Wisdom's Corner
Get a Lot of Silver

During the days of the early Old Testament silver was a very valuable thing. It was more valuable than gold. People used it for money. They would also make rings, bracelets, buttons, and other things with it. Kings would make their crowns out of it.

Silver is rarely found in a pure state. Most of the time other minerals are mixed in with it. Iron is the most commonly found mineral mixed with it. Because of this, people would heat the metal to separate the silver from the other minerals.

Heating the minerals and separating them is called smelting. People would build an oven or furnace. This many times would be made of dried mud bricks. A fire would be built inside the oven. When it was real hot the metal would be put in the oven. As the metal got real hot it would melt. The iron is heavier than the silver, so they would separate as they melted. And the iron would attract the other minerals so that they would also separate out away from the silver.

This smelting could be done several times to the same silver. Each time the metal melted more of the other minerals would separate away from it. This means that the silver is getting purer. By the time this is done seven times, the silver is very, very pure. And so it would be very valuable.

God says His word, the Bible, is like that very pure silver. Psalm 12:6, "The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times."

You should want to collect as much of this silver as you can. You can do this by reading and studying the Bible. And you must listen to your teacher in Bible class.

Until next time, keep reading and studying. Get God's silver.

Mark McWhorter

Copyright 1998

Published by The Old Paths Bible School
(http://www.oldpaths.org)