17 And the word of the Lord came to me: 18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace; they are dross of silver. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, to blow the fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you.21 I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. 22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord; I have poured out my wrath upon you.”
23 And the word of the Lord came to me: 24 “Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation. 25 The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. 26 Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. 27 Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. 28 And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice. 30 And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.31 Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord God.”
The second prophecy (17-22) speaks in terms of a furnace of affliction appointed for the sinning people, in which they would be purged and purified of their iniquity. The metaphor of the smelting of silver is surely a reference, in the context of what we have been saying, to the long and painful experience that the people of God were about to enter. 'No short, insignificant captivity for you, my brethren', says Ezekiel, 'this is going to be a long process, just as metal takes a long time to be melted down and smelted and purified. You will be in Babylon for long and weary years'. In the final prophecy (23-31) Ezekiel gives a grim catalogue of the sins of all classes of society. Prophets, priests, princes, chief men, people of the land, all alike have become corrupt, and all alike have failed. Against this sombre background, the Lord's words in 30, 31 are seen in all their seriousness. The curse of such a society is that it produces no men of stature. Is not this one of the disquieting things of our time, that with the passing of the years the leaders of our political life have tended to become smaller and smaller in stature, until there is hardly a single figure to whom people can look for a moral lead in the nation? One does not need to be much of a prophet to forecast that a mere change of government (this is being written in the time of build-up to a General Election) is not going to spell salvation to the land. No political party is going to achieve this; only one thing can help Britain, and that is a moral regeneration. More of this in the next Note.