Idolaters punished
Day 409, Wednesday, Sept. 24
Ezekiel Chapters 7 – 9
Today’s visions are about punishing those who are guilty of idolatry.
In 9:4 we read, “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.”
The Lord in the vision then says to kill all of those in the city who do not have the mark on their forehead.”
This brings to mind the visions in Revelation where a mark on the forehead is used to indicate those who belong to God and those who belong to Satan. It can also bring to mind the story of the Exodus, where a mark on the door protected God’s people from death.
In all of these cases the mark serves as a reminder that God’s judgment works both ways: to punish those who disobey him and to protect those who follow him.

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Wednesday meditation

Job 38:1-11
Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
“Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?

Prayer focus
God, mark us as you followers so that at the day of judgment, whenever that may be, we may be found to be under your protection, not your judgment.