Sighs, Cries, and Marks

Introduction

Home Passage: Ezek 9:1-6.

Setting: Part of a long temple vision.

Chapter 8: Ezekiel is taken in the Spirit, by the glory chariot divine guide (Jesus) to Jerusalem to witness the abominations in the temple which will precipitate the judgement of God and His departure from the temple.

Vs 3-6: “Image of Jealousy,” unspecified idolatrous image.

Vs 7-13: Images of animals and idols of the nations on the wall of a room in the temple, being worshiped by 70 of Israel’s leaders with censors in their hand.

Vs 14-15: Women weeping for Tammuz in the north gate.

Vs 16-18: 25 priests standing between the sanctuary and the brazen alter with their back to the sanctuary, worshiping the sun.

Chapter 9:

Judgement on idolators in the temple.

Glory leaves to the threshold vs 3.

Chapter 10:

Vs 1-7 The city is judged with fire.

Vs 18-19, the glory of God goes to the East gate.

Chapter 11:

Vs 13: Corrupt Jewish leaders are struck dead.

Vs 20-25: The glory of God leaves the temple and goes to the Mount

Proclamation of Judgment

Ezekiel 9:1–2 “Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Bring near the executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.” And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand, and with them was a man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his waist. And they went in and stood beside the bronze altar.”

Urgency of the call.

God’s cry in Ezekiel’s ear is urgent, loud. This will not be ignored.

Echos the urgency of the prayers for deliverance that never came (8:18).

Executioners of the city.

Angels, although described as “men.”

Weapons of destruction--some older transactions “battle axes.”

Come from the north. Antonia fortress was to the north, and Roman soldiers from there could quickly overwhelm the temple square in an emergency. This is a divine parallel.

“Man clothed in linen.”

Divine Angelic priest.

Writing tools--word of God?

Executioners and Priest present themselves at the Bronze altar.

Protection of the Marked

Ezekiel 9:3–4 “Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist. And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.””

The glory of God leaves is place over the mercy seat in the holy of holies and goes to the threshold of the house, the stairs in front of the temple. It is near the assemblage of angelic persons by the altar.

The glory of the Lord calls to the man dressed in linen.

Looking for repentant people.

God always has a remnant (Elijah, 7,000 who have not bent the knee to Baal or kissed him).

“Sigh and groan.” slight variations of the same word. “anah and anahq”

Common expressions of grief and sorrow in the OT, frequently associated with remorse over sin.

Ezekiel 21:6 ““As for you, son of man, groan; with breaking heart and bitter grief, groan before their eyes.”

Other examples of repentance of an individual on behalf of a nation (What’s up with 9:3 in all of these?)

Jeremiah 9:1–3 “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the desert a travelers’ lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men. They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the Lord.”

Daniel 9:3–7 “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you.”

Ezra 9:3–6 “As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. Then all who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of the faithlessness of the returned exiles, gathered around me while I sat appalled until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God, saying: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens.”

Nehemiah 1:4–7 “As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.”

Jesus lamented similarly in Luke 19:41–44 “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.””

Paul picked up this style of lament in Romans 9:2–3 “that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

Ezekiel himself models this kind of intercession in Ezekiel 9:8 “And while they were striking, and I was left alone, I fell upon my face, and cried, “Ah, Lord God! Will you destroy all the remnant of Israel in the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?””

God answers that He is being faithful to judge sin in righteousness.

Ezekiel’s cry does not dissuade God’s plan, although it must have pleased the heart of God.

God saves those who are weeping individually for the corporate sins of the people from his coming judgement.

This is his pattern (Noah, Lot).

Jesus alludes to this attribute of God’s nature in Matthew 5:4 ““Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

They are “marked.”

Lit, “place a tav upon.”

Modern Hebrew looks like an upside down U.

Proto-Hebrew, in which this would have been written, is a cross.

“Write a cross upon.”

Those sealed by God against destruction.

Pictured in the passover Exodus 12:7 ““Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.”

Exodus 12:13 “The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.”

Spoken of as a work of the HS in the life of the believer. Ephesians 1:13–14 “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

A numerous theme in Revelation.

Revelation 3:12 “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”

Revelation 14:1 “Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”

Revelation 22:4 “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”

Obviously, the “mark of the Beast” is a copycat and forgery of the authentic mark of God.

Preservation from Destruction

Ezekiel 9:5–6 “And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house.”

The preservation of those marked is only shown to be gracious because of the severity of the treatment of the unmarked.

Also true of the other images of Noah and Lot.

The severity of God’s judgement of sin shows the mercy of God all the clearer.

This is, like so many other passages, mirrored in Revelation.

Revelation 7:1–3 “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.””

Revelation 9:1–6 “And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.”

It is the severity of the judgement that makes the protecting seal such a powerful good and mercy.

Begin at my sanctuary.

The sanctuary was to be the holiest place on Earth, and it had been allowed to become a center of sin and pagan worship.

Israel was meant to be an example of righteousness and a source of blessing to the rest of the nations, but they had become idolatrous.

God will, out of concern for His own name and glory, begin the task of purging and punishing evil in His sanctuary and among His people.

Also declared by other prophets.

Jeremiah 25:29 “For behold, I begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of hosts.’”

Amos 3:2 ““You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

Romans 2:9 “There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek,”

Peter takes this idea and applies it to the church.

1 Peter 4:16–18 “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?””

Peter assumes the judgement first upon that body which claims to represent God.

He uses it as a sign of hope, though. If it begins with us, we must be that representation.

Are you glad you’re sealed?

In the balance of the chapter, the commands are carried out by the angels.

Where is Jesus?

He is presiding over the whole affair. He is on the glory chariot and calling the shots.

Ezekiel 8:2 “Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal.”

Same imagery as in Rev 1:12-16 and reminiscent of the transfiguration.

His work is the seal against the wrath of God.

Marked with a cross.

His name is written on us, and our names are written on Him.

Isaiah 49:16 “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.”

Isaiah 44:5 “This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.””

Revelation 3:12 “The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”

Jesus has paid the price to mark us as safe from the outpouring of His own wrath.