Word of Salvation – Vol.12 No.48 – November 1966

 

Christmas Time Is Examination Time

Sermon by Rev. J.F.H. vander Bom on Proverbs 17:3

Scripture Readings: Luke 1:46-55 & 1Cor. 3 :10–15

Text: Proverbs 17:3

Suggested Hymns:

Psalter Hymnal: 235:1,2; 49:3 or: 39; 318:1,2,3;1 343:3,4; 201:3

 

Dear Christians,

Christmas time is examination time.

This is, in short, the message of today’s text.  We mostly think of Christmas as a very happy time, among other reasons because by then the exams are over, and all the work has been done.  But this is only part of the truth, because the main examination of the year is Christmas itself!

Yes, we all must pass a test at Christmas.  And to-cay, in preparation of Christmas, we are told what test we have to pass, and also what questions will be asked.

We only need to read through those portions in the Bible which are directly connected with the Lord Jesus Christ and his coming, to find out the truth of the sermon’s title.  Remember the words of Simeon: ‘Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel.’  The Lord was brought into the world that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed!.  Remember also what Christ himself said: ‘For judgment I came’ (and judgment is: examination!), ‘that those who do not see, may see, and that those who see may become blind.’

The coming of Jesus is a real test!  This is true for his first coming, but also for the advent of his great return.  The Church may never forget: it is examination time now!  And when the Son of God will try us out, there are the ones who will fail, and others who may pass.  Some may enter and others must stay outside, because there are some who see, but others are so blind..!  This is the contents of our text in Proverbs 17:3 ‘The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold, and the Lord tries hearts.’

Yes, there are different kinds of examinations.  Solomon knew this already.  Silver is examined in a crucible, gold is examined in a fiery furnace, you and I are examined in … what?

I am afraid that the test which we must undergo may be the hardest of them all.

Now, this always seems to be one of the first questions related to an exam: will it be hard?  And very seldom will people speak of an exam as something very light and pleasant or amusing!  Yes, perhaps when looking back… then some of us may proudly say: Oh, it didn’t mean a thing, it was a joke.  But generally speaking we can agree that exams are not a joke at all.

Our children know: an exam seems to get everything out of them, doesn’t it?  And parents and teachers suffer just as much as the children do, because they are afraid that after the exam nothing may be left over.  Imagine that the exam would crush them completely, just like it now already for many weeks has crushed their good mood, their healthy appetite and their quiet sleep.  Could this be the end?  Is this the idea of an exam that the children be crushed, and that nothing is left, an exam without any result?

Yes, one would get the impression, sometimes, that exams are just made for the purpose to have all the pupils fail.  We are so surprised when they really pass.  That seems to be so unbelievable, that we are just as excited as at the home-coming of a space-flight.  And we give them the nicest presents.

Still there is nothing abnormal at all in the exam.  It is not there so that the child may be crushed.  It is only there to try out, to find out… to sort out.  Yes, just like the silver in the crucible, and the gold in the furnace are tried.  Solomon uses a beautiful illustration here.  Have you ever been in a mine?  From what I have seen in the copper mines in Queenstown, Tasmania, I remember four things: (1) a lot of dust, and (2) the terrible noise of the crusher, (3) a very hot and fiery furnace, and (4) a wonderful result.

Isn’t this a wonderful picture of what takes place at an exam?  Solomon has seen it with his own eyes in his mining town, Ezeon-Geber.  This was Solomon’s Queenstown, because it lies on the road to the gold country of the queen of Sheba.  Ezeon-Geber with its refineries, its open smelting pots of clay, must have been a miserable town.  What the king saw there was in the first place a dreadful reality: dust, and noise, sweat, blood and cruel slave labour.

Yes, but there was also the wonderful result.  Those shining pieces of silver and the glitter of that little gold which came out, they are worth – and more than worth – all the miseries and trouble of the hard labour in the dust.  Just like the pieces of copper from the Queenstown mines are worth all those huge mountain blocks being crushed!

‘The crucible for the silver, and the fiery furnace for the gold.’  Yes, all the noise of the crusher, the heat, the dust have only the one purpose: to sort out what has value and may exist.  Whole mountains are crushed for pieces of silver, and huge rocks are being split to win a little gold.  Real revolutions of the earth are taking place, because there is only one important question.  Mountains and heavy rocks do not count, but this question does: where do we find more silver?  Where is the gold of quality.

‘And so the Lord tries hearts.’  For what we have learnt until now, the crushing of the blocks of rock is nothing but an illustration of what we ourselves have to go through.  All the dust and noise and crushing of the miseries and sufferings of this world are as nothing when compared with the great value of what God is bringing out in that greatest examining process of all, as He tries hearts.

No, it is not a joke to be tried.  An examination of this sort is not a pleasant event at all.  But we have also learnt that the purpose is never to crush, but rather to find out, to sort out… what?

What must be sorted out?  The most important problem for high school students is to know the questions.  If they could only know the questions that would be asked.  But fathers and mothers in Church, you know all the questions that you all will be asked, don’t you?  When we are told from Scripture today that the Lord wants to examine us, then there is no reason for you to be in a panic, or to get nervous, or (like your children) to say: I don’t know.  Because God is so kind and gracious.  He tells you not only to be prepared.  He also tells you for what questions.

And don’t you know the questions?

The crucible (with all the dust) is for the silver.  The furnace (with all its heat) is for the gold.  And so, when the Lord wants to try out human hearts, it is only to find out what is gold in you.  Is there something sterling, is there something that will endure and that is valuable in you?

And now you begin to ask yourselves: what could be valuable in me?  And you have your pious answer ready for the home visitation: I know there is nothing precious in me!  But what I would suggest is: don’t be too pious, please, because you would not mean it.  If other people told you that you are good for nothing, then you would be deeply grieved.  So you’d better be honest.  What would you consider to be of value in your life?  At the end of the year the Lord wants to take stock of you.  Did you achieve something worthwhile in 1966?  Was there something that made your life worth living in the middle of all the dust and noise or the crushing machines of a modern world?

Our children may boast about their wonderful and unexpected results.  Teenagers may boast of their first financial achievements.  And you, who may have made your public profession of faith…?  ‘Not my silver, not my gold…!’  No, but what?

Yes, we know the answers so well.  We are expected to say: the grace of God.  His goodness is more precious than life itself.  That we have our Saviour and may celebrate Holy Communion, that is what makes life worthwhile.

But again I would ask, are we honest?  If the Lord’s Communion is so precious, why then are there the many empty spaces in the ordinary services?  Why are there the quarrels on petty things?  Why is there so little interest in Bible Study?

The Lord tries hearts..!  And He wants to find not a speech of silver (pious talk) but the sterling gold of His work of grace in you.  People who have learnt to love and whose hearts cry to God, would show the gold of God’s grace in them.  Don’t say this is a little thing.  To love God and our neighbour requires a real revolution in the lives of us who are prone to hate God and our neighbour.  But the love of God in our hearts is the only thing that makes the living of our lives worthwhile.

Yes, Christmas time is examination time.  And the examiner is the Lord Himself.  In the turmoil of suffering and under the crushing machinery of modern world the Lord tries us out.  Huge pieces of rock do not count a thing before God.  The high and mighty are put down from their thrones.  World’s history is a real revolution.  He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.  Remember the words from Mary’s Song, which we just read?

Mary was only a young girl.  But she was not too young to understand the revolutionary meaning of this proverb.  The crucible for the silver, the furnace for the gold, and the Lord trying hearts.  Where God comes, where His Son enters the world, there He turns the whole world upside down.  The whole Bible is filled with that message.  ‘He kills and brings to life, He brings low and He also exalts’, sang Hanna.  And Mary repeated: ‘He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty,’  And: ‘He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name, And His mercy is for those who fear Him, from generation to generation.’  As we also sang it in psalm 147: ‘The way of the wicked He turns to ruin’.  That the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed says Simeon.  For the form of this world passes away, says Paul.

Now, what are the thoughts of your heart at Christmas?  This very revealing question calls for your answer, today.  But before closing we must remind you of the thought of God’s heart.  He took His Son who had the highest place and brought Him to the lowest.  And hasn’t He been tried, here?  Jesus, Son of the Creator, was born in poverty.  The ruler of the universe gave himself for slave work.  This was a revolution.  Or no, this was rather the beginning of world’s restoration.  For where He, in the fullness of time and in the middle of world history began to empty himself, taking the form of a servant, there was the sterling quality of human life brought to light in Him.  However, it is the same quality which at Christmas He wants to find in every one of us.

For this reason your faith is being tried in days of trouble, loneliness and sickness.  He tries us out to find that quality in me.  Whether we are as young as Mary or as old as Simeon, as poor as the shepherds or as rich as the three wise men, let us altogether adore Him, giving up ourselves, with all that we have and need, to the Saviour in complete dedication of thankfulness.  Yes, we say it with his mother, today: Behold, here is a servant of the Lord.  Let it be to me according to Thy Word.

Amen.