As we probably did earlier, shall we inspect the significancy of the name of this place where the soothsayer was told to go.

Zarephath comes out of a Hebrew verb that suggests “to melt, to smelt.” curiously in noun form it implies “crucible.” The place might have gotten its name seeing as there had been a smelting plant found somewhere near there ; we do not know for sure. But whatever the source of its name, Zarephath would turn out to be a “crucible” for Elijah—a place designed by God to refine the soothsayer and make a big difference in the rest of his life.

It was about as if the Lord were asserting to His servant, “I first took you to Cherith to wean you away from the bright lights and the general public platform, where I could cut you down to size and reduce you to a person who would trust Me, in any case. But now it is time to do an even deeper work.

Now, Elijah, I am going to turn up the heat in the furnace and melt you so I might mildew you much more exactly into the kind of man I need to meet the purposes I have in mind.”. And as fast as you climb out of one cooking pot thinking, “Okay, I made it thru that one,” you are dropped into another, where the flame is even warmer.

This is exactly what the hymn writer were considering when he wrote:. The flame shall not hurt thee ; I only design,. Thy degs to consume and thy gold to refine..