And this afternoon, we want to look at Ezekiel chapter 9. Those of you who were here Wednesday night, you remember that we looked at chapter and we saw why God was bringing, one of the reasons He was bringing judgment upon the city of Jerusalem and the people of Judah was because of the abominations that the elders and the priests had brought into the temple. And it was rather sobering to read through chapter and see that all the false gods and false belief systems that they had interjected into the temple and into the temple worship and what an abomination it was. And it was as sobering as you started out and the first thing was an abomination and it just kept getting worse and worse and worse through the whole chapter with each abomination being worse than the last one.
So what hope is there for the people of Jerusalem and Judah? Well, today we’re going to look at the fact that God, in spite of His judgment, still possesses and shows His grace and mercy and love. And so let’s take a look at chapter 9 and Ezekiel is given a vision of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and the fact that of those that will be killed for their unbelief and their abominations they’ve done for the Lord. But I also want us to see that there’s grace in the midst of this.
He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. 2 And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar. 3 And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side; 4 and the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
5 And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: 6 slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. 7 And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.
8 And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? 9 Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. 10 And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head. 11 And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.
He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand. And one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side.
And they went in and stood beside the brazen altar. And the glory of God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was to the threshold of the house. And he called to the men clothed with the linen, and which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side.
And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others he said, In mine hearing, go ye after him through the city and smite, and let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity. Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children and women, but come not near any man upon whom is the mark, and begin at my sanctuary, then they that begin at the ancient men which were before the house.
And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.
And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and it was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah, Lord God, wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy fury upon Jerusalem? Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness. For they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. And as for me also, mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense the way upon their head.
And behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the ink-horn by his sides, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me. And Lord, help us to understand that there are faithful, even though where it seems and appears that there is nothing but unfaithfulness. Daniel 9:1-11
And Lord, help us to be amongst those who seek to honor and glorify you and be faithful.
This we ask in Jesus’ name. You can imagine that Ezekiel, this is shocking to see what Ezekiel is seeing and hearing. It’s shocking what he saw in chapter , when he saw all the abominations that were in the temple and how that the people had turned against the Lord.
And as we see in the verses we just read, part of the reason is, well, they kept saying, God doesn’t see anyway, and God really isn’t there, so we can do what we want to do, and we’ll worship who we want to worship, and God doesn’t care. That was their attitude of most of the people. Oftentimes in our own culture, we see that many people have that same attitude.
They begin to create a God that they want to create, and they do what they want to do, and then say, well, it’s okay with the Lord because he doesn’t see and he doesn’t care anyway, because if he did, there would have been judgment. But there is no judgment. That was the attitude of the people.
They were, as we saw in chapter , they made abominations throughout the house of the Lord with false gods, idols, icons, false worship, despicable things they were doing, and they said, well, God doesn’t see anyway, it doesn’t matter, and they tried to go into the inner courts and into dark places where they felt God wouldn’t know. Well, the Scripture tells us, and Jeremiah told us in his letter, that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, and so we can deceive ourselves into thinking something’s true that’s absolutely a lie, and also the Lord sees and knows all things, and we can hide nothing from him. And as Ezekiel is seeing what the judgment is coming on Jerusalem, and specifically on the city at this time, he is very troubled because he sees the amount of devastation.
And the Lord is going to show him how this judgment is going to come. He has six riders coming from the north. Now, the Babylonians were coming from the north, the judgment was going to come from the north, and also within the spiritual realms, there would be those that would be judging from the spiritual realms, but also in the physical realms, God’s hand of judgment was the Babylonians, and they were coming from the north.
Five of the riders have weapons in their hands, which are weapons to slay with. They’re swords, they’re that which will result in the death of whoever the weapon touches, and that’s the majority of the riders. However, one of the riders has something different at his side.
He doesn’t have a sword at his side. He’s got a pen or an inkwell, if you would, by his side. And the Lord tells him to do something very interesting.
He tells him to go through the city and find all the individuals in the city that had wept and cried as they saw the abominations being carried out before their eyes. In other words, they wept because they saw how the God was being really not only ridiculed, but just totally destroyed in the minds of the people as they turned to these other gods, and how they worshiped that which was abominable unto the Lord, and they wept when they saw it. And so this man goes through the city, and what he does is he puts a mark on their foreheads.
It’s interesting that God oftentimes refers to the forehead as being marked as to who a person belongs to and what’s involved with. During the Great Tribulation, it says that the Antichrist will come, and he will place a mark either on the right hand or upon the forehead of an individual, and that will show that that person’s committed to him. And it’s by that mark that you buy and sell and trade.
We also know that there’s other places, the Book of Revelation, that tells us that every one of us has been given a new name, and that new name has been placed upon our forehead, and that we don’t even know what our new name will be in heaven. But as you look throughout Scripture, one of the things you’ll see is God gives names to people which are related to their character. And so some of the things that we have done in faithfulness and obedience to the Lord in this life as his children could be resulting in a new name that will be given in heaven.
But each one of us that’s a believer in Christ will be given a new name, and that will be able to be seen at that time. But now we don’t know what it is. Well, here, these people didn’t really know the devastation that really lay before them.
The city is going to be destroyed, even though Jeremiah had prophesied about it, even though Daniel had prophesied about it, and now even though Ezekiel is prophesying about it. Jerusalem will be destroyed. The people, the majority of the people, they look at their abominable idols and icons and false gods, and they feel that they’re going to deliver them.
Plus, God hasn’t allowed the temple to be destroyed yet. And as we’ve talked many times before, they looked at it as a comfort, because they felt God wouldn’t destroy Jerusalem as long as the temple is standing. And He’ll deliver them.
Well, the Lord has got a different plan. And the Lord says, judgment’s coming. And it’s coming, and He says that it’s not going to be spared from anyone, whether it’s man, woman, or child, that judgment will come.
And the only ones that will be spared are those that have the ink quill written on their forehead, that they are those that were faithful and wept over the abomination. In other words, they loved the Lord and sought to serve Him in the midst of all the iniquity that was going on around them. And they didn’t want to become a part of the iniquity, but wept because they saw how devastating it was, and the resultant judgment that would come upon Jerusalem and the temple and all the people of Judah because of it.
And so there was real weeping there. I think it’s interesting, too, that if you look at it, it says that judgment, when it came, it would come upon the men, the women, and the children. Why? A lot of people look at the Old Testament, and I remember talking to a man, he was actually, biologically he was Jewish.
His family had converted to Lutheranism way back when, and he actually was a Lutheran. And he said that one day he decided he was going to read through the Bible. And so he started reading the Old Testament, and it bothered him because he saw all of these Canaanites just being slain.
And it was the whole families that would be slain, the children, the parents, everyone would be slain within these cities. And he thought, why could this be? Well, I want you to understand, you’re given a brief picture of this and what’s happening in the Middle East today. If you look at what’s happening with, for example, Hamas and Hezbollah and what they do with their children and their families, they are literally a cult of death.
We were just talking at a meal today downstairs, and somebody had mentioned that they had talked to someone who had been to a Muslim funeral, and also they had been to someone who was a believer in Christ and their funeral. And they said it was amazing because they said the Muslim funeral was all about death, and the Christian funeral was all about life. And they were just totally opposites, and that’s true.
And if you look at these cultures, for example, Hamas, it’s really a belief system. It’s not that they hate Israel so much, it’s that they hate the God of Israel, and they hate everything that God of Israel stands for, and really they’re a cult of death. And they glorify in death, they glorify in killing people.
They will kill their own children for the sake of their cause. They will kill their own families, and you saw that in Gaza during the war, where they literally would shoot rockets from schools, they’d shoot rockets from hospitals, they’d shoot rockets from mosques, wherever they felt that Israel wouldn’t come and bomb, that’s where they’d put a rocket and start shooting. And they felt Israel valued life, they didn’t.
They used their families, they used their fellow citizens as human shields, and it didn’t matter if they got killed as long as the cause went forward. Well, that was the value that comes when you quit worshiping God, and what happens is these people, they instill it in their children at a young age, and they literally, from the time that they’re little, and the Hamas people would teach their children songs about how glorious it was to kill a Jew, from the time they’re little. And they grow up with this mentality, and that’s their whole belief system.
And so when they come to these cultures, they’re such a culture of death, and the Lord saw that there was none that were willing to be redeemed, there was none that were willing to turn to Him, and He said, kill them all, the men, the women, and the children, but preserve those who are willing to turn to Me, are willing to look to Me, are willing to follow Me. Now one of the things that’s interesting as I was reading and preparing the lesson, what was written on their foreheads? Well, this one Bible commentator said that it appears to be the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet, which is similar to a cross, was placed on their forehead. And it’s as if this is an example or a type of the fact that no matter how wicked and evil a culture has become, God is there and there’s still mercy that can be found if you trust in Him, look to Him, and the cross of Jesus is there to protect you.
And so these people were going to be preserved because of their trust in the Lord, their willingness to honor His character, His Word, in spite of all the pressure that was around them from their culture and fellow Jews at the time, to abandon the truth of God’s Word and to abandon the Lord. And so it’s important that we understand that. Then if you come to verse , it says, The king shall mourn and the prince shall be clothed.
I’m sorry, wrong chapter. Come to verses and , and it says, And as for me also, mine eyes shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way on their own head. One of the things, the judgment of the Lord when it comes, it’s not because He is judging without justice.
But who brought the judgment on their heads? The judgment came from God and He used the Babylonians to carry it out. But it says, the judgment was brought on their own head by their actions and what they did. They had the right to choose not to worship false gods.
They had the right to choose not to desecrate the temple. They had the right to choose not to make a mockery of all that God had established, pointing them to the cross of Christ and abandoning the only hope that they have of the forgiveness of their sins. They had the right to choose not to do those things, but they chose to do them anyway.
And so He says, the judgment that’s coming upon their head is brought about by their choices, by their own will and by what they have done. And He said that God will not show pity once His judgment begins, because it’s their way upon their head. He’s giving them what they asked for and what they wanted.
They wanted nothing to do with God and so now God is saying, okay, you will have nothing to do with me, I will not be your deliverer. I will not be the one that comes and redeems you and saves you. I will bring my judgment upon you.
Verse , And behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me. In other words, He had made sure all those that had honored the Lord with their tears and honored the Lord with their weeping as they saw the wickedness around them would be preserved. And they would not be part of this judgment because they had not brought that judgment upon themselves, but God’s mercy had been extended to them and His grace shown to them because of their faithfulness to Him.
As you look in our culture today, one of the things that we need to learn from this is that we as God’s people cannot be deterred by the pressure of the wickedness around us to yield to the wickedness, but rather we need to really weep over the wickedness and understand that unless people turn to Christ, judgment is coming. These people that were still in Jerusalem, even though they were at this particular time, Nebuchadnezzar’s third invasion was already in place. They were having a siege around the city.
They couldn’t leave or come or go, and the judgment had begun, but they still didn’t see it and they still were involved in all of this evil and wickedness and still didn’t cry out to the Lord, just felt that because we’re Jewish, God will deliver us. There’s a lot of people today that think because I go to a Christian church, I claim to be a Christian, God will preserve me. Or because I’m an American, I’m not going to have to experience things that other places in the world experience.
We don’t understand that. All we have to hope in is to look to the Lord, and that’s what those who did look to the Lord, God’s mercy and grace were extended, and that’s what our nation needs through the day, is to repent of the wickedness around us and turn to Christ so that we can have the cross of Christ covering us in our sin. Let’s just close in prayer, Lord.
I pray that you just help us to understand this sobering lesson, but also a lesson of hope. A lesson of hope in that there is power and deliverance from the reality of consequences to sin if we but turn to you and that we are grieved over the wickedness of this world and long for the righteousness of your Son. And Lord, may that be our desire.