Chapter six presents three important insights:
First, Jerusalem, the crown jewel of Judah, will be destroyed. The end is certain. Armies in the ancient world did not normally attack at night, there were too many variables. But the enemy was so confident that a night ambush would be their chosen tactic and it would be successful.
Second, the reasons for this end might be violence, greed, a devotion to luxury, and a blindness to their own spiritual disease so total that they weren’t even embarrassed by their sins. But these weren’t the real reasons. They were but symptoms of the problem. The real problem was a deliberate inattentiveness to the will of God expressed in His word. They didn’t know what God wanted, they didn’t care, and when the prophet pointed out the way of the Lord, they refused to walk in it. God said: “they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law.”
Third is the refiner’s fire of verses 29-30. It is the picture of God constantly disciplining his children – and them constantly refusing to be disciplined. The fire blows on the lead, but it will not separate from the silver. This is the end of a life that steadfastly and determinedly heads its own way regardless of the course corrections God presents.