“No, you Adonai has taken and brought out of the smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of inheritance for Him, as you are today.”
God called the people out of the smelting furnace. What happens in a smelting furnace? We are melted into a mold-able liquid that will take the shape of whatever we are poured into. Or, we can be hammered into an object because now the furnace has caused our being to be more pure and have less of the impurities that we had before the smelting process, that hindered our shaping because of their hardness.
We all have furnaces we need to be in. Unfortunately, sometimes we pull ourselves out before the process is completed, and God will have to put us in again.
Knives go through what is called tempering, where the knife is heated and then plunged into cold water a few times before it achieves the proper hardness for the job it has been made for. But still it is not the knife pulling itself out, but the knife-maker. God allows us to be rid of the dross of our lives; but only if we truly want it.
Don't be afraid of the fiery furnace, the three Hebrew children found that sometimes you find the best company in the furnace.
Pastor Brent