And he shall sit [as] a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.
Ver. 3. And he shall sit as a refiner] i.e. He shall stick to the work, and not start from it, "till he bring forth judgment to victory," Matthew 12:20, that is, till he have perfected the work of grace begun in his people (for he is "author and finisher of their faith," Heb 12:2), and by patience made them "perfect and entire, wanting nothing," James 1:4. Christ, who is the God of all grace, and hath called them to his eternal glory, will, after they have suffered awhile in his furnace, or refining pot, Pro 17:3 of afflictions, "make them perfect, establish, strengthen, settle them," 1 Peter 5:10, yea, make all grace to abound toward them; "that they always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work," 2 Corinthians 9:8. For which holy purpose Christ, our refiner, hath his fire in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem, Isaiah 31:9, his conflatories and his crucibles, wherein his third part being brought through the fire, shall be refined as silver is refined, and tried as gold is tried, Zechariah 13:9 "that the trial of their faith" (who have glorified him in the very fires, Isa 24:15), "being much more precious than that of gold that perisheth, may be found to praise and honour and glory," 1 Peter 1:7. True gold will undergo the trial of the seventh fire, which alchemy gold will not. Christ Jesus, after that he hath been to his people as a refiner's fire and fuller's soap, that is, after that he hath justified and sanctified them also in some part, will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, that is, he will be serious, accurate, and assiduous in scouring them from corruption by correption, in purging out the remnants of sin by affliction sanctified. "For by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit, to take away his sin," Isaiah 27:9. Christ hath bought off all her corruptions, redeemed us from all iniquity, Titus 2:14, and God will have the price of Christ's blood out; what the word purgeth not the rod must: like as what evil humours summer purgeth not out by sweating, winter concocts by driving in the heat. And as winter is of use for mellowing the ground, and for killing worms and weeds, &c., so is the cross sanctified for quelling and killing fleshly lusts that fight against the soul. He that holds the winds in his fist, stays his rough wind, Isaiah 27:8, and lets out of his treasury such a wind as shall make his young plants fruitful, and blow away their unkindly blossoms and leaves. Black soap makes white clothes, if God set in and set it on with his battle door, as that martyr phrased it. Foul and stained garments are whitened and purified by laying abroad in cold frosty nights. Scouring and beating of them with a stick beats out the moths and the dust; so do afflictions corruptions from the heart. Aloes kills worms; so do bitter crosses crawling lusts. Rhubarb is full of choler, yet doth mightily purge choler. Hemlock is a deadly plant, yet the juice applied heals ignis sacer accursed fire, and hot corroding ulcers, and much assuageth the inflammation of the eyes. The sting of a scorpion, though arrant poison, yet is an antidote against poison. Nothing is better to cure a leprosy than the drinking of that wine wherein a viper hath been drowned. The viper (the head and tail being cut off) beaten and applied cures her own biting. Affliction is in itself an evil, a fruit of God's wrath, and a piece of the curse. Christ alters the property to his, and makes one poison antidotary to another, and cures security by misery; as physicians often cure a lethargy by a fever. Every affliction sanctified rubs off some rust, melts off some dross, empties and evacuates some superfluity of naughtiness, strains out some corruption, Job 10:10. Christ strains out our motes, while our hearts are poured out like milk, with grief and fear; he also keeps us from settling on the lees, by emptying us from vessel to vessel, Jeremiah 48:11 : when the wicked have no changes, and therefore they fear not God; they come not in trouble like other men, therefore they face the heavens, and their tongues walk through the earth, Psalms 73:5,9. All that are Christ's people are sure of sore and sharp afflictions, fiery trials and tribulations, piercing and pressing crosses, Psa 34:19 James 1:2. He will be sure to plough his own ground, whatsoever becomes of the waste; and to weed his own garden, though the rest of the world should be let alone to grow wild. He will cast his purest gold into the fire of affliction; but they shall lose nothing by it. Gold cast into the fire wasteth not, cast into the water rusteth not. No saint was ever the worse for his sufferings, but the better; the least that can come of it is to do good duties with greater zeal and larger affection, Isaiah 26:9. Now, who would not fetch such gold out of a fiery crucible?
And he shall purify the sons of Levi] Whom he had before faulted, Malachi 1:6,14; Malachi 2:1,10. Or he may mean the ministers of the gospel, called priests and Levites, Isaiah 66:21. Or, rather, all the royal priesthood of God's people, whose office is to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:9 Romans 12:1,2. Now for these, Christ, 1. Of bad makes them good, as he did Joses the Levite, Acts 4:36, and many priests, Acts 6:7. He makes them pass under the rod, and so brings them into the bond of the covenant, Ezekiel 20:37 Ezekiel 20:2. Of good he makes them better and brighter, he pours them forth as molten metal, so the Septuagint read this text. Gold that is melted in the furnace is not only purified, but also made malleable; yea, fit for the mould. Their hearts are brought down, they speak as out of the ground, Isaiah 29:4, in a low language, and like broken men; they put their mouths in the dust, they lie low at Christ's feet, and say, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." Thus haughty Hagar, humbled by affliction, hearkeneth to the angel, and submits to her mistress; that young gallant, that in the pride of his prosperity, in the ruff of his jollity, would not be warned; when his flesh and his body was consumed, when his bones clattered in his skin, and the mourners expected him at the doors, he is of another mind, and he may be talked with, Proverbs 5:11,13; then, like the beaten viper, he casteth up his poison both of high mindedness and of earthly mindedness, and if you have any good counsel to give him, he is ready to receive it. See the like, Job 33:19,21, &c.
And purge them as gold and silver] Colabit eos, saith the Vulgate. He shall strain them, as some liquor or liquid matter; so that the purer part shall go through the strainer or colander, and the dregs may be left, Sic Apuleius Neque illi, ait, norant colere arvum, vel colare aurum. The same thing is again and again promised, as for more certainty sake, so to show that the purity should be very great in the days of the gospel. Howbeit for the comfort of his poor people, who are conscious of more dross than good ore, Christ hath promised that he will refine them, but not as silver, Isaiah 48:10, he will not be overly exact with them, he will not mark all that is amiss, he will not contend very much, lest the choice spirits of his afflicted people should fail before him, Isaiah 57:16 : when the child swoons in the whipping Christ lets fall the rod, and falls a kissing it, to fetch life into it again. As it is a rule in medicine still to maintain nature; so God is careful still to keep up his people's spirits by cordials; though he purge them sometimes till he bring them almost to skin and bone, that there may be a spring of better blood and spirits.
That they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness] Or a right offering, a pure worship, holy duties from a right principle and to a right purpose. Two things make a good Christian, good actions and good aims. Though a good aim doth not make a bad action good (as we see in Uzza), yet a bad aim makes a good action bad, as we see in Jehu. If God's work be not duly done, we may meet with breaches instead of blessings, 1 Chronicles 15:17. David failed but in a ceremony; yet God was angry. Jehu's zeal was rewarded in an act of justice, quoad substantiam operis, in regard of the substance of the work; and yet punished as an act of policy, quoad modum, for the perverse end. Let no man measure himself by the matter of things done; for there may be malum opus in bona materia, an evil work in a good matter: works materially good may never prove so formally and eventually. Religion is a curious clock work; if but one wheel be distempered, all may go wrong. David in numbering the people omitted that duty, Exodus 30:12,15, and thence the plague.