"Ezekiel Chapters 8 & 9"
Ezekiel begins predicting that God's judgment was going to last and would become worse, and the reason that it would last and become worse was that the people's sin was lasting and becoming worse. They refused to repent as they saw God's judgments coming.
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Ezekiel, in Hebrew, means “in the strength of God”. His ministry was such that it could only be carried out in the strength of God. The names of the prophets almost always depict or describe the nature of what God is calling them to do as a ministry.
The events in the book of Ezekiel are at the onset of the Babylonian captivity that was first prophesied by Isaiah, then by Jeremiah and began in the days of Ezekiel. God had warned that such a judgment would come if the people did not repent. It began conspicuously; was clearly a fulfillment of God’s prophetic warning, yet people were denying that it was God's judgment. Everything was going down, but they kept claiming to be triumphant. This is similar to what we are seeing today in popular books such as The Unstoppable Church (when a more fitting title would be “The Unstoppable Mosque”), or from another aspect those in the Positive Confession mindset who claim their bodies lie to them when in reality they are very ill. People simply did not face the facts; they would not own up to what Isaiah and Jeremiah had been predicting all along.
Ezekiel began predicting that God's judgment was going to last and would become worse because the people's sin was lasting and worsening. They refused to repent even when they saw God's judgment coming. This is seen again in the book of Revelation: even though the judgments of God become more frequent and intense, it says that men harden their hearts, curse God, and continue to sin. (Rev. 9:20-21; 16:9-11) So it was in the days of Ezekiel, and so it will be in the Last Days. The book of Ezekiel has many parallels with the book of Revelation, and replays much of it.
Ezekiel 9:4 says this:
"And the Lord said to him, 'Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in their midst.'"
There were people who saw the abominations happening in the city of God and in the house of God, and before judgment began, God said, "Seal those who are truly Mine; seal those who see what's wrong, who know what's wrong, and who grieve over it. Before the judgment comes, seal them."
Revelation 7:2-3 parallels:
"And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God. And he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying ‘Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads.’"
Prior to the implementation of the mark of the beast in Revelation 13, the seal of the Lord will be put on God’s faithful servants. We know from history and from archaeology that the mark or the seal in Ezekiel was the Hebrew letter tov. Today the Hebrew letter tov is written something like an “H” with a foot; however, in pre-Captivity Israel it was written as a slightly tilted cross, and its origin was probably an upright cross. The mark of the seal of God, as it was in the days of Ezekiel, is actually the mark of a cross.
"And they were told they should not hurt the earth, nor the grass, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads" (Rev. 9:4.)
Once again, before God's judgment comes His people are sealed. The church enters the Tribulation but is rescued from the worst of it and is sealed by the Lord and somehow protected during the part it endures. The 144,000 who minister eschatologically have the seal of the Lord.
We first see the sealing of the Lord begin, not in Revelation or even in Ezekiel, but in the Torah, in the book of Exodus. The children of Israel went through most of the judgments on Egypt; the same judgments on Egypt recorded in Exodus are replayed eschatologically, and that is a major type of what happens in Revelation. The darkness, the smiting of the waters, and so on; the Hebrews went through part of it, but were delivered from the worst of it. So it shall be in the Last Days; God's people will be sealed. Exodus 13:9 says:
"And it shall serve as a sign to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a powerful hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt."
Before the judgment comes, those whose hearts are really God's – who see the abominations and wickedness and grieve over it – are sealed with the mark of a cross. In Revelation, those who see the abominations that are happening and grieve over them are sealed with the mark of a cross.
The judgment was already happening in Ezekiel's time. The captivity was underway, yet people were saying, "Oh, it's only a temporary setback; it's short-lived." In fact, however, Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah four separate times, each time with worse results. Just as the waves of evil followed one after the other, each worse than the last, so too do the judgments of God come in these kinds of waves. But His people are sealed; that is, those who are truly His.
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Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.