Dross

In reading scripture, as with all literature, sometimes I come across a word that I don't recognize because it is not widely used in modern culture.

One such word that I came across the other day was the word dross.

Dross is defined in Webster's as:

• 1. waste matter; refuse.
• 2. Metallurgy. a waste product taken off molten metal during smelting, essentially metallic in character.

When a metal worker refines something, he rises it to an intense heat and all of the impurities (dross) rise to the top of the molten metal and are thrown away.

In Ezekiel 22:18, it says this: “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." (Ezekiel 22:18, ESV)

God's people were the Israelites and yet he was referring to them as waste matter, impure, and refuse to be thrown away because of their idolatry. They had rejected his leading and followed their own wills and desires and God was having none of it.

Church, we have to be careful that we are following God and not the idols we have set up in our own lives. God took the first two of the ten commandments to tell us that we should have no other Gods before him and as a result, he expects to have first place in our lives.

Everything else is simply dross.