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Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Ezekiel 9

When was the last time someone yelled something in Your presence for the purpose of emphasis? It is already a profound experience for this prophet to be taken in a vision by what must be an angel and to be brought from the place of exile back to the temple in Jerusalem. It is that much more startling when this powerful being from heaven cries out in a loud voice, calling for executioners. There appears to be no opportunity for some saving intercession in this vision. Powerful beings with capabilities of sure destruction are coming to carry out the deadly instructions given to them.

The beings that will carry out heaven’s sentence against God’s people in Jerusalem include six warriors and one scribe with a writing case. They are ready for action. We can readily imagine what the fighting beings are supposed to be doing. The small number of them necessary for the task tells us that they are powerful in their job of destruction. They will do what they are commanded to do with amazing speed, and will not be denied. What is the purpose of the one scribe? What or who will He be marking, and what will be the impact of this mark? We wait to discover this in the verses that follow.

As the operation of divine judgment is about to begin, the God of Israel is somehow seen and heard. His glory presence is at the Head of all that will happen here. It is God’s judgment at work in the midst of the holy city. The scribe is sent out first to mark those who will be spared. Like the blood on the doorposts of the houses of the Israelites during the Passover, the mark written by this angelic scribe will be necessary for life. What is it that causes a person to be spared? This is an amazing detail. Those who are saved display this characteristic: They genuinely care about the horrible spiritual condition of the city of God. They sigh and groan over the abominations that are committed there.

The fighting angels follow the scribe. They are to strike down all who do not have the mark of deep care for the Lord’s great city. They are to do this without any pity. No special exception is made based on age or sex. Judgment begins with the people who worship God, and within that sanctuary, death comes first to the men there who are the elders, the men who are in a position of special authority and responsibility. This is where judgment begins, but it is not where it ends. It proceeds out into the whole city. The numbers of the slain will be horribly overwhelming.

Though there would seem to be no room for mercy, Ezekiel pleads for Israel. He falls on his face, alone before God, the single intercessor. What does he ask for? He does not deny that God is right to bring forth His righteous wrath against the city. He does not expect that there is any way to save the whole of the city. He asks whether God will destroy the remnant of Israel. This remnant is something that the Lord spoke of through the earlier prophets. Even back in the days of Abraham, that great man of God pleaded for the few who would be counted as righteous in the midst of God’s general destruction of the wicked. For the glory of the Lord’s Name, and for the fulfillment of His wonderful promises, there will be a small percentage of the whole, a remnant of God’s choosing, who will be kept. These are presumably the ones who have been marked by the scribe, the few who were deeply troubled by the sorry condition of the Lord’s city.

From the Lord’s response it is clear that there will be no other vessels of God’s mercy than those who have that special mark. The offense against God has been deep. He has been patient for generations, but now judgment has come. What particular statement of the offenders is noted by God in His refusal to expand mercy to others? They had claimed that God had given up on His land, and they had presumed that they could continue in their sin, because the Lord would not see. It was their denigration of the character of Israel’s God that seems to have sealed their fate. Like those in the Lord’s church even today who have a hardened rejection of God’s mercy, and who will not repent despite the gravest chastising discipline, these rebellious people in the days of Ezekiel are asking for the worst kind of trouble that can be known on the earth.

The chapter ends with the speedy return of the angelic scribe. “I have done as you commanded me,” he says to the Lord. Yes, it is finished.

Hundreds of years later, the most righteous servant of the Lord would be able to say these words. He had done all that His Father had commanded, not for judgment to begin against the church, but for mercy to be extended to the remnant. He did all that was commanded. He loved His Father with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength, and He loved His neighbor with the fullness of love that was supremely expressed through His death on the cross. He was able to say, “It is finished.”

One day He will return in judgment. Until then we are imitators of His love for His church. We mourn over the abominations that we see in the city of God in our lifetime, just as those who have been marked by the Holy Spirit have mourned in every era. We know that God knows how to save the righteous and He knows how to judge the wicked. Though we deserve the fate of the wicked, we rejoice that we are included with the righteous, for the blood of the Lamb of God has been sprinkled on the doorposts of our hearts, and gathering angels will indeed rescue us for salvation rather than gather us for the wrath that we deserve.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

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