Refined by fire

Welcome to another theatrical presentation from Ezekiel. I mean that in a good sense of the word, as his words give us a dramatic picture of God’s judgment and punishment on Israel for their spiritual adulterous ways and idolatry.

God told Ezekiel Babylon would lay siege to Jerusalem that day, with the time stamp recorded at the beginning of chapter 24.

Read Ezekiel 24:1-8

• During Zedekiah’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem. God notified Ezekiel, who was in Chaldea hundreds of miles away, and gave him this message.¹
• God would put a cooking pot on a pile of wood.
• In the pot he would put choice pieces of meat and bones to boil.
• It’s implied these choice pieces refer to meat from a sacrifice.²
• Other commentators state these choice pieces indicate no one would be spared, not even the strongest, wealthiest, most important members of the community.³
• There’s more to God’s plan for this particular pot.
• He declared woe on the city.
• The pot was encrusted and the deposit would remain.
• These words describe the “moral and religious corruptions and rebellion of Jerusalem, which the Lord would consume by fire over heat.”⁴
• It would be emptied and the contents scattered.
• The blood Jerusalem shed was now in her midst.
• In His wrath, God ensured the blood was poured on a rock where it would remain.
• God’s vengeance is His divine repayment for their sin.

What does the phrase “moral and religious corruptions and rebellion” mean to you?

Why would God use a word picture of a consuming fire?

What is important to notice about God’s divine repayment for sin?

 

Read Ezekiel 24:9-12.

• Again God declared woe on Jerusalem, the city that shed blood.
• This may be a reference to pagan worship.
• In the same way they piled wood for their idolatrous sacrifices, God stacked firewood and kindled the fire.
• He placed Jerusalem on a woodpile and destroyed her with fire from Babylon.⁵

God orchestrated His word picture:

• Consume the meat completely.
• Make sure the bones are charred.
• Set the now worthless, empty pot on the burning coals until it is so hot the copper glows.
• Let its impurities be melted and burned away.
• Their “impurities” include an “unclean spirit in [the] heart that results in deception.”⁶
• God’s effort would be futile and the heavy deposit not burned away by fire.
• The Hebrew word for “efforts” is used only here in Ezekiel’s message.

It refers to “the work, energy, and attention God has gone through for His people and Jerusalem, yet they rebel still more.”⁷

Yet God always has a remnant, as Zechariah wrote.

“This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say ‘They are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’” (Zechariah 13:9)

• Throughout these three sections of God’s parable, note the number of words related to fire God used to make His point. Through Ezekiel, the Lord wrote nine different words related to burning a fire over wood and coals: burn (two different words), woodpile, kindle, consume, coals, hot, molten, and fire.

Ouch. How do our hearts harbor an unclean spirit that leads to deception?

How do we respond to God’s purifying work in our lives?

 Read Ezekiel 24:13-14.

• As Jesus often did, the Lord hinted at the parable’s meaning.
• The pot’s impurities are Israel’s wickedness.
• God tried to purify Israel, but she would have none of it.
• Israel would not be pure again until God’s wrath against His people was spent.

God’s anger was a burning fire, as He foretold in chapter 22,

“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.” (vs. 31)

Now is the time, as He declared first in verse 2 of chapter 24.

• He would act now.
• He would not hold back or spare them.
• He would not have pity or compassion.
• He would not relent or be sorry for His actions.
• He would judge them for their conduct and evil deeds.

The Lord had spoken and it would happen, as God said in Ezekiel chapter 12,

“But I the Lord will speak what I will, and it shall be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, you rebellious people, I will fulfill whatever I say, declares the Sovereign Lord.” (vs. 25)

A word of hope: Not all is doom and gloom for those who listen and repent.

• “‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’
• “Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’” (Isaiah 6:5-7)

Why did Israel refuse the Lord’s cleansing?

What do we learn about God’s Sovereign character in this passage?

What hope does God offer His people? 

 

1. Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ezekiel/24-1.htm\
2. Warren Baker, D.R.E., Eugene Carpenter, Ph.D. The Complete WordStudy Dictionary: Old Testament. (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2003), 760
3. Bible Hub. https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ezekiel/24-4.htm
4. Baker, 338
5. Ibid., 572
6. Ibid., 404
7. Ibid., 1210