The prophet Ezekiel tells us what Jehovah says next in the vision: “And to these others he said in my ears: ‘Pass through the city after him and strike. Let not your eye feel sorry, and do not feel any compassion. Old man, young man and virgin and little child and women you should kill off​—to a ruination. But to any man upon whom there is the mark do not go near, and from my sanctuary you should start.”’​—Ezek. 9:5, 6.

10. (a) Despite apparent cruelty, by what command is Jehovah’s mercy revealed? (b) This helps us to appreciate what about the “mark,” and whom therefore will we actively back up now in this work?

¹⁰ Does it sound cruel for Jehovah to say, “Old man, young man and virgin and little child and women you should kill off​—to a ruination”? Yes, but think of the divine mercy revealed in Jehovah’s express command to the symbolic “six men” armed with weapons for smashing, “But to any man upon whom there is the mark do not go near”! Ah, now, we appreciate that there is protective value in that mark. If, in the coming “great tribulation” upon Christendom and all the rest of this detestable system of things, we desire to be spared by Jehovah’s angelic armies, we will make sincere efforts now to acquire the “mark” for our preservation. We will try to aid others in acquiring the “mark” also, that they may be part of that “great crowd” concerning whom it is prophetically written: “These are the ones that come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev. 7:14) If we appreciate that the marking work is nearing its end and that soon the symbolic “six men” are about to smash the unmarked heads, we will lovingly endeavor to back up the lifesaving work of the King’s secretary.

Remember that the “six men” were ordered to start their shattering of heads from Jehovah’s sanctuary, where those who tried to mix Jehovah’s pure worship with unclean pagan worship were. The “six men” did not feel compassion or pity for the hypocritical religionists, for we next read: “So they started with the old men that were before the house.