Thus no one need falter or give up, for God, as beginning a work in us, is not going to give up; He goes on to a finish. So you get the working out of this number twelve in Genesis 29, Genesis 30, and Genesis 31. We may wonder why the Spirit should have written down what is recorded there, but every line is perfect. God shows there that He can work out His thoughts, in spite of the greatest incongruities arising from the flesh, and Jacob himself is to be the first learner. In fact, he is intended to represent what I am speaking about, and according to the Spirit’s record in Hebrews 11:21, he comes out best. “By faith Jacob when dying blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshipped on the top of his staff”. That is what I apprehend as the result of this process of refining, and I want to show you how it was worked out.
The record is given, so that among many other things we might see this one thought of superiority in Jacob. He is not the one we would have picked out, but God’s thoughts are not ours. Leading up to all this, Joseph is born, a very simple incident, if it were merely a matter of recording a birth. But this birth was of moment, and perhaps nobody understood this except Jacob. As soon as Joseph was born he said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my place and to my country”, (Genesis 30:25). What he saw in it, the Spirit of God does not say, but evidently he saw something spiritually. Spiritual history is hidden, but the effects are public. The thing itself, the golden thread of divine workmanship, is hidden — “curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth”, (Psalm 139:15). Jacob went, though he waited a while, showing the incubus that would hold him back. Is it not so with many of us? We get a spiritual touch, and other things hinder for the moment, but we come back to it, and move. It is a great matter to come back to it. He left Padan — a sort of beginning of this history. He saw Christ, in some sense, in Joseph. The confirmation of that is, that here he becomes more and more spiritual. So that when he comes back to Peniel there is a wonderful transaction. It is not an experience singular to Jacob; it is recorded there that we might all understand that God intends to make us more spiritual, because the spiritual touch was added to there. It really began when he became a supplanter. At Peniel he is named Israel — a spiritual title. Then, as he crossed over to meet his brother, he sends the maidservants and their children on ahead, then Leah and her children, and finally, Joseph and Rachel. Joseph is first now. You say, That is a mere accident. But no, it is a spiritual matter. It means that in some little way you show you have the idea of Christ as being above the natural; and so Jacob put Joseph before Joseph’s mother, although he loved Rachel. It is the spiritual superseding the natural: “afterward, that which is spiritual”, (1 Corinthians 15:46). He was on a journey from the time he left Beer-sheba, twenty years before — that was the principle. He met God at Bethel — a wonderful meeting! God came and stood by him; He was no longer at a distance. Then he resumes his journey; Rachel dies, and he sets up a pillar on her grave. But he is on the way to Hebron; that is the terminus, the end of the spiritual journey. It is a chapter of events — of deaths and shame; but Isaac is there. The Spirit dwells on the name of the place, as if to instruct us in the spiritual surroundings he reached. The twelve sons are named there. Then you get the generations of Esau, and then of Jacob, but Jacob’s generation stops with Joseph; it only names Joseph. It is now a question typically of Christ. Joseph was only [p. 93] seventeen years old as yet, but he was to become thirty years old, which is another thing. At seventeen years of age, Jacob loved him more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age. I want you to take note of this old age, not as something jaded, but something valuable, because it is old. That is the thought we should get of Jacob here. Some of us are apt to discredit what is old. This sort of old age is not merely a question of years, but refers to quality: “such an one as Paul the aged” (Philemon 9) — such an one as Jacob. The child of that man in his old age is something.
Before coming to the passages I read, I want you to bear in mind these remarks, because they help if you are to see how God brings us on to refinement, to that which is more excellent. So Joseph, in chapter 47, goes in to Pharaoh. He had already tutored his brothers as to how they were to speak to him. That is another important thing. If we are to be presented, we must be tutored, in order to know what to say, because we must remember it is now, in type, a question of appearing before God. The Lord is concerned that we should appear acceptably. So Joseph instructed them what to say, and then says to Pharaoh, “My father and my brethren, and their sheep and their cattle, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen” (verse 1). It is a question of Joseph identifying himself with his father and eleven brothers and all that was in Goshen. It says Joseph selected five men. It was not any five of the eleven; it was five from the whole — that is to say, he took account of every one from Reuben down. Shall I take Reuben? That is how he would consider. We are not told the names of those chosen; it was a question of excellency, of the best that was there. The ministry of John is to that end, to bring in the very best. You do not want to be of the six that are left. Not that they are not typically saints — of course they are, but they are not presented. We do not want to miss the presentation [p. 94] by the Lord. Joseph selected five out of the whole. They did not hide their occupation, for it was their glory. It was an abomination to the Egyptians to be a shepherd, but Joseph’s brethren say, “Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers”. One of the highest recommendations you can get is to be one who cares for the saints. One might stand up and speak of things that are food, but how to shepherd the saints is another matter. Grace and power are required to shepherd the saints, for in order to shepherd them, you might have to tell them things that might irritate them. It is the sheep that are to be shepherded, not the lambs (compare John 21:15 - 17). If you can keep the sheep right, the lambs will go right. Of course young ones may stray, but I am speaking generally of the saints as a flock. Pharaoh granted the five brethren their request, allowing them to live in Goshen, and if there were active men among them, “make them”, he says, “rulers over my cattle”. There was something there that was “more excellent” in the judgment of Joseph.
Then the scripture says, “Joseph brought Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh”. It is presentation to a sovereign. “And Jacob blessed Pharaoh”. There is a change here — Jacob takes the initiative; he does not wait for Pharaoh to do anything, he blesses Pharaoh. He blesses the greatest monarch on earth at that time; officially Pharaoh was greater than Jacob. He was the king, the supreme — and here is one with no outward greatness, and the first thing he does as before him is to bless the monarch. Think of the moral worth, the moral power, in that old man! All the colleges in the world could not make him what he was. Where did his superiority come from? It came from God, through the process of refining. I do not suppose he presented any great appearance to the court of Pharaoh. One can imagine the courtiers saying, ‘Who is that old man?’ That would be how the matter stood, but the patriarch [p. 95] blessed Pharaoh. Think of the greatness acquired as having been in the refining school of God! Pharaoh does not ask Jacob what his occupation was, which indicates a recognition of the greatness that was there. It was the result of his experience with God. He humbly acknowledges he was not like his fathers in respect of age: “The days of the years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty years ... And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh”. There was no hiding of any discrepancies, but admitting them all, he is greater than Pharaoh.
Now all that is very valuable as spiritual instruction, but what about Joseph? In the life of Pharaoh there were doubtless many blemishes, in keeping with the lives of monarchs. But here is a man — Joseph — with not a record against him, not a blot on his character. As far as scripture goes, he is incorruptible, as we may say; there is no discrepancy in his conduct anywhere; he is unassailable in every respect. Now how will Jacob measure up with him? What will come out when they are brought face to face? In chapter 47 he sends for Joseph; he was not sick yet, he was in a certain vigour, and he instructed Joseph to bury him in Canaan. But in the beginning of chapter 48 it says he was sick, and Joseph comes of himself. So we have Joseph, as you might say, with every advantage; he had with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. You can understand the father’s legitimate pleasure in them. But with all this, is he greater than Jacob? He fails here for the first time. Joseph says, “Not so, my father” — that was a voice of authority, and, you may depend, every ear in Egypt paid attention when hearing that voice; all save the king bowed to that voice. But here was one who did not; of course he should not, being Joseph’s father. I am not referring to this, but to the moral greatness of Jacob, of what was there spiritually. “Not so, my father”. If that had been said outside, how all would have paid attention [p. 96] to it! But Jacob represents spiritual power, and in virtue of this he was greater than Pharaoh, greater than Joseph. According to Hebrews 11, he blessed both the sons of Joseph; he blessed them spiritually, and against the current of the natural feeling in the greatest man on earth next to himself. That is spiritual power. “I know, my son, I know”, he says. It were well for Joseph to take that in. He was greater than Joseph as his father, but he was also greater in spiritual power and intelligence.
That is what I had in mind. We come to the full result of refinement in Jacob, and the Spirit of God says he “worshipped on the top of his staff”, (Hebrews 11:21). This evidently refers to the experience Jacob had with God — his staff symbolising it. I have no doubt the quotation of Genesis 47:31 in Hebrews 11 is a spiritual one: Jacob worshipped in the power of the result of his experience with God, when he was about to die. There was power in the man to worship God.
That is the great end in view in all this process in Malachi: “they shall offer unto Jehovah an oblation in righteousness” — a pleasant oblation. God sits as a refiner of silver, and this is the result He has in view.