Monday, September 19, 2016

Ezekiel 9: Saved By A Mark

In Ezekiel 9, we see the biblical motif of being saved through a special mark placed upon God's people.

"The Lord called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his side; and said to him, 'Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of those who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.'  To the others he said in my hearing, 'Pass through the city after him, and kill; your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity.  Cut down old men, young men and young women, little children and women, but touch no one who has the mark'" (vs. 3-6).  Those who have God's mark are spared, while the time for judgment upon the idolaters has arrived.

Ezekiel's vision renews a biblical tradition about God's people being saved by a mark.  In Exodus, we read of the Hebrews being told to mark their doors with lamb's blood.  "The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:13).  So central was this Passover event in the history of the Jews that it is still commemorated today.

In Revelation, we hear of a similar "marking" of God's people: “'Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.' And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel" (Revelation 7:3-4).  This in contrast to another spiritually counterfeit "mark" that is of the beast described in Revelation 13.

In a larger sense, there are other "marks" of God's people.  Under the Old Covenant, the physical sign of circumcision marked a man as belonging to the Jewish faith.  The New Covenant, however, the spiritual mark of God's grace upon a person comes through baptism.  

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