“and said to him, “‘Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”
~ Ezekiel 9:4
Hi James and Ellen,
How do you feel about being punished by your dad and/or ma for not doing something that you were told to do or for doing something that you were told not to do? What kind of punishments do you think are good punishments for having disobeyed your dad and/or ma when you didn’t do something that you were told to do or when you did something that you were told not to do? Do you think that being sent to your room is a good punishment for having disobeyed your dad and/or ma? Do you think that being spanked is a good punishment for having disobeyed your dad and/or ma? Do you think that having privileges taken away is a good punishment for having disobeyed your dad and/or ma? Do you think that God seeing to it that you are killed is a good punishment for having disobeyed Him? What do you think will be the hardest message that you will ever have to pass on to a guy, gal or kid? When your grandmaa’s ma died early in January of 1972, your dad’s Uncle Drake called your grandpaa at the place where your grandpaa was working – which was at the Beneficial Finance office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to ask your grandpaa to tell your grandmaa that her ma had just died. Your grandpaa in June of 2003 was standing in front of Bear Trap Ranch’s office with a group of OC International missionary candidates and staff – waiting to begin the walk up to a clearing for an open air breakfast that included a bullseye pancake, when Tim Olden walked up to your grandpaa with a note that said that grandpaa’s dad had died during the night. Your grandpaa – after picking up his paycheck, was just driving away from the place where he was working when the radio station that he was listening to in his car interrupted its broadcast with the news that President Kennedy had been shot. Ask your dad or ma if he or she can remember where he or she was and what he or she were doing when he or she received or heard the news that a guy, gal or kid who he or she knew had just died. Being punished is the direct result of disobedience. Dying is the direct result of sin. Do you think that God still uses death today as a way to punish guys, gals and kids who are living self-gratifying lives that are not edifying His name?
Ezekiel for more than twenty years was an outspoken spokesman for God. Ezekiel was given the unenviable task by God of telling His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people groups guys and gals, who were living in the country of Judah – which included the city of Jerusalem, that He had finally reached the point of ending their run of about 750 years of living in the land that He had given them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . God’s specially chosen guys and gals had persisted and persisted in being disobedient to Him. God gave Ezekiel a terrifying vision of what the pending day was going to be like when He would exact His punishment on His disobedient kids – who were His specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people groups guys and gals, who were living in the city of Jerusalem. God – as God the Spirit, would have Ezekiel scribe in his Ezekiel Book in what is now Ezekiel 9 the part of the vision when God – as God the Spirit, said that God would destroy the guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem. Ezekiel was sitting in his house with a group of Israelite people groups elders when God – as God the Spirit, gave Ezekiel the vision of how He was going to inflict His punishment on His specially chosen guys and gals. A year or so later – in 586 B.C., Ezekiel would see his vision come to fruition – as if Ezekiel really wanted to see his vision become an actual reality, when God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem were taken away as captive exiles by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army. Your grandpaa does not know how Ezekiel communicated this message to God’s specially chosen guys and gals that God – as God the Spirit, gave to him in this vision that your grandpaa assumes that God wanted Ezekiel to pass on as His spokesman to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the city of Jerusalem. Picture yourselves now as a couple of kids who are living about 2600 years ago in the city of Jerusalem who see a guy going up and down the streets in the city of Jerusalem telling guys and gals about a vision that he had had that will have them being killed by one of six guys if . . . that these six guys would follow a guy who would be dressed in linen and who would be carrying a writing kit. These six guys without pity would slaughter the guys and gals who had not been marked with a mark on his or her forehead by the guy dressed in linen. Verse 4 says why some guys and gals would have the guy dressed in linen put a mark their foreheads, “and said to him, “‘Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”’ The guys and gals who were living in the country of Judah – which included the city of Jerusalem, by this time had pretty much totally rejected God’s expectations and laws.
When Ezekiel saw that he was one of just a few guys – if not the only guy, who had the guy who was dressed in linen put a mark his forehead, Ezekiel fell on face before God as he realized that God was now ready to wipe out His specially chosen guys and gals who were still living in the land of Judah – which included the city of Jerusalem, which He gave to His specially chosen guys and gals to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . God had totally run out of patience with His specially chosen guys and gals. Your grandpaa is convinced that God allows appalling things to happen to guys and gals who do not live their lives in ways that edify Him. Your grandpaa is also convinced that God allows appalling things to happen to guys and gals so that He might show His mercies to them.
Ezekiel 9 (582)