Jeremiah 6:27-30

V. 27: I have set you among my people as an assayer, a fortress, so that you may know and try their way.

I have quoted Jeremiah 6:27 from J.N. Darby's translation because it is one of the few that translate this verse as it is written. My Holman Christian Standard Bible® changes "fortress" to "refiner," then adds a footnote that says, "Text emended."

That means they changed the text on purpose. The King James translators did, too, but they didn't leave us a note. It says Jeremiah is set as a "tower" and a fortress, even though the first word is not tower; it's assayer.

An assayer is a person who tests gold and other metals to determine their quality and value. That doesn't line up with fortress very well, though it does fit with the rest of the verse, where God says Jeremiah will be knowing and testing their ways.

Since the text we have, if we translate faithfully, says Jeremiah is to be an assayer and a fortress, let's use those terms to discuss the passage. Really, they work pretty well together, although in most situations they would have nothing to do with one another.

An Assayer and A Fortress

The reason that Jeremiah would need to be an assayer and a fortress, despite the dissimilarity of those terms, is readily apparent.

The people of Israel were not interested in being tested. God has just finished telling them that he is going to judge them severely because "they have not listened to my words, nor to my law, but rejected it" (v. 19).

Thus, Jeremiah, as God's assayer, did not have a safe job. He was in constant danger, and the rest of the book of Jeremiah describes some of the imprisonments and persecutions that Jeremiah received.

But Jeremiah was not merely an assayer. He was a fortress. God protected him, and his assessment and weighing of Israel has survived to our day.

Useless Refining
The Wicked Are Not Plucked Out

V. 29: The bellows burn; the lead is consumed by fire; but the refiner melts in vain because the wicked are not plucked out.

God always has a remnant. Even in this evil time, when God says, "All are stubborn rebels spreading slander," God has those who combine with him in the work of refining. God ignites the fire, but he has those who work it, speaking the word of the Lord, telling the people how to respond to the judgment and testing of God.

Jeremiah, of course, was such a one.

But Jeremiah and other refiners were working in vain.

What made their refining vain? God says it is because the wicked are not plucked out.

We have the same problem today. We are told even in the New Testament that the wicked must be plucked out. 1 Cor. 5:13 tells us, "Put out that wicked person from among you."

The problem is worse today. In the apostle Paul's time, the churches knew that Christians must live holy. Those who led God's people were still taught that those who profess to believe in God must be careful to maintain good works (Tit. 3:8) and that grace produces holy living (Tit. 2:11), not a license for sin (Jude 1:4).

Today many Christians have no idea that the wicked must be put out from among us. Because we think of the church as a meeting—or worse, a meeting hall—we want to bring the wicked in and preach to them. We do not understand that the church is a family, not a meeting.

Nor will we ever understand until we enter into the spiritual and supernatural experience of family that happens when those who are sold out to the will of God gather in the name of Jesus Christ.

Attempts to refine the church will always be in vain until this happens. We do not understand the power of the unity of the saints to transform the world (Jn. 17:20-23), so we make no efforts to bring it about.

All of this is tied to the assaying we looked at in v. 27. Those that God has appointed assay the church. They weigh the state of the church, and when the churches of today are weighed in the balance, they are found wanting. They are divided and worldly.

First the church must accept the assayer's assessment. Then they must do something about it.

The problem is, the church has its own way of refining itself. The traditions of men pervade the churches of today, and they refuse to bend from them. They want the wicked in their midst, being preached to by professional ministers paid to preach the Gospel to them.

In the meantime, those who have received this badly damaged Gospel do not grow because they are not given the things that make them grow. The church grows as each part does its share (Eph. 4:13-16), not by sitting in pews listening to sermons.

And the members of the church do their share outside the meeting even more than in it. Church life, however, for the majority of churches, ends when the meeting ends. They are not family. They are a club, sharing their lives only when the club meets.

When the wicked are gone, and the saints are together, there is a unity that comes from the Spirit of God. Jesus Christ comes into their midst, for they are gathered as he has commanded, not as the traditions of men have commanded.

That wonderful experience of unity and of the presence of Jesus Christ is fulfilling and addicting. The saints long for it, and they begin to be together all the time, sharing all things, giving their lives to the Gospel and to one another.

It is when this happens that "great grace is upon them all," and testimony is given to the resurrection of Christ "with great power" (Acts 4:32-33).

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity … for there the Lord has commanded the blessing, even life forevermore. (Ps. 133:1,3)

Rejected Silver

V. 30: Reprobate silver shall men call them because the Lord has rejected them.

Take heed to what happened to the Pharisees. They loved the Scriptures; they loved the Law; they devoted themselves to following both. Nonetheless, when God came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ, he found them the most detestable people of all, and they became his enemies.

Don't be deceived about the Pharisees. They were not always evil. They came from excellent stock. It was the Maccabees, a family God blessed abundantly, that the teaching of the Pharisees descended from. Tired of being judged by God, the Maccabees set numerous rules in place to guard Israel from idolatry.

What they did was good when they did it, but over a couple centuries it became traditions that kept people away from God as well as idols.

Beware lest good things that the Reformers did in the 16th centuries become traditions keeping you away from God!

People who read the Bible and search the Scriptures for life can be detested by God for refusing to come to Christ (Jn. 5:39-40).

Reject the Wicked or Be Rejected Silver

I do not want to lose focus. The Israelites could not be refined, no matter how much refining was done, because they would not pluck out the wicked.

Let us not be like them. Let us come out from among them and be separate, and let us put out the wicked one from our midst.

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