Scum, slag, and dross.
I will raise my fist against you.
I will melt you down and skim off your slag.
I will remove all your impurities.
Isaiah 1:25
God is talking about what He will do with the rebellious and unfaithful Jerusalem. The slang for slag is a promiscuous woman and throughout the Bible God use a promiscuous woman as a symbol of the Israelites unfaithfulness to Him.
In the Japanese translation of the Bible the word aku is used for slag. The kanji characters for aku mean ash water. This is the name the Japanese also call the foam you take off boiling meat or vegetables (like when removing the bitterness out of spinach). Speaking of ash, slag is also found in volcanos. IN DREAMS VOLCANOS ARE SYMBOLIC OF PENT UP ANGER AND EMOTION> The Bible only once mentions a volcano, and God is about pour out his wrath on the pagan Assyrian king:
Topheth—the place of burning—has long been ready for the Assyrian king; the pyre is piled high with wood. The breath of the Lord, like fire from a volcano, will set it ablaze. Isaiah 30:33
The dictionary says that slag is dross and that dross is scum and their all the waste, foreign material, and impurities taken out when heating and refining a metal. Part of the refining process is bring this slag to the surface and scrape it off. God mentions in the Bible many times about refining us like silver and gold. This means he brings things to the surface (oftentimes through trying circumstances in our lives) that we have to deal with, i.e. surrender to him, pray about, die to self, etc.
I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure. I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’” Zechariah 13:9
I find it a struggle to try to be a Christian when he is refining me and bringing these slagful things to the surface because it’s there for everyone to see, for example, in my recent struggles with authority, anger, fairness, and favoritism. It’s hard to be a kind, peaceful, loving Christian when all these things are coming to the surface during the times of greatest heat and pressure.
God doesn’t care so much about other peoples perception of me as a Christian; instead, he cares about transforming me into the image of Christ and demonstrating his power and glory through that process—so I have to remember this as I stumble, fumble, get angry, and make mistakes. I guess the point is don’t be ashamed of your struggles but instead let God bring them to the light to be healed.
As a surrendered Christian, God is taking these areas of me and transforming and healing them; on the other hand, speaking from personal experience, a non-Christian will try to do it unsuccessfully with their own power and end up circling around and battling the same issue for years.
Many will be purified, cleansed, and refined by these trials. But the wicked will continue in their wickedness, and none of them will understand. Only those who are wise will know what it means. Daniel 12:10
