Have you ever been grabbed by the scruff of your neck - even by your hair and told to pay attention? That happened to me once. I was grabbed by my hair and actually lifted off my seat. I know it’s hard to believe when you look at what little hair I have. But like your pastor, there was a time when you could manage to grab a fistful of my hair. And that’s exactly what God did one day because he had an important vision to show me (Ezekiel 8:2, 3) - a hair-raising vision of secret sinners, sacred assassins, and saving insignia. May I share my recollection of this vision with you? I promise not to grab you by the hair to make sure you’re paying attention, but you will want to listen carefully. For the way God acted in my vision is how he will act on the Last Day when Jesus returns to judge you and everyone else who ever lived. This vision will help you prepare for that day.
Forgive me for not introducing myself. I am Ezekiel. I am a Jew who lived during the time of Daniel, the same Daniel who was once thrown into the lions’ den. Like Daniel, I was taken from my home in Jerusalem about 2,600 years ago and transported to Babylon because God was chastising our people for having turned their backs on him. It was bad enough to be taken from our homes, but the worst was yet to come. God would actually let the Babylonians destroy his temple and our beloved city Jerusalem. But not many believed that would ever happen. Most Jews in Babylon thought we would be going home sooner than later. But they didn’t understand just how bad things had gotten in Israel. Our nation was like a house, which on the outside looked fine, but was being eaten away by termites on the inside and was ready to collapse. I didn’t realize that either until God showed me the hair-raising vision. Here’s how it unfolded.
I was seated in my house ready for a meeting with the elders when I saw what looked like a man of fire. He reached out and grabbed me by the hair and lifted me high up into the sky! Did it hurt? Not really. It was only a vision after all. But God sure had my attention. I then felt as if I was being transported back to Jerusalem where I found myself standing in front of the temple. You might think I would have been happy to be back. But what I saw there made my heart sink. God had plunked me down in the temple courtyard where I found an idol! Can you imagine walking into your new church at the dedication service and instead of finding a cross above the altar, what greets you is a giant statue of Buddha?
God’s only comment to me was “You haven’t seen anything yet, Ezekiel.” And he was right. God showed me to a secret doorway and when I entered I saw 70 of our elders worshipping insects, frogs, and lizards like the Egyptians did! The elders didn’t see me of course. As a matter of fact they didn’t think anyone including God saw them. They even felt justified in their idolatry because they thought God had abandoned them. Might as well copy what the strong nations of the world did. Maybe it would help Israel become a powerful nation too they thought.
Before I could cry out to those elders God took me to the entrance of the temple courtyard where I saw women engaged in a worship ritual for the Babylonian god Tammuz. Where were the priests? Why didn’t they object and stop these women who were worshipping a false god on the doorstep of the one true God? That’s when God showed me what the priests were up to. They were standing with their backs to the Ark of the Covenant bowing low to worship the rising sun. I could not argue when God concluded: “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the house of Judah to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually provoke me to anger? Look at them putting the branch [up my] nose! 18 Therefore I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them” (Ezekiel 8:17, 18).
Friends, what spiritual reality would be revealed if God allowed me to walk through the secret doors of your life? What worldly practices have you adopted because you want to be popular? What sinful attitudes about money, sex, and revenge do you entertain thinking that no one sees – not even God? What snide remarks about fellow church members run through your mind even as you sing hymns here? What God revealed in my hair-raising vision is that there is no such thing as a secret sinner. God knows and sees all we do and think even if no one else does.
The reason many think that God doesn’t see their sins is because rarely does anything bad happen after they sin. They lie to a teacher and get away with it. They take a bit of money that doesn’t belong to them and no one suspects anything. If Satan is ever successful in getting you to think that sin will go unpunished, recall the next part of my hair-raising vision. As I stood gaping at the turncoat priests, God shouted for the guards of the city. Six men, or what looked like men, arrived, each with a deadly weapon in hand. With them was someone who carried a pen of sorts. God said to him: “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” (Ezekiel 9:4). He then said to the guards: “Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. 6 Slaughter old men, young men and maidens, women and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary… Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go!” (Ezekiel 9:5-7) And this is what they did: sacred assassins striking down secret sinners. It did not matter whether the secret sinner was a little child or a doting grandmother. God’s command was clear: “Kill them all – including those secret sinners who stand in my temple pretending to be my followers!”
What I witnessed was just a vision, but on Judgment Day you will see the real thing. God will without mercy send cute toddlers, kindly grandfathers, decent mothers, and respectful teenagers to hell along with hardened criminals and corrupt politicians. Why? Because God must punish all who delight in sin, as surely as fire must burn up a dead tree. This is what God has said he will do. You can choose to ignore it. You can choose to believe in a god of your own making – one who shrugs at your sins. But that’s like believing it really wouldn’t hurt to get run over by horse and chariot. What you think, however, cannot change the fact: it would hurt to be run over by horse and chariot. So you should avoid walking in their path!
And there were those in my vision who successfully avoided the sacred assassins. Rather I should say that the sacred assassins avoided them because they were marked with saving insignia. God told the scribe to mark all those who were pained by the detestable things that went on around them. These were the people who did not think it funny when their classmates spoke despairingly of their teachers. Nor did they think it cool to attend parties where the sole object was to get a buzz. They not only groaned at the sins of others, they groaned when they themselves fell into sin. They received a mark of salvation which alerted the sacred assassins to stay away.
Do you bear this saving insignia? Well how do you know if I don’t tell you what the mark was? God directed the scribe to write the Hebrew letter “tav” on the foreheads of repentant sinners. In my day that letter looked like this: “t”. How appropriate when you consider that 600 years later God would secure eternal salvation and forgiveness for sinners at the “t” (cross) of Christ! Are you marked with this saving insignia? Those of you who are baptized certainly are. It’s even the practice of your pastor to make the sign of the cross on your head and heart at baptism to mark you as a redeemed child of God. But don’t think that just because you have been baptized, don’t think that just because you wear a cross around your neck that you will automatically escape God’s anger on Judgment Day. Those idolatrous elders and priests I saw in my hair-raising vision looked pious, but because they had ignored God’s Word and had tried to approach God on their terms, they became marks for the sacred assassins. Could that describe you this morning? You may have come to God’s house, but where is your heart? The heart of believer comes near to God when it confesses just how far it has strayed from him this past week. It comes close to God when it clings to the cross of Jesus and offers that for sins – not lame excuses.
Of course it’s only the Holy Spirit who will work such an attitude in you. And of him the Apostle Paul wrote: “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians 1:21, 22). The Holy Spirit is at this very moment working on your heart through the Word of God that I am sharing with you. Reject it and you reject God’s saving insignia. But believe it, thanks to the Holy Spirit, and you are marked for salvation. You do not have to fear God’s anger on Judgment Day. The sacred assassins will avoid you. Stand firm in this faith by staying in God’s Word to the end.
When that man of fire grabbed me by the hair and lifted me off my seat, it was a shock. That may also describe how you feel when a fellow believer speaks to you about misplaced priorities and other sins you have fallen into. But before you lash out at that individual consider my hair-raising vision: secret sinners killed mercilessly by sacred assassins. That’s what awaits all those who do not now groan over sin. So thank your Lord when he sends someone to call you to repentance. Listen to Jesus who said: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). Yes, eternal comfort awaits all who continue to mourn over their sins and cling to Jesus for forgiveness. That God-given faith is your saving insignia. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
Jot down at least two facts about the author of our sermon text.
Jerusalem was like a termite-ridden house ready to collapse. How was that fact illustrated in four different ways for Ezekiel?
What spiritual realities would be revealed if God allowed Ezekiel to walk through the secret doors of your life?
Sacred assassins were told to kill without mercy those who did not groan over sin. Why would a loving God command such a thing?
How can we escape the sacred assassin come Judgment Day?
