A Devotional Thought From Ezekiel  

As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that I the Lord have poured out my fury upon you. Ezekiel 22:22

The prophet Ezekiel explains God’s judgment against His ancient nation. The capital city, representing the whole country, was full of shed blood (murder); idols (false worship), they actually despised holy things; oppression of immigrants, widows, and fatherless children; lewdness, adultery, incest; usury, and extortion.

Because the rulers in particular, and the people, had made this their lifestyle God thought of them as dross. Dross is the name for the impurities found in metals like silver and gold, and brass and iron. To remove this dross ancient people learned to fire the metal to boiling. Bubbling in the heat the metal melted and the dross rose to the top of the molten mixture. When the dross was skimmed the metal was pure.

So God declares that He will put them through that process. The burning, melting, and removing of dross will be His fury upon that nation.

The burning, melting, furnace would be in the form of invading soldiers crushing and taking captive the land. God did this in response to years and years of a nation’s sins.

The Lord is over every nation, and sin was then, and still is a reproach to any nation.