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." And to the others he said in my hearing, "Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary." So they began with the elders who were before the house.
Ezekiel 9:4-6
This passage really struck me when I read it. You know, often we cannot do that much about the iniquity of other people. We can gossip about them. That doesn’t help. We can talk to them about it, and pray for them over it, but that’s about it. It is up to them whether or not they will change.
But do we have sorrow over their sins? Do we groan over the sins that have been and continue to be committed by the people of God? The determination to look the other way when someone needs our help; the deliberate taking advantage of those who are less fortunate than we are, to the often condoned sins of the flesh that echo the perversions of the world?
In this passage, God commands an angel to kill all those who do not mourn over the iniquity of the people of God. And he says to start the killing with those who should know better, those who serve God in the sanctuary.
We cannot do much about other people’s iniquities. But when we express Godly sorrow over the sins of ourselves and others, then God will save us (certainly from our own tongues!). And when we mourn over the sins of His people (us and others) we will pray about them, pray sincerely, God will protect us, and cleanse us from these sins.
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