The Crew: Fire

And anything else that can withstand fire must be put through the fire, and then it will be clean. Numbers 31:23 (NIV)

When they said the cancer was back, all I could think was, This can’t be true! My aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer four years ago. That summer, my mom and I took a trip up north to have a girls’ week. Instead of shopping and care-free girl talk, our time was filled with doctor appointments, weighty decisions, wig shopping, and lots of tears. You have to know this about my aunt: she is one tough cookie. Years ago when a man stole her purse, she ran down the streets of New York City in her high heels… and caught him! But that “c word” came out of the blue and threatened to steal more than her bag.

After the surgery, the chemo and the radiation, it seemed as if it was a distant struggle; one that God would surely not ask her to walk through again. Surely not. New hair grew in beautifully, and that is not all that grew. Her faith was stretched and strengthened like never before. So God would surely not ask her to do it all over again. Surely not.

I’ve learned that God will always answer the questions we take to Him. Often it’s not the answer we want to hear, but answer He does. So in the few short weeks it’s been, I’ve asked Him over and over again, Why the same trial? It’s not only my aunt that is facing a similar struggle. All around me, I see this happening- even in my own life.

After weeks of asking and praying and seeking and a whole lot more listening than I am usually capable of, I think I have some clarity. Answers, no. Clarity, yes. Complete understanding, no. Peace, yes.

And it all has to do with fire.

Numbers 31:23 says, “And anything else that can withstand fire must be put through the fire, and then it will be clean.” If God calls us into a fire, it is only because He knows we can endure it. Three men, whose story of courage and faith is beautifully scripted in the book of Daniel, knew all about being called into a fire. (See Daniel 3) When Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, three Jews who worshipped the living God, found themselves tied up and thrown into the flames, they also found God Himself, walking around in the flames with them.

God is actually referred to as the God who answers by fire, the one true God. (See 1 Kings 18:24) God used a burning bush, a pillar of fire, and was found in the flame on the altar. God knows that the fire is not to be feared, because He is in the fire. What God sees that we often cannot is that we do eventually come out of the fire. And we are changed.

This verse not only speaks of that which can survive the fire, but it also explains what will happen to it as it emerges from the flames: “Then it will be clean.” Other translations use the word “pure.” The process of refining gold is one I know nothing about, but upon looking at the meaning of the word “refine,” I get a tiny glimpse of God’s hand at work. Refine means “to bring to a fine or a pure state; make elegant; to become more fine, elegant, polished; freed from impurity.”(1)

The only thing the fire burned all those years ago was the rope that bound the three Hebrew men. The fire worked to free them and remove everything that held them captive. When they walked out of the flames, nothing was burnt- not their clothes, not their shoes, not even their hair smelled of smoke. The people who witnessed this did more than scratch their heads and say, “Well, look at that!” This single courageous act brought an entire people to know the living God.

God only brings us into the flames so that He can refine us and then bring us out more beautiful, able to attract others to Him. Purity, though, is a process. The refiner is the only one who can tell when the gold is ready to come out of the fire. He waits and waits until He can look into the hot liquid and see His own reflection.(2) Refining is the process of “converting raw material into products of value.” (3) If God asks us to follow Him into the flames, it’s only because He knows we can endure it with His strength. If God asks us to walk back into the fire, it’s only because He sees the finished product- shiny, pure, elegant, and reflecting His image.

These [trials] have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:7 (NIV)

For everyone will be seasoned with fire,and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Mark 9:49 (NKJV)