Collision With Prophecy

Collision With Prophecy #7:
A Mark for God’s People?

Introduction

In this meeting we begin to reap the benefits from our previous meetings. Our objective is to gain a clear understanding of what the Scriptures teach concerning the mark of the beast. If we really want to understand, then we want to take a serious look at the information mercifully given in the Bible.

Turn to Ezekiel, chapter nine. We are about to consider a fascinating passage that speaks of something remarkably similar to Revelation’s mark of the beast. There is just one interesting difference—this mark is placed on God’s people.

The Man With the Inkhorn

Turn with me to Ezekiel 9:1-11:

He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side; And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. And to the others He said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. And He said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city. And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! wilt Thou destroy all the residue of Israel in Thy pouring out of Thy fury upon Jerusalem? Then said He unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. And as for Me also, Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head. And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as Thou hast commanded me.

Why are we interested in the mark of the beast, anyway? (1) Because although we may not be sure exactly what it is, we know that it is something we don’t want to acquire, (2) there are many fanciful ideas on the wind today about what it is and that is not good enough for us, and (3) to be forced to receive it is a violation of our rights—and who is in favor of that?

Besides that, we all sense that this directly touches our eternal fate. The Bible tells us beforehand that there will be an end-time entity working to bring people under its power. It will use deceptions and many will be deceived. Under the influence of this false system, they give themselves to him and he puts his autograph on them—once and for all. He hits a home run, ruins the soul, and signs the baseball.

And it becomes more interesting. God too is signing-off for certain people. These have chosen Him—His ways. He acknowledges that. He too, marks His people. In fact, in the end everyone will have a mark. The question is not whether you will be marked, but who you will allow to autograph you.

Now, zero-in on this text with me. What’s the story? Six beings have been assigned authority over this city (Ezekiel 9:1, 4). They are summoned by a shining Being, apparently Jesus (Ezekiel 8:2; 9:3-4). They arrive in full readiness for slaughter. One, dressed in white, is commissioned to “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” Five are instructed to go through after him slaying utterly everyone within the city except those having the mark. Furthermore, they are to begin the slaughter “at My sanctuary.”

Here then is assurance that God will judge the rebellious. Ezekiel had been exiled and carried away among the Israelite captives in the Babylonian invasion of 597 BCE (“Before Common Era”—the same as “BC,” “Before Christ”). After God’s persistent efforts to turn the people had failed, then came His judgments. Most of her leadership—faithful and unfaithful—were carried away. Babylon became their place of exile. There, Ezekiel and the faithful elders of Israel met together regularly, and strengthened each other, praying and discussing their situation. On this occasion Ezekiel entered into vision and afterward told his friends what he had seen in Jerusalem. (Ezekiel 8:1; 11:24, 25).

Four Abominations in the Sanctuary

While journeying through the wilderness, what was at the center of the camp of Israel? The sanctuary. And her center of activity after entering the land of Canaan and setting up her government in Jerusalem? At the temple—the sanctuary. But the events of chapter nine are only a continuation of what Ezekiel was shown starting in chapter eight. What was that?

First, in vision the prophet is carried to the sanctuary in Jerusalem. There he is shown an idol that had been set up within the precincts of the sanctuary, right next to the altar of sacrifice in the courtyard (Ezekiel 8:5, 6)—where Heaven had required the sacrificial offerings to be made. Remember, the purpose of the sanctuary system was to eliminate sin from God’s people. In this solemn setting a substitution had been made. The sacrifices that stood for the ultimate coming of Jesus, who would give His life for His people, were replaced by an idol to a heathen god—so positioned as to receive their reverence! What did God say to Ezekiel about this? “Seest thou what they do … that I should go far off from My sanctuary?” (Ezekiel 8:6).

This was not all. Ezekiel is next shown a second abomination, a secret one (Ezekiel 8:7-13). The leaders in Jerusalem are present in a room connected to the temple, secretly, in hiding, in “the chambers of [their] imagery.” Along the walls are portrayed idols and images of animals and crude figures worshipped as gods. Worse yet was what Ezekiel saw in their midst: led by a man named Jaazaniah, the 70 elders of Israel were offering incense to these false gods. Their attitude? “The Lord doesn’t see us. He is not active in the earth” (Ezekiel 8:12).

A third abomination now is shown. He is carried out to the north gate of the temple (Ezekiel 8:14, 15). Here, he sees several women, gathered together, weeping for Tamuz. Tamuz was a foreign deity usually considered the spouse of the goddess Ishtar. “Weeping for Tamuz” was a part of her appointed worship. But Heaven has one more abomination to show God’s prophet in this vision…

At last he is shown that which Heaven counts as “greater” than any of the other abominations (Ezekiel 8:15):

And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple [the sanctuary] of the Lord, between the porch and the altar [the altar of sacrifice in the courtyard, between the entrance to the courtyard and the sanctuary structure], were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple [the sanctuary structure] of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

God’s sanctuary—that He asked His people to build so that He could dwell with them, so that He could put an end to their sin problem—was turned to the worship of the sun. What greater offense could be offered the Creator who made the sun, than to turn one’s worship away from the Maker to what He had made?

Summing up the divine response to the wickedness of the people, Ezekiel was told “Therefore will I also deal in fury: Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in Mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them” (Ezekiel 8:18). God would no longer have mercy. Perhaps we are shocked, but it is true nonetheless—God told them that He would no longer listen to their prayers. Their worship of the sun had been the crowning apostasy. The final weight had tipped the scale.

Now we better understand what we saw in the ninth chapter of Ezekiel. Nothing was arbitrary about heaven’s judgments on Israel; they were the measured, appropriate responses of Goodness against sin. This wasn’t something that those now ripe for slaughter had necessarily been tricked into. The marking for salvation was at the same time the marking for slaughter. You only have to mark all the good or all the bad to distinguish between two groups. In this case, the good were marked for salvation. The evil were marked for destruction by the fact that they weren’t marked for salvation.

A Moral Mark

Fence-sitting Christianity is popular today. But there is no fence to sit on in Ezekiel nine. Everyone is determined to be in one group or the other. So let’s take a closer look at those receiving God’s mark.

The individual with the inkhorn was sent to “set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for the abominations that be done in the midst” of Jerusalem. Notice something important right here.

Heaven makes a moral evaluation of the people. The man with an inkhorn is told to mark only those who “sigh and cry.” Why are they sighing and crying? “For the abominations that be done” in the midst of Jerusalem. They are experiencing mental agony about the sin in the midst of Israel. In fact, such an evaluation can only follow what could be called an Investigative Judgment of everyone involved—a look not only into the story told by their outward acts, but their inward attitude. The man with an inkhorn is sent to seek out those “sighing and crying,” not as a cheap outward show, but as the authentic expression of inward shame and revulsion over the sin surrounding them.

Some today are afraid that they will be forcibly bar-coded, or a computer chip imbedded in their forehead, or that their credit-card number will turn out to contain the digits “666” (we’ll study about that number further on these presentations). But do you know what it is that you need to be concerned about? You need to be concerned that you will be able to tell what sin is and be found sighing and crying about it when God marks His people. Do you really hate sin? Do you really love what is moral and right? If you don’t, God can change you. But we dare not linger with sin. We have already managed to develop an affection for sin. But our Father in heaven can change that if we only permit Him. Never forget, from this moment until when Jesus comes, the mark of the beast and the mark (or seal) of God is about moral character. Not about what you may profess to be, but what you, in cooperating with God permit Him to make you.

A dialogue between Ezekiel and God clarifies the fairness of His dealing with Israel. He tells Ezekiel that He will “recompense their way upon their head” (Ezekiel 9:10). That is, His strong response is an appropriate one when the largesse of Israel’s sin is kept in view. Our Father is not arbitrary in His dealings with people as individuals or groups. Those who at last receive the mark have acted so that even a merciful God, in all fairness, grants them their choice. They, by their lives, will have themselves chosen their mark. They will sigh and cry for abominations, or love the abominations. They will love righteousness and hate sin, or love sin and hate righteousness. God then rewards them according to their chosen moral preference and character.

God’s Presence Leaves His Sanctuary

We saw in our fifth presentation how God’s purpose was made known to His people when He commanded, “Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). He would dwell in the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary, directly above His Ten Commandment Law, between the cherubim. We also saw that for humankind, only one entrance—the single door at the eastern side of the courtyard—admitted into the place of His presence—only one doorway led to freedom from sin.

Chapters 10 and 11 of Ezekiel finish that section of his vision with the appearance of the divine “chariot” of Ezekiel chapter one. It’s appearance outside of the sanctuary, moving to its east gate, and finally from there to the east-overlooking hill of the Mount of Olives was a disheartening blow to Ezekiel—God was leaving His house! The sin of the nation’s spiritual leaders was driving their God from His sanctuary.

Hear in Ezekiel 11:22, 23 the biblical description of God’s departure:

Then did the cherubims lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city (Ezekiel 11:22, 23).

Five hundred years later, Jesus, from the same mountaintop, tearing eyes surveying the city, would cry “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:37, 38). Even so, mercy lingered forty more years. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 CE, but God’s presence had removed long before.

Our heavenly Father’s actions are always fair. Before He acts, He speaks to man through His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). He doesn’t leave people abruptly. Consider what was happening in Israel: His people were breaking His Ten Commandments. The second command says not to worship idols, not to make a likeness of anything in heaven or earth and then bow down to it (Exodus 20:4, 5). After long violation of the law upon which His covenant is based, after His disciplinings had failed to move His people, He at last left His sanctuary.

Another example comes as in Jeremiah 17:19-27. God stated through His prophet that the sin of His people was deeply entrenched in their hearts, and that it was expressed in the idolatrous worship taking place in the high places of the land (Jeremiah 17:1-3). Did you know that He promised that the city of Jerusalem would never fall if they obeyed His law?

And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto Me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein; then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain forever (Jeremiah 17:24, 25).

But if they would break the sabbath of the Ten Commandments:

But if ye will not hearken unto Me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

He promised that if they obeyed His sabbath (the fourth of the Ten Commandments), the city would “remain forever,” but if they disobeyed, He would “kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” God takes His law seriously.

Destruction of Jerusalem and Sanctuary in Daniel 9:26, 27

When His people break the law of their God, the results are always devastating. One part of the prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27 that we didn’t completely explain, was the last. And just here is a good place to share that. God demands obedience, offers to change our hearts so that we can obey, and then holds us responsible for being moral people—people like the Savior Jesus. We’ve seen that He is fair when He blesses and fair when He punishes. He is willing to let people have what they want, even if it leads to their destruction; He respects the freedom He has given to them. So let’s look at that last part of the prophecy in Daniel 9:26, 27:

And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself: and the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations He shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Notice here that the terms “Messiah” and “Prince” go together all through this passage from verses 24-27. This is important. “Messiah” here has reference to Jesus Christ. But did you know that many think that this passage refers to the Antichrist rather than to the Christ? Its amazing! We already saw how the prophecy fits Jesus so exactly. But let’s make sure we get an understanding of what happens.

All the references here to “Messiah” and “Prince” refer to the same individual: Jesus. We already saw how Jesus came in the fall of 27 CE (“unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks” (Daniel 9:25), was cut off in the midst of the week (spring of 30 CE), and the 490 years cut off for the Hebrew nation to bring in Christ, ended in 34 CE (Daniel 9:27). (“CE” means “Common Era,” like “AD,” “Anno Domini,” “year of our Lord” years.) But what about the remainder of that verse? “And the people of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

Who are the people of the Prince that, from perspective of Daniel’s time, was yet to come—the only prince that this passage is referring to? Jesus is “the Messiah the prince”—the only person in Scripture referred to this way. And who were His people? The Hebrew nation, the Jews. But this verse says that they shall “destroy the city and the sanctuary.” You may be aware that the literal city of Jerusalem was actually “destroyed” a number of times. But the most devastating attack was when the city was utterly wasted and the sanctuary/temple leveled, in 70 CE in the siege, attack, and burning carried out by the legions of the Roman General Titus.

Some have understood Titus to be “the prince,” and “the people” to be the Roman army. The problem with that interpretation is twofold: first, it means arbitrarily separating “Messiah” and “prince,” whereas throughout the passage these terms stand together, referencing one individual. Second, such an understanding takes away the ultimate responsibility for the destruction of Jerusalem from God’s people, giving it to the Romans.

Remember, Daniel 9:24 had said that 490 years were cut-off for the Jewish nation to bring in righteousness. They did not. It was not the Roman Empire, but god’s people who were on probation. And they failed. When they failed, they assured the destruction of their own city. Not the Romans, but the Hebrew nation chose to depart from God. They chose to reject the Messiah when He came. And God destroyed their city, and took His kingdom away from them (Matthew 21:33-46). They destroyed their own city. They destroyed their own sanctuary. They chose to reject Jesus and to reject His law.

“The end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” In the end, the Romans came in, so very much like a flood. And to the end of the war desolations were determined. By the lack of repentance in God’s people the desolations were determined. Yes, make no mistake—just as we’ve noticed before, they made their choice and God finally sent the Romans as His agency of retribution. If we took the time we could work through the last part of Daniel 9:27, which again echoes the last part of verse 26 (see the following graphic from Seventy-Weeks, Leviticus, Nature of Prophecy, Daniel and Revelation Committee Series—vol. 3, p. 98):

Yes, A Mark—A Seal—For God’s People

Turn to Revelation 7:1-4, and let’s see how all of this ties in to the representation there of the end-time marking of God’s people:

And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

See here how angels are restraining “the four winds of the earth” so that they will not blow before God’s people are sealed? How similar this is to the command given by the man with the inkhorn in Ezekiel nine to mark the foreheads of those who “sigh and cry” before those lacking God’s mark are destroyed (those implicitly bearing the mark of Satan, or “the mark of the beast”). In the second verse an angel comes from the east, “having the seal of the living God.” He commands the angels holding the four winds to continue to restrain them just a bit longer, “till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads” (Revelation 7:3).

It is plain that before Jesus returns to earth at the Second Coming, Heaven has undertaken a plan identical to Ezekiel nine. The people of God are being marked before Jesus comes. The attention of heaven is, even now, directed to this task.

The process of sealing a people is God’s agenda for this end-time—sealing them in their foreheads. As we also saw in our first meeting, Collision with Prophecy, Satan uses an earthly, religio-political power to impose his mark—the mark of the beast—upon those who have willfully joined his kingdom. It is a battle of markings. God’s “seal” versus the beasts’ mark. We live at the climax-point of the battle.

Two Opposing Systems of Salvation

Before we summarize and close, one final point remains. Turn back to Ezekiel 8:16:

And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.

Notice something giant. Remember, the temple and the sanctuary are one and the same, just in different points in time. After the Hebrew nation came out of the wilderness the sanctuary was established permanently in Jerusalem. The temple was only a more deluxe version of the sanctuary. One minor addition is the porch—a staircase ascending up from the courtyard to the doorway of the sanctuary/temple. Thus “the porch” stood immediately before the entrance of the temple. With that in mind, consider the tragedy of this text. Ezekiel saw the leadership of Israel. They were within the precincts of the sanctuary. They were there, “between the porch and the altar.” Facing which way? Facing toward the east! Their backs were turned on the sanctuary of the Lord!

To what, then, were their backs turned? To God’s presence in the Most Holy Place, between the cherubim, above the ark. Their back was turned to the Ten Commandments in that ark. Their back was turned to the veil recording the sins of Israel. In fact, their backs were turned to the altar of incense which was connected with the offering system. Behind them lay the table of shewbread on the north side of the Holy Place, and on the south side, the candlestick representing the Holy Spirit. The backs of these men were turned to the entirety of the sanctuary and its sacrificial system. And that means that they actually denied the daily offering, the yearly Yom Kippur Day of Atonement, etcetera. The system God had given for the removing of sin from the camp of Israel they despised.

But what did these men see before them, their backs to the sanctuary, their faces eastward? Before them, as they worshipped the Sun, they could also see the altar of sacrifice in the courtyard, perhaps the laver, and definitely the doorway on the east entering into the courtyard grounds.

Directly in front of them they could see the altar of sacrifice. And what did that altar stand for? For the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the Cross for our sins. That sacrifice allowed Jesus’ life to stand in the place of our own sinful life. Jesus’ sinless life is substituted for my sinful life. Furthermore, it is not only counted in place of my life. The life of Christ, represented in the blood—that blood ministered through the sanctuary system—that blood to which the elders of Israel had turned their backs—that life presented by Jesus now as our High Priestly Intercessor, sends His power forth, out of the sanctuary and into us. Through that ministry we are enabled to live obediently. We are enabled to keep God’s commandments. The supernatural power making this kind of life possible comes only through our heavenly high Priest and His sanctuary system.

Christendom today claims to believe in Jesus. It claims to accept His sacrifice in all its fulness. But you can’t separate the sacrifice offered at the altar with Jesus ministry through His sanctuary system. You can’t separate Jesus’ death upon the cross, from His high Priestly ministry in the heavenly sanctuary; they go together. They cannot function when artificially separated from each other. The gospel addresses not only guilt for past sins but gives power to live a holy life now. God takes His children to the point where we stop choosing to sin. Sin stops going up to the sanctuary. Then at last it becomes possible for Jesus to cleanse it (Daniel 8:14). In God’s power we cease from sinning, and it no longer ascends to defile the sanctuary. At last the Second Coming is insight!

Conclusion and Preview

So. Who will autograph you? Do you want to receive the seal of the living God, or the mark of the beast? Will you drift along with the crowd and receive a Christianity that claims to be centered in Jesus but allows immoral living? Or, will you embrace a Christianity with Christ and authentic moral living? We need to prepare for Jesus to return. Are you, in your heart, sighing and crying for sin? Won’t you plead with Him to increase in your heart, both, a hatred for sin and a love for righteousness? Let us pray that, as Christians today, we will not repeat the failure of Israel to let God repair them? This is our hour of opportunity!

Don’t miss our next meeting. These two opposing systems of salvation have led to the rise of a power understood in Scripture as the Antichrist. In our next meeting, we will go through the Scriptures, and with careful, step-by-step approach, identify that power. Our presentation is titled, “Big Words. Little Horn.”

Be there.

Larry Kirkpatrick, 1999-10-29, updated 2006-10-21