Ezekiel 22:18
Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.
Ezekiel 22:18 belongs to the prophetic warnings given before the destruction of Jerusalem, doing the work of correction, denunciation, and reproof, and told to the captives as an account of the steps that led to Israel's dispersion. The brass, tin, iron, and lead in the midst of the furnace are base metals representing sin, with lead also suggesting the weight of sin. The phrase the dross of silver means that brass is inferior and of little worth compared with silver, picturing Israel as become dross among metals in a furnace.
The trouble and exile came through idolatry together with Sabbath desecration. The priests had been carried so far by pagan apostasy that they violated God's law and profaned His Sabbath, because sun-worship brought Sunday as its worship day in place of the Sabbath of Jehovah. The chapter condemns men who teach what is not true, who prophesy lies in God's name and make the people trust in a lie, bringing destruction to the souls that believe them even when the teachers themselves are deceived.
Sin must be forgiven, or it will be consumed. The prophecy is not only for ancient Israel but was written to instruct people in every generation, including those living at the end of the world. The verse is God's description of the professed people of God in the last days, where Israel means the people of God and remnant means the last part. It speaks of the same time and people as Isaiah 30:8-11, Ezekiel 13, and Jeremiah 6:9-19: professed Christians walking in violation of God's precepts while lulled into deeper slumber by the cry of peace and safety, with uncircumcised ears that cannot hearken, the word of the Lord a reproach to them, given to covetousness and false dealing, healing the breach slightly, refusing to walk in the old paths and good way which are His commandments and law, refusing to hearken to the watchmen and the trumpet, and therefore facing evil as the fruit of their thoughts for rejecting His words and law. The symbolism applies to a corrupt church whose wickedness has reached its full measure and is shut up under condemnation and guilt.