In the midst of so much judgement and woe in these early chapters of Ezekiel, we can be thankful to God that He gives us glimpses of His amazing grace and mercy. We see this play out in Ezekiel 9, a heavy chapter where the breadth of the condemnation of the LORD is graphically portrayed: six men move through the city to execute judgement on those who have willingly and deplorably turned their back on God (Ezekiel 9:9-10). These executioners are symbolic of the nations- principally Babylon- who come and destroy Jerusalem and the temple in 587BC.

But- thanks be to God- there is a seventh man in Ezekiel’s vision (see Ezekiel 9:2). God is slow to anger, and even in this awful scene in Ezekiel 9 we can see the love and mercy of God shining brightly. We can see a man clothed in linen. Who is this man? A number of commentators make the connection that He is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ (compare the man dressed in linen in Daniel 10:5–6 with Revelation 1:13–15).

Matthew Henry has written:

  “Here the honours of the pen exceeded those of the sword, but he was the Lord of angels that made use of the writer’s inkhorn; for it is generally agreed, among the best interpreters that this man represented Christ as Mediator saving those that are his from the flaming sword of divine justice, he is our high priest, clothed with holiness, for that was signified by fine linen (Rev. 19:18)… It is a matter of great comfort to all good Christians that, in the midst of the destroyers and the destructions that are abroad, there is a Mediator, a great high priest, who has an interest in heaven, and whom saints on earth have an interest in”.

In the Old Testament there are a number of so-called ‘theophanies’: visual manifestations of the presence of the Son of God. They are not incarnations of Jesus, but temporary appearances of Jesus to meet particular needs. This may well be what we have in Ezekiel 9.

Peter Jeffrey writes:

Before judgement falls, God sends Jesus with a pen and inkpot. His instructions are clear, to ‘put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done’ (Ezekiel 9:4). So there were at least some who were not idolaters, but why were they different? They grieved over sin not because they were not sinners themselves, but because they knew they were sinners! They were aware of the pull of sin in their hearts and temptation was real to them. They knew what it was to fail, and they grieved over their own sin. The difference between them and the rest of the people was that they did not say, ‘The LORD does not see us,’—they knew he did. They took their sin seriously because they knew that the Lord had not forsaken the earth. So they cried to God for mercy and pardon both for themselves and others. There was that essential quality with them that God demands when repentance takes place.

The mark of grace means salvation. God said to the six with the deadly weapons ‘do not touch anyone who has the mark’ (Ezekiel 9:6). The mark is a token of ownership that the Christian will never lose. Even in heaven it will still be there. We read in the last chapter of the Bible of the saints in heaven that ‘they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads’ (Revelation 22:4).

The six destroyers have not yet come, but Jesus is already at work. He looks into each heart to see one’s attitude to sin. Will he see a heart grieving over its own sin and the sin of the nation? Will he see repentance and hear the cry for mercy? If so, then he puts upon those the mark of grace, and there will be no judgement.

Even in judgement there is grace, but there is no grace for those who continue in their sin and rejection of God.