It is sad to watch a society and culture deteriorate. Anyone over the age of thirty can identify the decline within America. Sadder still is to watch the decline of the Lord’s Church. The Church has been divided and split by music, liberal doctrines and lack of Scriptural teaching.
On a recent trip, my wife and I had difficulty in finding a church that had services on Sunday night. Churches no longer meet on Wednesday night. Instead they have groups that meet in homes, chat, snack and discuss a book about being a Christian. The Bible is seldom used or taught.
The Lord saw this coming, of course, when the Holy Spirit led the Apostle Paul to warn that “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but . . . shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” (Second Timothy 4:3-4) In the previous chapter Paul warned that these people would have the form of godliness, but would deny the power thereof.
There was such a time in Jerusalem. The Prophet Ezekiel tells of a vision where a “man” went through Jerusalem and placed a mark on the forehead of those that sighed over what was transpiring. (Ezekiel 9:4) This passage gives me comfort as I sigh over events in Washington, in our Land and in our Churches.
The Hebrew word for mark in Ezekiel is tav (Strong’s H8420). The letter tav is the twenty-second, and last, letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In ancient times the tav was written as an “X” or a cross. The tav is all about the Cross. Read Psalm 22. It is all about the Cross. Read Genesis 22. It is a foreshadow of the Lord offering His “only begotten son” on the Cross. In Ezekiel chapter nine, the Lord had the man place a cross on the forehead of those who sighed over the abominations.
What a comfort! The Lord marks those who sigh over what is going one with a cross on their foreheads!
The Lord sees and hears.
May your name be written in the Lord’s Book of Remembrance. And may His name be praised forever!