marked on the hand and forehead, part four

Originally posted at a little perspective on Dec 5 2007.

The first instance of marking in Revelation is during the first interval period, when 144,000 from Israel get sealed on their foreheads. The Greek word used in Revelation for “sealed” happens to be the same word which Paul uses when he says we are sealed with the Holy Spirit as a pledge, as the distinguishing mark of our participation in the New Covenant. It means, “to stamp with a signet or private mark.” Think of a king pressing his signet ring into a blob of wax on a letter to mark it as authentic and not a forgery. So we can say that 144,000 of Israel get marked on their foreheads (and this leads to a multitude beyond counting worshiping God before His throne).

So what does that mean? The prophets shed some light on it:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Jer 31.31-33

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” Eze 36.25-27

What is new about the New Covenant is that, according to Jeremiah (and Hebrews), it is not that the word of the Lord or the commandments of the Lord have been done away with, but the new part is that now His law, statues, and ordinances will be written by God's own finger on hearts instead of on tablets of stone.

For if He meant for His Law to be abolished with the advent of Jesus, then why say that when we receive the Spirit within us,, which was not possible until after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven, that we will walk in His statutes and be careful to observe His ordinances? What is new about the New Covenant is that now we can obey the Lord motivated by love of Him from our hearts within, instead of just by obligation or fear of punishment from without. And also, of course, the Spirit empowers us to obedience, for His fruit does not transgress His law.

So, I believe that those 144,000 who were sealed, or stamped as with a signet or private mark, were marked, as the Old Testament tells us, by the action of their hand -- obedience to the word and commandments of the Lord -- and the thoughts of their mind -- belief in Jesus Christ, and keeping His word in their hearts and minds so as not to transgress it, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within them, which empowered them to walk after the example that Jesus set for us.

That brings us to the final instance of marking in the Scriptures ...

marked on the hand and forehead, part three

Originally posted at a little perspective Nov 29 2007.

But what does the Lord mean when He says do certain things, and they shall serve as a distinguishing mark on your hand and on your forehead, as He says in Exo 13.6-9 and 13.11-16; or bind My words on your hand and on your forehead as a distinguishing mark, as He says in Deu 6:6-8 and 11:18?

In Exodus the Lord says to do something, and that doing shall be as if you had a distinguishing mark on your hand and forehead. He furthermore says that the doing of it shall serve as a reminder of something else on your forehead. Well, doing involves the action of the body, or more specifically, the hand: it is with the hand that we act, make, give, prepare feasts or sacrifices or any other thing.

Remembering something involves the action of the mind, or figuratively, the forehead. I believe the Lord is telling us, in Exodus, that what we do and what we think about will serve to mark us -- and if we do the things He has commanded and remember why we are doing them - that the Lord is our Deliverer and Redeemer - we will be marked as the Lord's.

In Deuteronomy, the Lord says to keep His words and His commandments in our hearts. To teach them and talk of them, at all times, and in all places. In Hebrew thought, we have to remember, that keeping the Lord's word in our hearts involves obeying it, too. And if we keep His word in our hearts (and by implication, obey it from our hearts in our lives), then that word will be bound on our hands and foreheads; i.e. by the action of our hand and the thoughts our mind we will be marked as the Lord's.

So what we have seen is that those who belong to the Lord are also marked on their hand and their forehead. It is their actions, what they do, their way of life, their obedience to the word of the Lord, that marks them on their hand, the agent of action; and it is their remembering what the Lord has done for them, why they observe feasts and give offerings, speaking of and teaching the Lord's word at all times and in all places -- their worldview and thoughts -- that marks them on their forehead, the agent of the thoughts of the mind.

Going through the whole Bible, there isn't another mention of marking, hands, and foreheads, until we get to Revelation.

(Continued in marked on the hand and forehead, part four).

marked on the hand and forehead, part two

Originally posted at a little perspective, Nov 25 2007.

We were discussing being marked on the hand and the forehead, and what that means. I was surprised to learn that when people are marked with the mark of the beast on their hand or forehead, in Rev 13, that this was not the first time that people in Scripture were marked on the hand and on the forehead.

For example, we read:

“For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD. Unleavened bread shall be eaten throughout the seven days; and nothing leavened shall be seen among you, nor shall any leaven be seen among you in all your borders. You shall tell your son on that day, saying, 'It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.' And it shall serve as a sign (oth - distinguishing mark) to you on your hand, and as a reminder on your forehead, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth; for with a powerful hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt.” Exo 13.6-9

“Now when the LORD brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, you shall devote to the LORD the first offspring of every womb ... And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' then you shall say to him, 'With a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. It came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the LORD the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.' So it shall serve as a sign (oth - distinguishing mark) on your hand and as phylacteries on your forehead, for with a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.” Exo 13.11-16

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign (oth - distinguishing mark) on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” Deu 6.6-8

The forehead is considered as being between the eyes. What is a frontlet? It is a thin band like a fillet which encircles the head, with a distinguishing ornament on it. The frontlet is worn so that the ornament rests on the forehead. By the way, the exact same Hebrew word in Deuteronomy 6 translated as “frontlet,” is used in Exodus 13 and translated as “phylactery.” Why they translate it differently, I don't know.

“You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign (oth - distinguishing mark) on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.” Deu 11.18

A frontal is the same thing as a frontlet and a phylactery; it is the same word again in Hebrew. But what does the Lord mean when He says do certain things, and they shall serve as a distinguishing mark on your hand and on your forehead, as He says in Exodus; or bind My words on your hand and on your forehead as a distinguishing mark, as He says in Deuteronomy?

(Continued in marked on the hand and forehead, part three).

coming out of babylon

marked on the hand and forehead
marked on the hand and forehead, part two
marked on the hand and forehead, part three
marked on the hand and forehead, part four

marked on the hand and forehead

Originally posted at a little perspective, Nov 17 2007.

In order to understand what it means to dwell in Babylon, and to come out of her, we first have to understand what it means to be marked on the hand and the forehead. Stick with me, it will all become clear, I promise. A few chapters back in Revelation, those who worship the beast get marked on their right hand and their forehead. Along with the rest of Christianity, I used to think this was an actual, physical mark, like a tattoo or a microchip in an actual, physical hand. But it is not. Let me explain. This is not the first time in Scripture that persons are marked on their right hands and foreheads. Let's look at the history of “marks” in Scripture, shall we?

Mark: oth in Hebrew, literally, a signal, a flag, a token, a pledge, evidence, a miracle, a sign, a warning, or a distinguishing mark (as a uniform distinguishes the one who wears it as belonging to a certain class, position, job, or company). We are looking at the Hebrew because, as we have seen with the Revelation series, the Old Testament is the dictionary of the Bible. It reveals what the New Testament writers and Jesus (all Hebrews, by the way) meant when they used terms such as “covenant,” “circumcision,” “sacrifice,” “righteousness,” “sin,” and so on.

The first occurrence of oth is in creation week:

“Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs (oth) and for seasons and for days and years;” Gen 1:14

And as we all know, the sun and moon and stars mark the passing of time, the seasons, days, and years for us. The next occurrence of oth is not much later:

“So the Lord said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord appointed a sign (oth) for Cain, lest anyone finding him should slay him.” Gen 4:15

We don't know what Cain's mark was, just that he was marked in some distinguishing manner, and that others would know what it meant. Then after Noah's Flood:

“And God said, “This is the sign (oth) of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign (oth) of a covenant between Me and the earth.” Gen 9:12-13

And this introduces the fact that from here on out, God's covenants with man were marked by a pledge, which would remind both parties of their covenant status. The mark of the Noahic covenant was the rainbow; the mark of the Abrahamic covenant was circumcision. Those who were circumcised acknowledged before God and man that they were partakers of Abraham's covenant. The mark of the Mosaic covenant was the Sabbath. Those who observed Sabbath acknowledged before God and man that they were partakers in the covenant which God instituted on Sinai (which was a marriage covenant, according to Jeremiah. Jesus is returning as a Bridegroom for His Bride, just as a side note. We who are married also wear a sign showing that we are married: it is the wedding ring. You might say honoring the Sabbath is the wedding ring which the Bride wears, to indicate to all Whose she is). The mark of the Davidic covenant was the Temple. This is why, when the religious leaders asked Jesus for a sign of His authority to cleanse the Temple, He replied that if the Temple were destroyed, He would rebuild it in three days. He was essentially telling them that He was acting in the authority of David, as the branch of David (now you can understand why those who refused to believe that He was the root and branch of David were so infuriated with Him). And the mark of the New Covenant is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, for it says in 2 Cor 1:22 that we were sealed by the Holy Spirit as a pledge (sign, token, evidence, distinguishing mark) given to us by God that He has set us in firm union with Christ.

Now we are seeing a mark spoken of in Scripture as evidence of a covenant which exists between one party and another. But there is more ... (continued in marked on the hand and forehead, part two).