October 14, 2024 | Be God's Light
Israel Has Become Dross Left in the Furnace
Scripture: Ezekiel 22(NIV)
1 The word of the Lord came to me:
2 “Son of man, will you judge her? Will you judge this city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her detestable practices 3 and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You city that brings on herself doom by shedding blood in her midst and defiles herself by making idols, 4 you have become guilty because of the blood you have shed and have become defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close, and the end of your years has come. Therefore I will make you an object of scorn to the nations and a laughingstock to all the countries. 5 Those who are near and those who are far away will mock you, you infamous city, full of turmoil.
6 “‘See how each of the princes of Israel who are in you uses his power to shed blood. 7 In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the foreigner and mistreated the fatherless and the widow. 8 You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths. 9 In you are slanderers who are bent on shedding blood; in you are those who eat at the mountain shrines and commit lewd acts. 10 In you are those who dishonor their father’s bed; in you are those who violate women during their period, when they are ceremonially unclean. 11 In you one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor’s wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter. 12 In you are people who accept bribes to shed blood; you take interest and make a profit from the poor. You extort unjust gain from your neighbors. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign Lord.
13 “‘I will surely strike my hands together at the unjust gain you have made and at the blood you have shed in your midst. 14 Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. 15 I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you through the countries; and I will put an end to your uncleanness. 16 When you have been defiled in the eyes of the nations, you will know that I am the Lord.’”
17 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 18 “Son of man, the people of Israel have become dross to me; all of them are the copper, tin, iron and lead left inside a furnace. They are but the dross of silver. 19 Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘Because you have all become dross, I will gather you into Jerusalem. 20 As silver, copper, iron, lead and tin are gathered into a furnace to be melted with a fiery blast, so will I gather you in my anger and my wrath and put you inside the city and melt you. 21 I will gather you and I will blow on you with my fiery wrath, and you will be melted inside her. 22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her, and you will know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath on you.’”
23 Again the word of the Lord came to me: 24 “Son of man, say to the land, ‘You are a land that has not been cleansed or rained on in the day of wrath.’ 25 There is a conspiracy of her princes within her like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they devour people, take treasures and precious things and make many widows within her. 26 Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. 27 Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. 28 Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says’—when the Lord has not spoken. 29 The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice.
30 “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. 31 So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
Devotional
The Bible is filled with references comparing God to silver and gold. For example, Psalm 119:72 says, “The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.” And Psalm 12:6 reminds us, “And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times.”
Indeed, precious metals are refined in intense heat to remove the impurities, called the dross. When the heat is raised, the metals melt. The dross rises to the top and is skimmed off, leaving only the pure metals.
But in Jerusalem, the impurities had not been removed. They had remained, polluting the whole lot. In fact, they had risen to the top of Judah’s political, social, and religious culture. I’ve always said that cream rises to the top, but so does scum. Just because it is visible on the surface doesn’t mean it is good.
So, God said he would turn up the heat with His fiery wrath, stoking the furnace until all the pure metals and impure dross melted together. Jerusalem would be set ablaze, making it a crucible of God’s judgment and wrath.
In Isaiah 1:25 the Lord had warned, “I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.” Now, well over a hundred years later, Ezekiel repeats the message.
Psalm 119:118-120 should give us pause. It says:
You reject all who stray from your decrees,
for their delusions come to nothing.
All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross;
therefore I love your statutes.
My flesh trembles in fear of you;
I stand in awe of your laws.
What is the dross in your culture? What is the dross in your life? How is God calling you to skim off and discard the impurities?
Poem
Convicted
Just this past week
I viewed a flick
Recounting Nazi horrors
Of forcing Jews
To dig their graves
Before mass execution
I pondered what
Gets in one’s mind
Allowing trigger pulling
Against unarmed
And innocent
With brutal mock delighting
A numbness ill?
An angry hate?
How does one come to such space?
O, Lord, have mercy!
How do you bear
All of sin’s vast boggy quicksand?
Just this past year
I heard them talk
About our rights entitled
To kill a child
Though yet unborn
Not comprehending brutal
The knife, the vacuum
The piercing stab
Which lingers after damage
Upon the heart
And mind of one
Whose choice was granted license
What capabilities
Were lost?
What gifts to world full silenced?
The sacrifice
Of children now
The seat of human violence
Just now today
I heard the voice
Of prophet ageless speaking
Declaring God’s
Full judgment on
A nation in blood drowning
With waves of violence
Undertow
A current long aged pulling
Which slowly drags
Us underneath
A chaos, subtle sliding
I call to God
“O, save us, Lord!
I fear we all are sinking!
We’ll surely die
Amidst this storm
In violence, hate, we’re choking!”
