The Intent Of God’s Judgment On Israel - Purging

Pastor Bill Farrow

Isaiah 1:25b

^25...I will turn My hand against you,
And thoroughly purge away your dross,
And take away all your alloy.

Purge away - This refers to the process of smelting, or purifying metals in the fire. It means, I will remove all the dross which has accumulated (Isa. 1:22), and will make the silver pure. This was commonly done by fire; and the idea is, that he would render his own people pure by those judgments which would destroy his enemies who were intermingled with them. It speaks to the intention of the process, as well as to its harshness.  The process is not a pleasant one in picture here.  Great heat and melting power is in view, and the process is not pleasant to contemplate.  However, the end result is the real aim of the figure and that is where our thoughts must go.  It is not God’s intention to destroy the nation of Israel with this action, but to purge them, to purify them.  That is important to understand.  There is a difference between punishment and chastening, theologically.  Punishment can result in the complete destruction of the object of the punishment.  Chastening always has as its aim the purifying and the restoration of the object chastened.  This is the stated aim here.  it is not the destruction of the nation, but its purifying and its restoration.

Purely - The original word here has been commonly understood to mean, according to purity; that is, effectually or entirely pure. Thus it is translated by the Septuagint, and by the Latin Vulgate. But by some versions it is translated, ‘I will purify thee as with the herb borith.’ The word may mean lye, alkali, or potash, (Job 9:30); and it may mean also borax - a substance formed of alkali and boric acid, much used in purifying metals. The essential idea is, I will make you effectually, or entirely pure. As such, in retrospect, it can only be a reference to the cleansing that comes as a result of salvation by the imputed righteousness of Christ as that is the ONLY kind of cleansing that is sufficient to please God and satisfy His requirements.  It cannot refer to any other kind of refining, as certainly does not refer to any kind of human actions, as they are all entirely insufficient and completely inadequate.

Thy tin - Tin is with us a well-known white metal. But the word used here does not mean tin. It denotes the stannum of the ancients; a metal formed of lead mixed with silver ore. Here it means, I will take away all the impure metal mixed with thee; varying the idea but little from the former part of the verse.  This is the result of the smelting process.  The “tin” is the dross or the waste material that is damaging to the value of the metal being smelted.  What is significant here is that “all” of it is to be “taken away”.  This refers to the sin and the effects of sin that are a part of the present nature of the Israelites and that keep them from being pleasing to God.  That sin will be taken from them, all of it, and thus they will be able to stand rightly before God and be completely pure and acceptable to Him.  Again, this can ONLY be the result of the application of the finished work of Jesus Christ by grace through faith.  It cannot be the result of any human instrumentality or normal human mechanism.  When we stop and think about this, this is a very clear pointing of us, some 700 years before the coming of our Lord, to the work of Christ and to the obedience which underlies true salvation.  The kind of absolute cleansing that is in view here is unavailable from any other source and in any other fashion.