THE SMITTEN SHEPHERD 485
for the final purging of the nation. And yet in this very prophecy we see mercy blended with judgment.
Two-thirds may be "cut off" and die, but the nation can never be utterly destroyed. There is always " a third," or " a tenth," which forms the indestructible " holy seed," * which God takes care to preserve as the nucleus of the great and blessed nation through whom His holy will and His wonderful purposes in relation to this earth shall yet be realised. " I will make a full end," He says, " of all nations whither I have scattered thee, but I will not make a full end of thee."
Hence, no fires of tribulation, however hot, have been able utterly to consume them ; and no waters of affliction, however deep, to drown them.
And the end of the Lord in all the chastisements and judgments with which He has to visit His people on account of their great and manifold sins, is not their destruction, but that they may, by these very judgments, as well as by the abundant mercy which He will reveal to them " in that day," be brought as a nation fully, and for ever, to know Him, in all the Divine perfections of His glorious character, so as to be able to fulfil their fore ordained mission to show forth His praise, and to proclaim His glory among the nations.
Hence the " refining " and the " trying," or " testing," of even " the third part," or little remnant, as set forth in the 9th verse. This, I believe, refers more particularly to the remnant in the land at the time of the very end, immedi ately before their final glorious deliverance. Then, particularly, He will " refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried," for in the words of Malachi, " He will be like a refiner s fire, and like fullers sope." He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, " and shall purge and purify them that they may offer unto Jehovah offerings in righteousness." 2
But from the midst of this fiery furnace of tribulation " tJiey shall call on My Name and I will hear them : I will
1 Isa. vi. 13. 2 Mai. iii. 2-4. See also Ps. Ixvi. 10-12.
