Refined by testing - Zechariah 13:19 & Isaiah 48:10

I've been away on holiday for a couple of weeks and while I was away I took part in a Bible study with the friends we were staying with. They're working through a book on living the Christian life, and in one of the studies we were looking at God's testing of us.


The study wasn't on a particular passage, but used several verses in the discussions. There were two verses I particularly picked up on for my journalling.

See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

 - Isaiah 48:10

This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. 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 our God.’”

 - Zechariah 13:9

The image that came to mind during the study was of a figure going through the fire and emerging shiny and golden. The picture is all watercolours with white and gold gel pens. The black is dark in the background, but as you can see in the picture, the text is all still visible. I don't like doing anything that covers the text too much - I feel that would be like saying that my thoughts on *this* passage are more important than being able to read *that* passage later.

The study questions were quite interesting and personal at times. I'm not going to share my answers, but I will share the questions that made me think most. One was 'how can you tell the difference between testing and discipline?' and another was 'when was the last time God tested/disciplined you, and what was your response?'

Some of the more general discussion points were around the results of testing and disciplining, which should be the same - a character more fixed on God's will for us.

Another interesting point was that we should expect to be tested regularly. When we went around the group we'd all felt tested within the last few days. It was an interesting discovery, because it's not something I think about much.

Bible flip through March to October part 2

I had a lovely blank page at the start of the New Testament to fill, so I wanted to do something to show the change from Old to New. The thing that leaped to mind straight away was 'a king is born' - what the New Testament is all about.
I painted the page with gold acrylic paint then added the text with black pen and used gel pens to colour the crown. I finished with washi tape along the edge so I could find the New Testament easily.

This was a page I did during Bible study on Isaiah 1..

The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
A rebellious nation

Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken:
‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’

Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption!
They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.

Why should you be beaten any more? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness – only wounds and bruises and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil.

Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.
Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege.
Unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.

Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
‘The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me?’ says the Lord. ‘I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!

Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.

‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord.
‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.’
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

See how the faithful city has become a prostitute! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her – but now murderers!
Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water.

 - Isaiah 1:1-22

I wrote the warnings from the passage in the margin and chose to use the idea of dilution and scarlet sins for the background. The red colour is diluted as it flows down the page - not a literal translation of the idea but it reminds me of the passage - don't become diluted and that sins are 'red as crimson' if we refuse to make ourselves clean before God.

This was inspired by an inspirational picture I saw somewhere. When I was reading the passage from Genesis about Lot escaping from Sodom and Gomorrah it seemed to fit perfectly.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.’

When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, ‘Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!’

But Lot said to them, ‘No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favour in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it – it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.’

He said to him, ‘Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.’ (That is why the town was called Zoar.)

By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulphur on Sodom and Gomorrah – from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities – and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

 - Genesis 15:15-26

Isaiah 1:1-22 - Don't rebel!

A rebellious nation
Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.
Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.
‘Come now, let us settle the matter,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. ...but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.’
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Your silver has become dross, your choice wine is diluted with water.

 - Isaiah 1:1-22 (selected verses)

We looked at this passage in my Bible study group, and it was scary! The passage is a list of what will happen to Israel if the nation continues to turn its back on God. Two parts of the passage leaped out at me - the word 'dilute' and the verse which is probably the best known of this passage about sins being scarlet.

The passage is a warning not to be taken lightly, and I had an urge to use bright reds all over the page to signify the sins of Israel. I made them brighter at the top and faded them out at the bottom - diluting the colour with water as I worked down the page to signify the work 'dilute' which had jumped at me.

Although it's not in the passage, the phrase that seemed to sum up the passage for me was 'do not dilute your faith'. If you stay strong in your faith and stick with God's law, then you don't have to worry about any of the consequences listed in Isaiah. If you allow the world's values to dilute your faith, you'd better watch out!

I used watercolour pencils, which seemed appropriate for what I was trying to signify on the page, with white gel pen to highlight the verses and black pen to write the list of things which Isaiah warns of as consequences of sin. I didn't prep the page at all and there was no bleed-through.