OUR LORD WHO MARKS US AS HIS

Famously, the "mark of the beast" is the indelible tag that people aligned with the kingdom of darkness are identified by.

Less widely known but more important, is the mark that is used to identify the people of God.

A pre-figuration of this identification of God's people is the blood of the lamb that was painted over the doorways of the homes of the Israelite slaves in Egypt. When the plague of the angel of death was released in Egypt, the blood of the lamb on the doorway signaled the angel of death to pass over that household. ( Exodus 12 )

Another passage that discusses a mark that identifies the people God is Ezekiel 9 verse 3 - 4.

Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherub on which it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed in linen at whose loins was the writing case. 

The LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, even through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.”

Here, the people who were to be marked by the angel of the Lord were those who recoiled at the atrocities that were occurring in their communities. This sensitivity was the deligneating factor that separated those who were to be spared and those who weren't.

The most expansive and far reaching expression of an identification mark is the seal of the Holy Spirit that is described in Ephesians 1 verse 4 - 5.

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

This seal, which is an eternal mark of redemption confered on a person who has believed in the power of Jesus to save,  is the royal seal of the Holy Spirit who is given as a type of  down payment on each individual.

The presence of this pledge signifies that the Lord will return with the full payment to collect whom He has promised to save.

Bless the Lord who positively identifies His people.

Amen.