Sighing & Crying… or Fleeing! | Part C

The King James Version (KJV) is mostly used in these lessons. Click here to access the KJV online.

Total Destruction

Yahuwah’s response to the abominations in Jerusalem and the temple is clear: total destruction is called for.

Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.

Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them. (Ezekiel 8:17-18, KJV)

The sentence is swift.

He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand. And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood beside the brasen altar. (Ezekiel 9:1-2, KJV)

This is serious! The command of Yahuwah calls forth men holding slaughter weapons. But even here, the grace of Yahuwah is seen. “Yahuwah … is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, KJV)

And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer's inkhorn by his side; And Yahuwah said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house. (Ezekiel 9:3-6, KJV)

Not all are to be killed in the destruction that follows. Those who “sigh and cry for all the abominations done” are spared. This is the passage religious leaders use to convince church members to remain despite the Holy Spirit repeatedly urging them to leave. Ministers acknowledge that there is sin in the church, but they hasten to add that those who receive the mark of salvation are those who sigh and cry for all the abominations done in the church. The implication, therefore, is that one must remain in the church in order to sigh and cry over the abominations committed there.

This is nothing in this passage, however, that says Yah’s people must remain where such gross abomination is taking place. Scripture, in fact, teaches just the opposite.

Escape for your lives!

Heaven is commanding the final generation: “Go out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: For her sins are come up into heaven, and Yahuwah hath remembered her iniquities.” (Revelation 18:4-5, 1599 Geneva Bible) As covered elsewhere on WLC, this command is to all believers. None are to assume that their church, denomination or organization is exempt for all have apostatized in rejecting advancing light.

But there are other passages of Scripture that clearly teach the duty to disassociate oneself with organizations that are in apostasy. Yahuwah had the power to preserve Lot even in Sodom. But He didn’t. Instead, He sent angels to drag the reluctant Lot and his family out and then gave the urgent command: “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.” (Genesis 19:17, KJV)

Lot was saved out of Sodom, not in it. Noah, likewise, was saved out of the wicked, antediluvian world, not in it. Peter understood this concept very well:

For if Yahuwah spared not … the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the wicked;

And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live wickedly;

And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

Yahuwah knoweth how to deliver the reverent out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. (See 2 Peter 2:4-9.)

Lot sighed and cried for the abominations done in the vile cities of the plain. According to the Book of Jasher, one of his own daughters had been killed by corrupt men when she showed kindness to a stranger. And yet, at the prayer of Abram, angels were sent to deliver the message that he was to leave immediately. This is what Heaven expects the faithful to do, not remain in the church and, by their presence, give silent support to the apostasy happening within the church.