# 447 The Proverbs – ‘A manual for living’ (MSG). Proverbs 17 (2) Silver and Gold

In today’s market, if you would like to buy some pure silver then you would have to pay approximately Australian $34.4 per ounce (28.35 gm). But if you preferred pure gold, you would require a bigger bank balance. In fact, today’s price of gold is Australian $4,908 per ounce.

Over the history of mankind, as they are today, these two “precious metals” have been sought after and used as currency in various ways. In fact, “the first recorded use of gold as a standard unit for trading dates back to before 3000 BC when Sumerians ruled Mesopotamia” (investingin.gold/the-history-of-gold) and “the first evidence of silver mining dates back to 3000 B.C. in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) and Greece.” (livescience.com)

Both silver and gold are mentioned at least a hundred and fifty times in the Bible, and one of these times is in Proverbs 17:3, but in a different context to them being used as currency. It says:

³ The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
    but the Lord tests the heart.

The subject is not the great value of these precious metals, but rather, how these minerals are extracted from the earth and the relevance of this to us, spiritually.

Basically, when these metals are dug up from the earth they are mixed with other “impurities” and “its extraction [to produce pure gold or silver] requires the use of complex technologies” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_mining) such as chemicals and heat. Proverbs describes these processes used in those days as the crucible and the furnace – words which are often used to describe suffering, but with a purpose i.e., in refining us.

The idea being that, in the same way that the impurities are removed and the pure silver and gold is revealed, so, in our lives, God at times uses hard times, difficulties and suffering to conform us into the best person that we have potential to be and the one He desires us to be.

Another verse mentioning these precious metals is:

And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times. (Psalm 12:6)

In describing the crucible and furnace type activities in our lives, Paul says:

… we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.  (Romans 5:3-5)

⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These 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. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.  (1 Peter 1:6-9)

The Message puts Proverbs 17:3 as follows:

As silver in a crucible and gold in a pan,
    so our lives are refined by God.

God’s desire is for us to be refined, to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, Jesus, the One who suffered and died, and rose again, and so Paul says:

¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.  (Philippians 3:10-11)

 May it be that if you find that you have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials, [that you will understand that] These 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.  Amen.