Wrong Seal!
Wrong Seal!
Are You Sealed?
Ezekiel 7-10
Ezekiel and Revelation share a number of images and prophecy. In today’s reading what really stood out to me was this:
Ezekiel 9:4
“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.”
Does that passage remind you of any other passage in the Bible?
Take a look at this:
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Ezekiel 9:4 |
Revelation 7:3 |
Revelation 9:4 |
Revelation 14:1 |
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“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.” |
… “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” |
“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.” |
“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.” |
I’ve always been fascinated by end time prophecy. I remember reading the “Left Behind” series of novels which I thoroughly enjoyed. Now guys, I’m not sure it is solid theology, but I enjoyed the fictional imagining of the last days. (The view fictionalized in these novels is pretribulation, premillennial eschatology – if you just understood what I wrote there could you please explain it to me?)
I was particularly moved by the twelfth book of the series, “Glorious Appearing”, in which Christ returns. I don’t know that it was necessarily the skill of the authors that moved me as much as simply picturing my Savior’s return. Can you imagine? Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord!!! I am still moved by the thought of it.
Those novels address the issue of the mark of the children of God. Just as those that follow after the beast will have his mark, the followers of Christ will carry His. Many have wondered what these marks might look like. The Left Behind guys had the saints marked with a cross on their forehead that only other Christians could see.
I don’t know if you saw the movie “The Omen”. It was first released in 1976 and stared Gregory Peck and Lee Remick. That movie scared the tar out of me! It was a story about the birth and initial rise of the anti-christ. At any rate, the beastie boy had three sixes on the back of his head. We discover this when someone pulls back the child’s hair while he is sleeping. It didn’t go well for the hair puller after that by the way.
Creepy side bar here. I remember reading the book “The Omen” back in the early 80’s. The name of the anti-christ character was Damien Thorn. Shortly thereafter I was watching the ending credits of a movie, the name of which is now long lost to memory. Often these credits will include the name of the producing or distributing company. The name of one of these companies was “Thorn Industries”; only mildly creepy. Shortly after that, however, I was reading about the head of the European Common Market coming to Canada.
Now many of you may not have followed some of the end time theories out there but at one time it was thought that maybe the anti-christ would be the head of the European Common Market, otherwise known as the EU. This idea came from the fact that at the time the EU had ten member countries and that Revelation stated the anti-christ would be head of a renewed Rome. The Roman Empire at one time had 10 administrative divisions. Get it; ten horns, ten countries? Yep, it’s a stretch. Anyway, I was reading in the paper that the head of the EU was to visit Canada. Can you guess his name? I promise you this is the truth. The paper said his name was Damien Thorn! If I’m lie’n, I’m die’n! Gives me the creeps just thinking about it!
Was that guy the anti-christ? If he was he didn’t make much of a splash. It is fun to try and figure out how the end times will play out but I think it is important to remember that it isn’t a game and that we won’t know the time until it is upon us. As I read Ezekiel 9:4 it occurred to me that the mark was for those who sighed and groaned over abominations before God. The mark was on their forehead. Guys, is it just possible that the mark we are to receive on our foreheads is a right attitude toward God?
In my moments of being in right attitude toward God, others have come up to me and in various ways basically told me that they could see Jesus in me. I can never hope for a greater compliment than that. Is that the mark; the seal? It certainly seems to be a prerequisite at the least.
Brothers, judgment is coming. The elect will be drawn to those that reflect the light of Jesus Christ; the lost will be repelled by it. Let the heart of Christ reign within you so that His light will shine before men and draw them to salvation. You are indeed sealed with the mind of Christ!
Have a Christ-like day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
