Ezekiel 9:10, commentary and pictures

God will withhold mercy and pity and will pay every person back according to their own deeds and conduct. Those who mourn over the evils among His professed people are marked for preservation, while those without the mark who see no difference between sin and righteousness and feel no grief are slain, and the slaying begins at His sanctuary. This reckoning will be fulfilled exactly as written, and its fulfillment is very near, while time is passing and time is short. He will not bear much longer with those who have been given great and important truths yet refuse to humble their souls, be converted, and bring those truths into their own lives. It is therefore a solemn warning of the stern realities of the day of God that will shortly come, calling every soul, and especially leaders in positions of responsibility whose unfaithfulness misleads others, to hear, repent, and be converted before every case is decided forever.

Judgment Without Pity

God will not spare and will have no pity, but will recompense a person's way upon his head by repaying him according to his deeds and conduct. That unsparing repayment falls upon those who are accountable for their deeds, in a judgment scene where the marking precedes the command to destroy. It is a just and severe recompense, belonging to the approaching day of the Lord and calling every soul to prepare for coming events.

Those who sigh and cry over the abominations done among God's professed people are marked and spared, while those without the mark are destroyed. Those destroyed are those who do not recognize the contrast between sin and righteousness and who do not grieve over the wrongs in the church. The destruction begins at God's sanctuary, and the warning applies with special force to religious leaders whose defective character leads others astray, while a faithful remnant grieves over wrongdoing and each seeker of eternal life is called to take the coming judgment seriously.

The unsparing recompense falls on those who persist in injustice, including hard-hearted and oppressive dealings which God sees and will not pass over, repaid according to their conduct. The threatened judgment will come upon people whose hearts remain unrepentant and who do not repent, reaching even those in positions of responsibility unless they undergo a thorough change of heart. God sees the wrongdoing and will bring that judgment to repay their ways upon them.

The verse belongs to a sacred and dreadful work of judgment and to a prophecy of God's judgment that is to be carefully studied and understood as a warning. That prophecy will soon be fulfilled to the letter. The account of the men spoken of in Ezekiel 9, together with Ezekiel 10, calls for decided testimony to be borne from company to company.

Near Fulfillment and Warning

The fulfillment will be literal, to the letter, and it is very near and very soon, while the people are asleep and time is passing and time is short. God will not bear much longer with a people who have great and important truths revealed to them but refuse to humble their souls, to be converted, and to bring those truths into their individual experience. God is calling them to hear, to receive His message, and to be converted before it is too late, because soon, very soon, every case will be decided for eternity without sparing or pity, with their way recompensed upon their head.

The warning falls with special force on those in positions of responsibility and on religious leaders whose defective character leads others astray and who have not glorified God by faithfulness and integrity. At the appointed time the Lord will do His work most thoroughly, with eye not sparing and with no pity but recompensing their way upon their head, and judgment will begin at His sanctuary. The threatened judgment will reach those in responsibility unless they undergo a thorough change of heart, while a faithful remnant grieves over wrongdoing, and each person seeking eternal life is called to take the coming judgment seriously.

It is a solemn warning of stern realities that will shortly come to pass in the day of God and the approaching day of the Lord. It is a call for every soul to prepare for coming events and for each person seeking eternal life to take the coming judgment seriously. The prophecy is to be studied carefully as a warning of God's judgment.

The great mass of lukewarm and half-hearted professing Christians will then meet bitter disappointment because they do not have the seal of the living God upon their foreheads. They dishonor God more than the avowed unbeliever, groping in darkness when they might walk in the noonday light of the Word. They give a sad representation by contention, gossiping, faultfinding and accusing. This solemn warning is yet neglected.