And, behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me.
I have done as thou hast commanded me. The characteristic of Messiah (John 17:4). So the angels (Psalms 103:21) and the apostles report their fulfillment of their orders (Mark 6:30). Remarks:
(1) The glory of the God of Israel (Ezekiel 9:3) withdrew at the same time that the angelic watchers ever the city drew near to it with their slaughter weapons in hand. When God departs from a people, or from individuals, their glory and their safety depart.
(2) One stood among the six angels as their acknowledged lord, being distinct from them and above them (Ezekiel 9:2). He was "man," but free from man's sin, as His robe of spotless white "linen" implies. He was "one;" for while others are sons of men, He is the only one who is "the Son of man." It was "because He is the Son of man" that "the Father hath given Him authority to execute judgment" (John 5:27). This judgment He execute through the instrumentality of His attendant angels.
(3) At the same time that He is the judge of the guilty, He bears also the inkhorn by His side, to set His mark upon the foreheads of His elect, that so they may saved while the rest are destroyed (Ezekiel 9:4; Ezekiel 9:6). He writes their names in His book of life (Revelation 13:8). Since He is "one," the peerless One, "the chiefest among ten thousand" (Song of Solomon 5:10), He terms His Church also "one:" "My undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her" (Song of Solomon 6:9). How comforting to believers it is to know that God will do nothing in the way of judgment until He has first sealed and secured their safety! Those who have remained uncontaminated in the midst of abounding sin, God will keep safe amidst abounding calamity. Whatever floods of wrath are about to deluge this ungodly earth, the elect, in the secret of God's presence, shall be kept as the apple of the eye, and hidden under the shadow of His wings (Psalms 17:8).
(4) Two characteristics of the sealed remnant about to be saved are presented before us: first, faithfulness to God; they are indignant at the dishonour done to His holy name by the abominations perpetrated in Jerusalem: secondly, tenderness of spirit toward man; "they sigh and cry for all the abominations" (Ezekiel 9:4). Uncompromising zeal for the glory of God is consistent with the greatest charity, pity, and tenderness in relation to our fellow-men. They who denounce the divine judgments against ungodly men, should do so with judgment. True humility will remind us what sinners we were, and are, by nature; and that whatever difference there may be between us and those whom we condemn, however justly, is due solely to the grace of God; as Bradford, in seeing a criminal go by to his execution, said, 'There goes by John Bradford, but for the grace of God.' Compassion for our fellow-men, who are rushing on to their own ruin, not repulsive harshness, becomes us, who are such debtors to the divine compassion. At the same time we must beware of the false charity which would call by gentle names, and gloss over, the ungodliness and unbelief of those around us. One chief redeeming quality is recorded of Lot, though otherwise an unsatisfactory character-he was "vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked; and vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds" (2 Peter 2:7-8). Let us imitate him in this; let us grieve and "sigh" in our spirit inwardly, and "cry," giving outward expression to our sense of the wrong done to the God who is so dear to us: as adelaide Newton said, 'It is like going under a wheel full of spikes to hear unholy things spoken of one so dear as the Lord Jesus.'
(5) The destroying angel "began at the ancient men" of the "sanctuary" (Ezekiel 9:6). God, in His judgments, commences with those who in respect to privileges stand nearest to Him. So far is the possession of means of grace from saving men from wrath, that He abhors sin most in those from whom, by reason of their spiritual opportunities, most good was to have been expected.
(6) The denial of the special providence of God, on the part of those who said, "The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not," is the one feature of guilt in particular specified by God as the source of the iniquity of the doomed, and the great cause for bringing down His terrible judgments. Those who take heed to the signs of the times can hardly but observe the tendency of our age to ignore the God of special providence, saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (2 Peter 3:4). This is the revealed mark of the last age, the times of apostasy of the Gentile Church, to be followed by judgments, beginning at the Lord's sanctuary, the professors of Christianity, more fearful than those which succeeded the apostasy of the Jewish Church when they rejected and crucified their Lord. Let us see that we be found among the few faithful among the faithless.
(7) "The MAN clothed with linen, who had the inkhorn by His side (Ezekiel 9:11), reported the matter, saying, I have done as thou hast commanded me." The Lord Jesus is perfectly faithful to the trust committed to Him by the Father: "Of all which the Father hath given the Son He loses nothing" (John 6:39). Alike in executing judgment on the reprobates, and in saving the sealed elect, He shall at last say, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do" (John 17:4). Let us adore the grace which has saved us, if we be believers, out of the mess of those who perish by their own perversity. Let us, in all we do, for the glory of Christ's name, follow his example, and "report" every "matter" to our God in prayer and supplication.