Links for today’s readings:
Read: Ezekiel 9 Listen: (2:05)
Read: Romans 12 Listen: (2:58)
Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 9.3-4
3 Now the glory of the God of Israel went up from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. Then the Lord called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side 4 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.”
Reflection: Mark of the Lord
By Erin Newton
Speculating about the end of the world has become something of a common practice for many Christians. There is the impulse to look at the news about wars and catastrophic weather and want to find a way to comfort ourselves by mapping out the future. It’s not so easily done and I’m afraid we’ll always have more questions than answers. Ezekiel shows us, however, that judgment comes for those aligned with evil.
The previous chapters detailed the level of idolatry in Ezekiel’s day. The list of gods and images worshiped spans the full spectrum of ancient Near Eastern religions. It was not that the people just stumbled; it was that they welcomed every possible way of loving anything but God.
And because of this, God is angry and responds with judgment. This chapter is difficult and painful to read. It speaks of the thorough judgment of God upon all people—no gender or age discriminated against. While we can mentally understand, even if it is emotionally difficult to accept, that God’s judgment on false worship is justified, it is never given without a sense of hope and mercy.
Placing a mark on one’s forehead is a familiar action, but usually with Revelation in mind. In Ezekiel 9, the mark was only given to those who were repentant. It was a mark that not only identified the people as righteous but also belonging to God.
As with a runaway cow, if it weren’t for tagging or branding, no one would know where it needed to be returned. The mark on that beast reveals where it belongs.
Those who are faithful (Ezek 9.4) and those who are wicked (Rev 13.16-17) exhibit the mark of the one who lays claim to their heart. One mark means life and the other mark means death—everyone is marked in one way or another.
Our tendency to throw around the term “mark of the beast” as an identifier of any modern concept (barcodes, government issued identification numbers, cell phone technology . . . you name it), shows that we don’t read the Scriptures carefully.
In many ways we want to control the future by hacking some timeline but we always come up with questions rather than certainties. Let us focus not on what the mark is, but whose mark we have. Are we showing the world faces marked for God or for false gods?
Divine Hours Prayer: The Cry of the Church
Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us.
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.
Read more about Wary but not Paranoid
Most of those pointing fingers at Antichrists are pointing at people they already hate or dislike. More than anything else, this indicates they are probably wrong.
Read more about Breaking the Rhyme Scheme
Christians do not believe in cyclical, neverending, repetition. We know that an end is coming and a new beginning. However, history does rhyme.