Bible Reading: Proverbs, Matthew, Thessalonians

Proverbs 17:3

The firing-pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord trieth the hearts.

***
I'd like to explain this proverb because it's one of my favorites, but with people's lack of understanding of the context and meaning, it would be easy to miss the primary message.

One of the reasons that silver and gold were so highly prized was because they were noticeable. Because both silver and gold occur in their natural state, even the earliest of humans were able to spot them among the rocks. Many metals are not found in their natural state, so they would be virtually invisible to people who were not metallurgists and chemists. So early humankind learned to find and value silver and gold. Later as they learned how to heat things with fire, they learned that if they heated the rock that held portions of silver and gold, that they could melt the silver and gold out of the rock and obtain it in a pure state. Silver, number 47 in the periodic table, is soft enough that it could be melted in a "firing pot." There was more silver available, and it was easier to extract, and so only a firing pot was needed to obtain pure silver. Gold, number 79 in the periodic table, is harder to extract and requires a furnace. So to obtain pure gold, humans needed to use a larger and hotter device, a furnace. Also, as gold was more prized, a furnace represents a large scale effort under the patronage of a leader or king. So the proverb is escalating in the level of value of the precious ore (from silver up to gold) and in amount of effort required to obtain it in pure form (from firing pot to furnace.)

By placing the heart after silver and gold in this proverb, it is being illuminated as being even more precious than silver and gold. Therefore, instead of a firing pot or a furnace, the Lord is needed to effect the change of a heart to its purest form. In current lingo people have lost the meaning of "trying" so this is what I'm helping the Bible student to avoid. Today we might say "you try me" as in "annoy" or "stress." But in ancient times, trying referred to the chemistry of purification, just as I described, the melting out of silver and gold from the rock ore that holds it within. So the proverb is treating the heart just the same way as silver and gold, which is to recognize that it is not naturally found in pure form, and must be "tried" out of the impure container that it is within. All humans' hearts are bound within the natural tendency to sin and to be mislead, and also, even those of good heart may be bound within conditions that are oppressive and afflictive (war, poverty, illness, loneliness, and other hardships.) In either case, turning to the Lord is the only way that one can purify one's heart. Only the Lord teaches a person how to discard from around and within their heart all that is bad and unhealthy, and allow the space within to grow in the natural glory of the heart.

In Biblical times the heart was viewed as the center of all of a human's actions. Specific feelings and activities attributed to the heart in the Bible include: thought, love, hatred, joy, sorrow, rebellion, pride, desire, obedience, reason, consideration, perception, understanding, meditation, imagination, purpose, presumption, fear, mystery, doubt, and faithfulness/faithlessness. Remember, then they did not know of the functions of the brain, so the heart was the seat of both feeling and thought, and therefore of a human's entire value system. You can see in this list that the ancients recognized a mixed bag of qualities available to the heart, such as the extremes of obedience and rebellion, love and hatred. So in this proverb the reader is being taught that just as silver and gold are extracted from the ore, so too can a heart be purified in order to contain only the finest and most good of the qualities listed above. A heart that is "tried" by turning to the Lord and learning his ways is therefore able to purify out the hatred, and fill with love. A heart is "tried" to purify out the pride and fill with obedience and reason. So this proverb is not saying that the Lord sends affliction and is "trying the patience" of a person to test them into a pure heart, but rather, this wise proverb refers to the Lord as the instrument and way of purity of heart.

Centuries after this proverb was written, Jesus spoke about the reward that the pure of heart achieve:

Matthew 5:8

Blessed are the pure of heart: for they shall see God.

The wise St. Paul also shows knowledge of both the proverb, and the beatitude spoken by Jesus, as he brings the two together here:

Thessalonians 2:4

But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, who trieth our hearts.

You can see how important it is to understand what I've explained about the proverb in order to correctly understand what Paul is saying. He is saying that by following the gospel, even if men want the person to sin and speak incorrectly, that God purifies the gospel followers' heart. A hasty reading of this saying from Paul without understanding the proverb he is alluding to might make one think that he is saying that God sends certain men to "try" and "test" the believer. That is not what he is saying, and he makes that clear in the order of the words, as it builds up to the point, just as does the proverb itself, a proverb he assumes is known to most readers of this epistle.

God gave gospel as instrument...use it to proclaim.... even if others disagree....God through gospel purifies the heart.

One other thought; Paul uses the words "allowed of God" and "to be put in trust with the gospel" to underscore and emphasis the gospel as a gift and a choosing. God allowed people to hear the gospel and God allowed people to find their faith within them to trust the gospel. Paul is affirming again here that faith itself is a gift from God.