Ezekiel 22:17 - Meaning and Application

The same sad message is repeated here, with different turns of language, so it may strike the heart and lead to change. The prophet is shown that the whole house of Israel has become like dross, the worthless waste left over after silver is refined. As David said about the wicked in the world, so it is said here about the wicked in the church when it has grown corrupt and hardened: God throws away the wicked like dross (Psalm 119:119).

See first how deeply the house of Israel had fallen. In David’s and Solomon’s day, Israel had been like gold. When the kingdom split, it was like silver. But now it has become baser metal, with no worth compared with what it once was. They are all brass, tin, iron, and lead, and these metals can point to different kinds of sin among them.

Brass can stand for bold, shameless sin, people who do wrong without blushing. Tin can picture a show of godliness with no real heart behind it. Iron can point to cruel people who love violence and war. Lead can picture dullness, foolishness, and stubborn heaviness, ready to yield to evil but slow to move toward good. How the gold has turned to dross! Jerusalem’s ruin is mourned in the same way in (Lamentations 4:1).

But even that is not the worst part. These lesser metals still have some use. Israel had become dross to God, the waste separated from silver. That is how God sees them, whatever they may think of themselves or whatever others think of them. The word pictures dirt, rubbish, and worthless stuff removed in the process of washing and melting silver. This is what sinners, and especially false professors, are like in God’s sight, vile, contemptible, useless, and fit for nothing.

Now the prophet is told about the terrible destruction coming on this corrupt house of Israel. They were all gathered in Jerusalem. People had run there from all over the land, hoping for safety in a strong city and in the holy city. But God says their gathering there will be like metal gathered into a furnace, ready to be melted down so the dross can be removed.

They are in the middle of Jerusalem, surrounded by enemy forces. There the fire of God’s wrath will be kindled, and the furnace will be blown to make it burn fiercely (Ezekiel 22:20-21). God will gather them in anger and fury. The blowing of the fire makes a loud noise, and so do God’s judgments when they fall on Jerusalem. When God rises to act against a rebellious people, to defend his honor and show examples of judgment, it is as if he is blowing the fire of his wrath and heating the furnace seven times hotter.

All the kinds of metal in the furnace will melt together. Under this great weight of judgment, their strength and shape will be lost. They will be unable to stand before God’s anger. The different kinds of sinners will be melted down together and brought to one common ruin, like metals in the same furnace, or like wood tied in bundles for the fire. They came to Jerusalem thinking it would defend them, but God brought them there as a place of judgment.

God says, “I will gather you into the furnace and leave you there” (Ezekiel 22:20). When God brings his own people into hardship, he stays with them, like a refiner watching his silver, and he does not leave them longer than needed. But here he says he will deal with these people like dross thrown into the fire, with no care to spare it. Compare this with (Hosea 5:14), “I will tear and go away.”

In this way the dross will be fully separated and the good metal purified. The stubborn will be destroyed, and the repentant will be corrected and fitted for rescue. “Take away the dross from the silver, and a vessel for the silversmith will come out” (Proverbs 25:4). This judgment will do what other methods had failed to do. They will no longer be called worthless silver (Jeremiah 6:30).