Ezekiel 24:13

Thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness.

Obstinacy in sin

1. Obstinacy in sin provokes God to the destruction of sinners. “Her scum shall be in the fire.” Jerusalem shall be burnt, and why? “In thy filthiness is lewdness”; thou art obstinate, hardened in thy wickedness. All sin offends, some sins provoke to judgments, obstinacy provokes to destruction (Jeremiah 44:15).

2. In Scripture language, that is said to be done which God or men endeavour to do, though it be not done. “I have purged thee.” God using means, and endeavouring, by His prophets, mercies, threats, and judgments, to purge Jerusalem from her sin, is called purging, though Jerusalem were not purged.

3. A people may have the means, and not improve the same for their good.

4. People may so slip the time of repenting, and turning to God, as that it may be too late for them to go about the same; they may sin away the time of mercy. Time present is the acceptable time (2 Corinthians 6:2).

5. Those who have had means, and not profited thereby, God will deal most severely with--there is no mercy, but altogether judgment for them. The fig tree in the vineyard had stood there three years, and was not better at last than at first; the influences of heaven, and fatness of the earth, had done it no good; and behold the severity of the owner: “Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?” (Luke 13:7). (W. Greenhill, M. A.)