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the last box checked

Ezekiel 9:9-11 (JDV)

Ezekiel 9:9 He said to me, “The violation of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of bloodshed, and the city entirely warped, because they say, ‘Yahveh has abandoned the land; he does not see.’
Ezekiel 9:10 But as for me, my eye will not look compassionately on them or spare them. I will bring their conduct down on their own heads.”
Ezekiel 9:11 Then I noticed the man clothed in linen and carrying writing equipment responded back. This is what he said, “I have done all that you commanded me.”

the last box checked

As Ezekiel nine concludes, this dark vision becomes even more terrifying. It is a simple vision of seven “men” — six of them sent to destroy Jerusalem for its sins, and the seventh with something like a clipboard, marking the heads of those who will be spared. Now — get the significance of what the clipboard man says in today’s text. He says “I have done all that you commanded me.” In other words, the remnant has been marked, so now the destruction can begin.

As our generation goes deeper and deeper into the darkness of rebellion against God and his righteousness, one wonders whether we will see (on a planetary level) what Ezekiel saw in this vision. Will this generation see a day when the secretary has no more names to write down — no more boxes to check? When the last box is checked, the destruction will begin.

Hell has been a slow train coming, but when it comes, only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will avoid it. For everyone else, that fire will be unquenchable, and it will destroy the soul and body.

LORD, we seek your will, and plead for you to put us on your list, and help us to get others to do the same.