A Marked Man
Bibby’s Blessings: June 15, 2017
Solomon found himself in a frightening position! His father, David had died and suddenly the responsibility for governing God’s people fell squarely on his shoulders. Bless him!
So he prayed a desperate prayer…
“Give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” 1 Kings 3:9
The world’s always had this crazy way of desiring to create our own right and wrong on the fly…
Yea….we’re like toddlers who like to “do it my way”;
…to create a standard that complies with MY desires and then if we just call it God’s, all is well…
We will call good evil and evil, we will call good if it gets things done “my way.”
But God has given His people something that astounds me, really;
A discerning heart;
The ability to discern HIS standard. It might not be what we want it to be, but it’s spot on!
It isn’t iffy.
It does not pick and choose.
It’s straight up, universally the same for all people, for all time.
Now…
Fast forward a lot of years….
In the book of Ezekiel, we find an enormously sobering command given by God:
“Go through the midst of the city…and put a mark on the forehead of those who sigh and groan over all the abominations being committed.”
Apparently some were grieved and others didn’t give a rip what was happening to their society…
“To each his own” was their motto.
And then….
The command was to strike down all who did not have the mark; the ones who lived by that motto; ☝
The ones whose hearts were not grieved with God.
“…But….
do not touch any man on whom is the mark.”
Now get this….
“……And start in my sanctuary.” (Ez. 9: 4-6)
Whoa!
There were those in that day and there are those in this day whose claim is to belong to the household of God….
But not everyone who makes the claim truly is….
Oh how this should give us pause!
May we not merely claim to belong in the household of God, but may we be “marked” as those who share His heart;
who rejoice in what thrills Him and who grieve over what grieves Him.
I give you my heart, oh God, that I may lose it for Yours.
If the command were given today, would you be a “marked” man?