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The better part of Judah were cast as precious metal into a crucible by their being sent into exile at Babylon. And the effect was as that which results from such purifying process. Note -

I. WITHOUT DOUBT THEIR EXILE TRIED THEM AS FIRE. Fire is often the symbol of pain; and that there was indeed pain and sore distress in the exiles' lot is certain. Degradation, slavery, loss of their land, their high privileges as the people of God, in short, of their worldly all, had to be submitted to by them; and they lived, where they were permitted to live, at the mere caprice of a powerful, despotic, and merciless monarch. What that caprice could do, and often actually inflicted in the way of cruel tyranny and oppression, the books of the Bible which belong to the times of the Captivity, and the sculptures brought from those lands and now in the museums of this and other countries, clearly reveal - the merciless slaughters and the horrible punishments, etc. And all this woe they had brought on others - as their children - who were entirely innocent of their parents' wrong. "The fathers had eaten sour grapes, aunt the children's teeth were set on edge." And to add to their distress was the bitter reflection that they were designed to have filled a position so entirely different and better; that they were intended to be the first in the favour of God, but now had become last; and all this by their own persistent, wilful wickedness, wickedness persisted in in spite of every kind of warning, protest, and entreaty that God could send them. Yes, it was as fire, as a furnace seven times heated.

II. BUT IT WAS NEVERTHELESS AS A REFINER'S FIRE. It was to issue in their good. For it did not destroy them. They were to be brought out of all this woe. "I will bring them again" (ver. 37). And it should work them good by separating them from:

1. Their sins. They were torn away from the scenes, the people, the places, the manifold circumstances, which Were inseparable from that idolatry into which they had so often fallen.

2. And from those who tempted them thereto. For that loose, evil multitude which were dealt with apparently less sternly than themselves at the first, were the prompters and the persuaders to that wickedness which had wrought them so much harm. Those who were obnoxious and therefore, in ch. 24., compared to the figs which could not be eaten, were, though left awhile in the possession of their own land, at length destroyed. The corrupt and poisonous leaven was taken utterly away, so that that which was sound and healthful or capable of becoming so might be preserved. The pure ore was separated from the base alloy, the worthless dross, by the action of this refiner's fire.

III. IN PROOF OF THIS, note:

1. God brought them back to their own land.

2. They had given them "a heart to know" God.

3. And their after history proved this.

For they were a noble people for generations afterwards. Of course, there were the less worthy amongst them; but let their records be studied, their thrilling Maccabean history, for example, and it will be seen what a refining process that was through which they had been made - as was so necessary for them and for mankind at large, who were to be blessed by means of them - to pass. The absence of prophets and prophesyings, which is so marked a feature of the history written on that page which separates the Old Testament from the New, instead of being a reproach to them, is rather a proof that their general national health was such that the sharp surgery, the stern ministry, of the prophetic order was not then needed as it had been, so deplorably, in former days.

IV. WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE between them and the baser sort who were destroyed. It was the possession of the Spirit of God. The holy fire enkindled by him had been all but quenched, but not entirely; the dying embers could be made to glow with radiant heat once again. But of that fire God has said, "It shall ever be burning on the altar, it shall never go out;" and though they had all but smothered it beneath the heap of idolatrous superstitions and practices, and other evil compliances with wrong, it was burning still. And the exile across that wide desert to the plains of Babylon let in again the air from heaven, and the fire burnt up once more. And that this might be, God dealt with them as he did, and as he ever does, blessed be his Name] in like circumstances. CONCLUSION. Paul's question, therefore, comes to our mind as we study such history as this: "Have ye received the Holy Ghost?" Seek him; for he will baffle the power of the destroyer, and, better still, if we will but follow his leading, he will keep us from ever needing to be cast into the crucible as these were, and from needing the refiner's fire. That would have been best of all, but thank God there is a second best. "Covet earnestly the best gifts." - C.

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KJV: And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence;

WEB: Now therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, concerning this city, about which you say, It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: