Ezekiel 22:16-22 – Purify through God’s refining process.

In Ezekiel 22:17-22, the Lord made known to the prophet the divine purifying process He was about to put His people through. The purpose of the refining process was to remove the dross in their lives. Know it or not God’s people are always precious to Him, it’s their sins that He needs to deal with. His people in this passage were likened to bronze, tin, iron, and lead with all their impurities. To be valuable, the dross in these metals had to be removed. The dross in His covenant people was their disobedience leading to their indiscrete and sinful practices. They had to be removed and God was going to do exactly that.

God’s refining process is likened to a smelting process. Metals mined would be put into a smelting pot over a fire stove. The intense heat in the pot caused by the fire would turn the metal into liquid with the dross floating to the top. Then the smelter would scheme off the dross leaving being the useful metal.  

God described a two-step process in these verses to remove the impurities from His people’s lives.  Jerusalem was His melting pot. His people like impure bronze, tin, iron, and lead would be gathered into this melting pot. The heat that would come upon them would be the Babylonian siege and the captivity brought upon them by the Lord.  God’s wrath would be like the wind He would blow on the fire of the stove to intensify the heat in the pot.  The aim of the severe trials was to soften their hearts and make them pliable in His hand.

God first moved the people from the promised land. In the land, He got rid of the leaders who were encouraging the wrong practices. Putting them in captivity, would strip off their freedom and limit their ability to do what they desire. As they feel the pressure of the trials they would turn to God in desperation and realization of their sin. When they repent and find God’s forgiveness and their character honed.   

The parable of the Prodigal Son would be a good illustration of God’s refining process. The irony of life is this: Like the prodigal son, what we thought was freedom and our shout of “eureka” always comes from a pigsty. But it was in the pigsty that he realized the privilege he had lost by spurning the father’s love. It was the realization that awakened him to make his journey back. Thankfully, we don’t need a “pigsty” experience to take us back to God. We must stay connected to Christ.