“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.'”
– Ezekiel 9:4
This whole chapter is, I just feel like I’m saying sobering every chapter in Ezekiel, just to see the judgment of God upon sin in Ezekiel 9. But this verse in particular is talking about the remnant of people who are faithful to God, who are spared judgment in the Book of Ezekiel. And here they’re described, so listen to the language, “Path through the city, through Jerusalem, put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and grown over all the abominations that are committed in it.”
God’s Heart Toward Evil
Rather than minimizing temptation and sin, may we have the same heart that God has toward evil.
Put a mark on those who are grieved over sin in and around them. Who are groaning and sighing and lamenting the presence of sin. So I read this and then I pictured your life, my life, our lives today in a sinful world. How easy it is for you or I to become desensitized to sin. Like to see sin, to see any kinds of sin. Whether it’s gossip, sexual immorality, evil according to scripture, and to think, “Oh, it’s not that big a deal.”
Ezekiel 9:4 Prays for Hearts that Hate Sin
So I just want to lead us to pray that God would make us sensitive to sin and give us his heart, his mind, his perspective. God, we pray that. God, please make us men and women who grieve and sigh and grown over sin in our lives. Over our tendencies to sin our temptations that we are prone to give into. Please God help us stay hate sin in our lives and help us to hate sin around us.
So God, please keep us from becoming desensitized to sin. Make us sensitive to sin that when we see it, we hate it and we lament it and we grieve over it and we live accordingly. That we’re compelled to turn away from sin in our lives. That we’re compelled to share the gospel. We’re compelled when we see a brother or sister struggling in sin to love them enough, to call them back, to encourage them in their relationship with you to turn from sin.
Ezekiel 9:4 Prays for Those Lost in Sin
When we see friends, neighbors, coworkers, family members who are lost in sin. That you would give us your compassion for them in a way that leads us to share the gospel with them. So God, we pray that you would help us to live with this kind of sighing and groaning and grieving over sin in the world around us. We pray that if you were going through today and marking those who sigh and grown over sin. That our lives would be such that you would mark us by your grace in this way.
So even as I pray that, Jesus, we praise you for taking the payment due our sin upon yourself. None of us could stand apart from your grace and your mercy. We all deserve your judgment and we praise you for your grace and your mercy and your love for us. So help us to live like this like we’ve been saved from sin. We turned from it. We run from it and we grieve over it in the world around us. Make us more and more your people like this. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
