Marked in A Different Way

…’and the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

Ezekiel 9:4

We spoke yesterday of Cain as a ‘marked’ man. We are going to consider today a different kind of ‘mark.’ Within the context of our text for today, God is about to move in judgment upon Jerusalem. Before He does so, He tells His angel to, “go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.” What is God doing? He is distinguishing between those whom He will judge, and those whom He will save. He will spare those who have the ‘mark’ upon them. This brings us to consider another occasion when God made a distinction between those who were His, and those who were about to fall under His judgment. In Exodus 12, God declared, ‘when I see the blood, I will pass over you.’ It was the ‘mark’ of the blood of the Lamb that identified God’s own people. That leads us to consider the significance of such a mark. Elsewhere, the Scripture says, ‘the Lord knows those who are His.’ The ‘mark’ that rests upon the people of God is the ‘mark’ of the Blood of Christ. Just as the angel set the ‘mark’ upon the people of Jerusalem in Ezekiel’s day, and the angel of Jehovah looked for the ‘mark’ upon the door on the night of the Passover, so He sees the ‘mark’ of the saving Blood of Christ upon His people. This is a comfort and an encouragement to us who rest by faith in Christ. He has ‘marked’ us as His Own. It is not our view of ourselves that is as important as His view of us. He sees the ‘mark.’

Our Wise and loving God,
we praise You, that You have marked Your people
and that You know them all.
We rejoice that You have set us apart,
unto Yourself and that we are Yours forever.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning