The Infamous Mark

Even the story of David & Goliath is about different faiths & believing in God. 1 Samuel 17:43-50 contains a deeper meaning to the symbolic usage of stone, gods, but for this study we will focus on the words "hand" & "forehead". Go to www.biblegateway.com, set preferences to King James Version (always), & look up "forehead". Notice, Ezekiel 3:7-9 where impudent is Hebrew for "hardheaded", & in Ezekiel 9:4, a mark makes men cry in repentance.

"Mark" -

- a memorial (Exodus 13:9) - a mark in one's memory to be remembered

- a sign (Exodus 13:9) - a mark that indicates something that has meaning  
- a token (Exodus 13:16) - a mark that is plainly indicated 
- a seal (Revelation 7:3) - a mark that is intended to preserve a certain characteristic
  
See Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:9-12; 10:22-24, but these all refer to the same place (the brain)...& the same thing (the conscience). Well, as God appeals to our conscience, we (like Abram) respond with the commitment of a made up mind (faith). We carry out that conscious decision with action (works).  See 1 Timothy 1:5,19; 3:9; Romans 2:15; Titus 1:15; & word search "pricked" & "heart", but remember, the heart pumps blood (it doesn't spark thoughts).

TRUTH or False - The works of your hands can provoke God to anger too.

People couldn't enter the Promised Land for 3 main reasons: unbelief, hardened hearts, & disobedience. This was a faith issue, as well as a "work" issue centered around believing in God, & resting in Him.

Forehead

Deuteronomy 11 teaches commandments through the whole entire chapter, & in verse 18, God says, "Therefore shall you lay up these My words in your heart & soul, & bind them for a sign (mark) upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes." In Romans 4:11, Abram was circumcised in his heart (faith), before he was circumcised physically (works).  Faith is housed in the forehead, heart, mind, soul, frontlets between the eyes, even inward parts.

*TRUTH or False – The Mark of the Beast is not the only mark; Satan has his mark, and God also gives His Mark in the form of God's Seal.

Revelation 7:3 & 9:4 connect God & forehead. Also, the Mark of God, is a seal, that names Him as the 1 & only Maker & Creator, & Exodus 20:8-11 pinpoints God's name, title & jurisdiction (the area over which God rules).

Notice Revelation 4:11; 10:6 & 14:7...what is God's name? Well, according to Exodus 20:1-20, he's the Creator. How? Well, He "made", & even Revelation 14, prior to burning up those who accept the Mark of the Beast, verse 7 advises us to worship Him who "made". Is this important?  Well, the name God comes from the fact that He made.  

That's why He's the Creator. God's name is written on their foreheads in Revelation 22:4 & 14:1. Nehemiah 9:6; Amos 9:6; Acts 4:24;14:15;17:24 name God as Maker & Creator. It's simple.  *So the answer to our TRUTH or False question is....? Well, go back & look at the question, then answer that yourself.

Hand

How does the hand symbolize "works"? Again, www.biblegateway.com, word search "hand work", & see the correlation yourself. Notice, works is an action verb that requires one "to do" with one's hand. Acts 4:28, "For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." 

TRUTH or False - Even what God does with His hands are His works.

TRUTH - See Psalm 28:5; 92:4; 111:7; 138:8 to verify, but David wrote, "I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands." Psalm 143:5

- Mark 6:2, "...mighty works are wrought by His hands?"

- Deuteronomy 2:7; 15:10; 16:15 - God blesses the works of thy hand.

- Hebrews 2:7 - Jesus was set over the works of our hands.

- Ecclesiastes 9:10 - Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work...

- Jeremiah 1:16; 25:6,7,14; 44:8 - works of your hands

- Acts 7:41 - People made idols..."and rejoiced in the works of their hands".

TRUTH - Jeremiah 25:7, "Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt."

What kept people out of the Promised Land? Was it a "work" issue as in something God wanted them to do? Was it unbelief or related to faith somehow? Read Hebrews 3:10 to 4:1; Ezekiel 20:10-13,19-25.