Deuteronomy 4:20 But the LORD has taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be to him a people of inheritance… God had passed his people through a hot furnace in the terrible sufferings they endured in Egypt, but with the gracious purpose of ultimately delivering them, and giving them an inheritance in Canaan. We learn - I. THAT GOD'S PEOPLE ARE SOMETIMES SUBJECTED TO SUFFERINGS OF INCREDIBLE SEVERITY. The expression an 'iron furnace," i.e. a furnace for smelting iron, conveys no weaker an idea. We know that in fact it sometimes is so. Bodily anguish - mental anguish - stroke after stroke of heaviest trial. An instance in the history of Job. Shakes faith to its foundations - seems to argue that God has utterly forsaken them. II. THAT THESE SUFFERINGS ARE APPOINTED, AND SERVE DISCIPLINARY ENDS. The use of the figure of a furnace implies a purpose in the sufferings. Iron is put into the furnace deliberately, and with a design. Trials, difficult enough to bear in the faith that God sends them, would ofttimes be absolutely intolerable without that faith. The furnace acts on the tough, hard, impure iron to separate it from dross, and make it soft and workable. The severe sufferings through which God passes believers: 1. Purify character. 2. Make the nature plastic to God's will, and subdue it to meekness. 3. Fit the man thus sanctified for new and higher uses. III. GOD HAS AN INHERITANCE IN STORE FOR THOSE WHO ENDURE THE FURNACE SUCCESSFULLY. 1. Their sufferings fit them to be God's inheritance. "To be unto him a people of inheritance." He has to melt, mold, and spiritually prepare for his own indwelling those whom he chooses. 2. Their sufferings fit them for the inheritance which God gives them (1 Peter 1:3-10). By creating a pure, chastened, heavenly disposition. By strengthening faith, brightening hope, and increasing love. By subduing pride, rebellion, and impatience; and making the will absolutely pliant in the hands of the Divine. - J.O. . Parallel Verses KJV: But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day. |
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