“Behold, I have refined you…I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”

Isaiah 48:9-11

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

 “For My name’s sake I will defer My anger, and for My praise I will restrain it from you, so that I do not cut you off.” Isaiah 48:9

By the Spirt of the Lord, Isaiah prophesied that the Israelites of Judah would be taken captive into Babylon, “Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.” Isiah 39:5-6 Click for post on Isaiah 39. In the verse of this post, the Lord promises not to completely cut them off, not to completely destroy them.

God’s plan was to send His Son Jesus Christ to restore the damage that sin has done to this world. Sin separates us from fellowship with God but through Jesus Christ we are restored to fellowship with Him in the spirit through the Holy Spirit, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:24

God planned to send Jesus by the way of the tribe of Judah, of the Israelites. If He would have unleashed His anger to destroy the Israelites, the tribe of Judah would not have survived through time. For His name’s sake and to His praise, He withheld His anger and restrained it from being leveled upon them. The tribe of Judah was not cut off, our Lord Jesus was born into this world, and through Him Salvation has come to whoever believes in Him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and will not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” John 5:24

Christ Jesus was prophesied about to come from the lineage of king Dadvid, who was from the tribe of Judah, “He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus—” Acts 13:20-23

Today, the Lord defers and restrains His anger from us, for His name’s sake and to His praise so that we are not cut off from the Salvation He gives us through Jesus Christ. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 The Holy Spirit restrains lawlessness, but when He is taken out of the way, then lawlessness will be unleashed upon this world. There is no forgiveness for blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, which destroys faith in Jesus Christ and opposes belief in God the Creator. “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.” 2 Thessalonians 2:6-8 Click for a post on the “lawless one”.

How do we know that we have the Holy Spirit? If we do not speak against Jesus and say that He is Lord then we have the Holy Spirit, “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:3

“Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” Isaiah 48:10

The Israelites of Judah would be refined spiritually by the affliction they would have to endure under the oppression of the Babylonians. They would learn how afflictions would draw them nearer to God by seeing the value of the Ten Commandments beside the atrocities happening to them as captives. They would see the value of making animal sacrifices to atone for sin within compared to the Babylonians society that lived in sin. They would see the value of the word of God within a Babylonian culture that lived by false gods.

Isaiah was speaking to carnal-minded Israelites who might not have understood that he was speaking of being refined in the spirit. That is why Isaiah made the distinction between silver being refined and a person being refined by affliction. “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14

This sin-plagued world hurls a massive amount of affliction upon all people in every city around the world. Referring to death, storms, violence, war, and everything in between. As followers of Jesus Christ, more affliction is added to us by those who despise the Gospel of Jesus Christ and all of Christianity. In every one of those afflictions, we are being tested by God to see if we stand for His Son Jesus Christ or against Him.

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.” 1Peter 1:6-9

“Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.” 1 Peter 4:12-16

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.” 2 Peter 1:5-9

“For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; For how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another.” Isaiah 48:11

For His own sake, the Lord restrains from destroying this world in the blink of an eye but chooses to refine us in the furnace of affliction. That refinement, or process of sanctification, happens by faith in Jesus Christ in the presence of the Holy Spirit. The Lord does not share His glory with the beast that has power over physiology to give people what to say, do, think, and feel. The “refinement” coming through the beast is of the power of darkness, and those who serve the beast portray themselves with an image of Godliness but deny the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, “…having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” 2 Timothy 3:5

That verse is also in context with the Lord’s promise to raise up Cyrus by name [years before he was born] to conquer the Babylonian Empire and to free the Israelites from captivity to the Babylonians. Cyrus is described in the post on Isaiah 45:1-7 and also in the post on Isaiah 41:25-29. The Lord did not send Cyrus to give Cyrus a great name as being the Savior of the Israelites but did it for His own sake. The Lord refused to let His name continue to be profaned among all those of the Babylonians who mocked Him as the God of the captive Israelites. The Lord does not share His glory with anyone and did not intend for His glory to be shared with Cyrus.

“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Revelations 7:10

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.
I am coming soon. 
Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.’”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11