Leftovers

Leftovers are not always a bad thing- we think of leftovers as yesterday’s dinner, something used up and passed down...a TV that you have to change the channel with a pair of pliers, but I submit to you today that leftovers, in God’s sight, are not a bad thing at all. In God's eyes, He is always trying to get us to the point of being the leftovers of His eternal purpose. What I am saying is this, when God sends us through a process, what's left-over is someone that is better than they were before they entered the process. When a man produces leftovers, whatever is left has been subtracted from and used up; but when God produces leftovers, whatever is left has generally been touched by Him and has been proven to be genuine.

There is a message in Zechariah 13:8, 9 that stuck with me and I want to share it with you. The scripture reads:

8“It will come about in all the land,”
Declares the LORD,
“That two parts in it will be cut off and perish;
But the third will be left in it.

9“And I will bring the third part through the fire,
Refine them as silver is refined,
And test them as gold is tested.
They will call on My name,
And I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are My people,’
And they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

To put this scripture in context, Zechariah is prophesying in a post-exilic Jerusalem during the rebuilding of the temple. The issue of impurity is present and God says in verses 1-5 of this same chapter that he is getting ready to purge the land by cutting off the names of idols and driving out the false prophet and the unclean spirit. Sometimes, God purges using fire, a universal symbol for purification. God uses fire to get to the leftovers. Fire does three things: 1. Identifies 2. Purifies and 3. Glorifies

Fie Identifies (Verse 8)

Recall fiery tongues identified the disciples of Jesus at Pentecost, John said that Jesus was coming and was going to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire! Fire identifies in that it separates the sheep from the goats! Peter 2:9 says that God knows how to deliver the righteous from trial and punish the wicked-at the same time– so we see in verse 8 that although the entire land was burning, only 2/3 actually perished. Fire distinguished the righteous from the wicked. The righteous were God's leftovers.

If we were to apply this to our lives, in the fire, the righteous will see God for who He really is AND understand that this fire has purpose! God works all things together for my good…so although it is hot, I’m alright because I know that God is ultimately GOOD!  I also understand that He will not give me any more than I can bear.  On the other hand, the wicked will see God as the judge-if you are outside of Christ the fire is different for you!

What we can conclude is this: the wicked and righteous might be in an identical situation- and the wicked man will curse God and die whereas the righteous man will give God glory for being a deliverer! What we also see is the same fire having two different purposes: The fire for the wicked is punishment--- BUT for the righteous is purification and what’s left is holy! In Isaiah 1:25, God says, "I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities."

Fire Purifies (Verse 9a)

If we read the A clause of verse 9, we see that after the 2/3 has perished, what's left, a 1/3 remnant,  is dealt with by fire and the fire has two intended purposes: 1. Refine and 2. Test

Refining is designed to burn off the mess and to get us to the place that God desires for us to be. Refining is a purification process. Fire from a chemistry standpoint, causes a chemical change. A physical change simply means putting on a new outfit but burning reduces anything into its basic elements. Fire for the ones that love God- is designed to bring about a chemical change- to reduce us to our basic elements. Fire removes all of the pretenses and causes a spiritual change in such a way that what I was when I went into the fire is not what I am when I come out of the fire.

Malachi 3:3 says that Jesus is like a refiner’s fire and a fuller’s soap who comes to purify the priests!  Isaiah 61:6 says you will be called PRIESTS of the LORD!  Under the New Covenant, the one in Jesus’s blood, 1 Peter 2:5 says that we are a royal priesthood; we are the ones that proclaim the excellence of God! We cannot proclaim God's excellence in impurity therefore the fire is used to purify us!  Christians are constantly being conformed into the image of Christ.  We were created in God's image, however, the image was marred in the garden of Eden.  God had an eternal plan in place to repair the image.  Every fire moves us a little closer to holiness- and repairs the image incrementally.  Therefore, what is left over after the fire is the image restored and not the image deformed. The fire brings all of the mess to the top---the dross---God skims it off and what’s left is holy!

Testing is simply this: the leftovers must be examined and found to be sure! Peter says (1 Peter 1:7) that our faith, which is more precious than gold, must be tested and found to be genuine! It’s one thing to say we have faith but it something else to demonstrate that faith while enduring suffering! God is trying to move us to holiness, to a place where I no longer view Him as an outsider- but an insider, living inside of me (Holy Ghost) and moving me closer to Him through the fire- the more fires that I walk through with Him, the more I trust Him! So the fire separates and identifies those that are committed to holiness as opposed to those that reject to God.

Fire Glorifies (Verse 9b)

In the fire: I will learn to call on His name. In the fire, I will learn that God is trustworthy because when I call on His name, the text says, He will answer! I will learn to give God praise even though the predicament that I am in has me confounded, perplexed and tired- wishing that this was over. But if God sends the fire or if God ALLOWS the fire, God will take us through the fire! I don’t have to avoid the fire because God gives grace when we need it most. God says, “My grace is sufficient.”!

The fire in this text came as a result of sin in the land- God was purging the land! The whole land was on fire but not everything in the land was burned up! God’s grace is unlimited and all of us need it.  If you are confounded by the fire that you are experienceing and wondering "why am I going through this?", consider this: although we do not live in sin (i.e. practice sin) anymore, we will still see trouble in this lifetime!  We have to deal with cancer, heart trouble, money issues, credit issues, marriage issues, etc.  Simply put, being saved does not exempt us from trouble but it does give us some options on how we deal with trouble! Grace allows us to glorify God while I am in a fiery situation. If you notice in the text, it is the ones that love God, the remnant, the leftovers that were the ones that were subjected to the fire for an even longer period of time. God is saying to us, "I will bring you THROUGH the fire, I will not lift you above it, I will not quench it, I will not douse it…I will bring you through it!"

If we recall the Hebrew boys (Daniel 3), when Nebuchadnezzar had them thrown into a furnace heated seven times hotter than normal, we should also recall his reaction to what he witnessed. He said (paraphrasing), "We threw three in but I see four now, unbound, unharmed--- and one looks like a son of the gods!" We need to understand that Jesus is in the fire with us and when that is the case, there is no smoke, no burning, not even the residue of being in a fire…just glory to God for the great things that He has done!

What we see from this scripture is this: God's leftovers are good because He has dealt with the raw material in order to produce something that is pleasing to Him. I'm ok with being God's leftovers. I was once sick with sin, but the blood of Jesus covered me and I became leftovers- no longer the sick person that went into the fire but a changed person after the fire. All of us are going to hit patches where we feel like we cannot go on-- I submit to you that not only can you go on, those rough patches are designed to humble us and bring us closer to God.  Find the lesson that the fire is trying to teach.  If God is currently dealing with you and purging you, submit to His process! His leftovers are blessed, holy and sanctified-- and I'm ok with that.  God's grace and peace be upon you.