Vaccinated

Daily Reading: Ezekiel 9

But touch no one on whom is the mark. (Ezekiel 9.6)

Devotional Thought: The world's focus in 2021 was to stop the spread of COVID 19.  A vaccine was developed, approved, manufactured, and distributed in record time.  People “lined up" to receive the vaccine.  But not everyone believed that those vaccinated would be "untouchable" by the novel corona virus.  There were reports of people developing severe side-effects after receiving the vaccine.  Some even died.  No medication is fool proof.

Did you know that there is a vaccine against the effects of sin?  Did you know it is foolproof?

In Ezekiel 9, judgment was coming to those who had rebelled against God.  Some of God's people, however, were to be "vaccinated" against that pending judgment: "Put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed" (Ezekiel 9.4).  These were those with a spirit of contrition and repentance.  They would be spared.  Those executing judgment were instructed to "touch no one on whom is the mark" (v. 6). 

That story made me think of the story in Exodus 12, when the children of Israel were instructed to kill a sacrificial lamb and sprinkle its blood on the doorposts and lintels of their home.  This was a type of "vaccine."  When the plague of death visited the Egyptian homes, the Israelite homes - marked with the blood of the lamb - would be spared.

We read in the book of Revelation that those who are marked with the name of Jesus on their foreheads are "vaccinated" against the final judgment (Rev. 14.1, 22.4).

Have you been saved by faith in Jesus Christ?  Have you been "vaccinated"?

Prayer: Lord, I thank you for the marvel of modern vaccines against deadly diseases.  Even greater, is God's vaccination against the power and penalty of sin.  I confess Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 27.1-6

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.

3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

6 And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord.