A Pastor's Thoughts: God's Watchman

(Audio version; Music: "We Are Yours" by WorshipMob and "Fix You" by Coldplay, adapted by WorshipMob--Real. Live. Music.)

Introduction

I remember meeting a man (I’ll call him Jim though that’s not his real name) a while ago at a dinner function. We had a great discussion on a variety of topics and then he asked me what I did. I told him I was a pastor. He went on to tell me that he was a Christian and had finally found a church he liked. I had considerable first hand experience with the church he was attending. I asked him what it was that attracted him to this particular church. Jim told me that he was looking for a place that was friendly and accepting. That seemed reasonable to me but I wanted to know what he meant by “accepting.” “Friendly” is easy enough to understand but “accepting” piqued my curiosity. Jim said that he visited lots of churches and he hated that they preached what he called “fire and brimstone.” I asked him what he meant by that and he said he didn’t like it when they talked too much about sin and hell. He also said that he didn’t like it when the preacher got too “preachy.” Again, I asked him what he meant by “preachy.” He said he didn’t like too much talk about judgment and righteousness. He told me that what he was looking for in a church; what he found in the church he was attending at that time, is a place that didn’t constantly remind him of his sins but a place that just made him feel good about himself. I didn’t exactly know how to respond to him but I told him a little about this ministry and invited him to see for himself. If you’ve spent any time reading my lessons then you know that if he took me up on my invitation to read my lessons, he probably didn’t always feel too good about himself afterward.

I have a friend who checks in on me every week after I’ve posted my lesson because she knows that I receive some pretty hateful comments—often from other Christians who don’t feel very good about themselves after they read some of my lessons. She asked me once how I can keep doing it when I know how angry it often makes some people. I told her that when I was waiting to be accepted to the Seminary, I prayed almost every day that God would allow me to attend. As the days went by, my prayers became more desperate and I started to worry that I wouldn’t be accepted. So I prayed one more prayer of desperation and used the words we rarely use here in my home, “I promise.” I promised God that if He allowed me to attend Seminary I would go where He wanted me to go, do what He wanted me to do, and say what He wanted me to say. I’ve tried to keep that promise. And there are many other Christians who go where God wants them to go, they do what God wants them to do, and they say what God wants them to say—whether people like it or not. God uses these people to warn others who have turned away from Him and instead follow their own way. He uses those who are faithful to Him to love people enough to show them what faithfulness looks like and to tell them the truth about their lives; to tell them the truth about sin; to tell them the truth that God loves them just the way they are but He loves them too much to leave them where they are. God has always used certain people in all of history to lead His people, to care for His people, to warn His people, teach His people. God uses those who are faithful to watch over those who are trying to be faithful; to watch over those who don’t know how to be faithful; to watch over those who don’t want to be faithful. You can find these people sprinkled throughout the Scriptures; they are watchers—God’s Watchman.

Subject Text

Ezekiel 3:17-21

¹⁷“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. ¹⁸When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. ¹⁹But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself. ²⁰“Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. ²¹But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

Context

The Book of Ezekiel was written in the 6^th century BC, primarily to the Jews who were captives in Babylon but also to Jews who were not yet exiled and taken captive to Babylon. Ezekiel was the younger contemporary to Jeremiah who was still watching over God’s people who remained in Judah. Although for a time Ezekiel spoke to those already taken captive, he would eventually join the captives as a captive himself in 597 BC. Ezekiel’s purpose was to announce God’s judgment on Israel because of her disobedience and unfaithfulness but also to the other nations as well for their refusal to recognize God’s sovereignty over all people and nations.

Text Analysis

¹⁷“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.

No spokesperson of God is self-appointed—they are called. And Ezekiel was no different as we see in v. 17. It wasn’t something Ezekiel lobbied for or campaigned for. It wasn’t a job he applied for. God called Ezekiel to perform a specific task and Ezekiel was obedient to the task. We know that God called and Ezekiel answered but would you have answered? What if you knew that the people God was sending you to wouldn’t listen to you and might even hate you for it? Would you still answer God’s call? All the people I went to Seminary with had an ambitious vision of how they’re ministry was going to “reach people” with the Word of God. None of them set out with the knowledge that the people they hoped to reach wouldn’t listen to them. But that’s exactly what Ezekiel was agreeing to. In the verses preceding our Subject Text, God tells Ezekiel, “The house of Israel is not willing to listen to you because they are not willing to listen to me, for the whole house of Israel is hardened and obstinate.” What if you knew that this would be the effect of your words—that no one would listen? Answering God’s call doesn’t sound so exciting now does it? But this is what God’s Watchman does. The reference to a watchman was particularly relevant during Ezekiel’s day. Important cities were protected by a perimeter of high walls. Stationed somewhere on those walls were watchmen. They were there to warn the inhabitants of the city of approaching danger so the people could prepare. The inhabitants refused the warning of a watchman to their own demise. It goes without saying that the watchman didn’t warn the people of an impending invasion by unicorns and butterflies. When the watchman sent out a warning, it meant trouble was coming. “In performing their spiritual ministry, prophets were compared to watchmen. Ezekiel was to announce warnings that he received from the Lord.”[1]

¹⁸When I say to a wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. ¹⁹But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself.

In life, there are sins of commission and sins of omission. Well it is no different in ministry. There is disobedience in the form of commission and in the form of omission. Ministers of God’s Word are disobedient when they commit sinners to the message of God’s judgment yet omit the message God’s salvation. According to vv. 18-19, Ezekiel’s failure to warn the people regardless of whether or not they would listen meant that they would die without warning and Ezekiel would bring judgment on himself. Watchmen were the early warning system for the inhabitants of a city. If they failed to carry out their assignment, they would be held responsible for the consequences. The principle in these verses is fairly straight forward—God has condemned sin which is defined in these verses as wickedness. And Ezekiel is supposed to warn the people that they will die because of their wickedness. It wasn’t Ezekiel’s job to get them to change, it was his job to warn them about what would happen if they didn’t. Ezekiel wasn’t condemning them or judging them—God had already done that.

The instruction in these verses is crucial to understanding our own ministerial duties. The warnings from Christians are often silenced when people call them “judgmental.” Like Satan, disobedient and sinful people use and twist the words of the Bible in order to protect their precious and favored sins. They always quote Jesus when He says that we are not to judge people. What these people fail to realize is that God has already judged their sin. Christians, like Ezekiel, are not condemning sinners or passing judgment on their sins, they are warning them that God has already condemned sin and passed judgment and the wages, or penalty, of sin is death. God has judged that the sins of a person results in a death sentence. But the Christian’s message, like Ezekiel’s message, is also one of hope. The hope is that there is a payoff for heeding God’s warning which, in fact, there is. Those who heed the warning and turn from their sins and turn to God will be saved. God’s Watchman has the duty to speak God’s warning. He or she does not have the duty to make people listen. God knows the difference. God does not condemn us if people won’t listen to the words we say. God will condemn us if we don’t say them.

“To be such a channel of God’s good and bad news is often a costly, self-denying business. If you say to God, ‘Here am I, send me,’ frequently he will! Sometimes, God sends his children to be his witnesses in uncomfortable situations—whether halfway around the world, to preach to villagers in Irian Jaya [New Guinea], or around the corner, to speak God’s word in the jungles of corporate America. Such total yieldedness to God will often be regarded as cerifiably foolish, or perhaps even worse, by a world that does not know God, especially when there seems little fruit to show for the sacrifice. But who is really the one being unwise? Jim Elliot, who met his death at the hands of the Auca Indians with whom he had planned to share the gospel, once wrote in his journal: ‘He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.’”[2]

²⁰“Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him, he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. ²¹But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he will surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

Pay close attention to the words in vv. 20-21. They seem redundant to the previous verses but they aren’t. They are redundant as to their purpose but I want you to notice who the verses are directed at. Compare the first few words of v. 18 with the first few words of v. 20. What do you notice? V. 18 is directed toward the “wicked man” but v. 20 is directed toward the “righteous man.” This is one of those things I’ve read countless times and just breezed over it without thinking too much about it. But these verses seem to be talking about two different types of people—sinners who don’t acknowledge God and sinners who do. Ezekiel was God’s Watchman over the house of Israel but Jews weren’t deemed righteous simply because they were Jews. Jews were only righteous if they were in a right covenant relationship with God. There were Jews who didn’t abide by that covenant relationship with God who were called “wicked.” And there where Jews who did abide by the covenant relationship with God, even if they made mistakes on occasion, who were called “righteous.” The point is that God cares enough to send someone to warn both.

In a sense, all true and faithful Christians are called to be watchmen according to Jesus’ Great Commission. For Christians, this means we have a duty to preach the message of God’s judgment and God’s salvation to unbelievers and believers alike. If you are a Christian, you are called to speak all of God’s word to all people whether they listen or not or whether they like it or not. When I say all of God’s word, that includes the words that warn people about the consequences of their sins and not just the words that promise the rewards of heaven.

Application

“When [the city of] Pompeii was destroyed [in 79 AD] by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, many people were buried in the ruins. Some were found in cellars, as if they had gone there for safety. Others were found in the upper rooms of buildings. But where was the Roman sentinel found? He was found standing at the city gate where he had been placed by the captain, with his hands still grasping his weapon. There, while the earth shook beneath him—there, while the floods of ashes and cinders covered him—he had stood at his post. And there, after a thousand years, was this faithful man still found.”[3] I think that’s a great illustration of what it can feel like sometimes if you are called to be God’s Watchman. When you pour your life into being a faithful follower of Christ and it produces only harsh criticism, it can feel like the earth shakes beneath you. Whether you’re trying to preach the gospel to unbelievers who won’t listen to you or don’t want to listen to you or warning someone that their lifestyle choices are inviting God’s judgment on themselves and they hate you for it, it can feel like you’re being flooded with ashes and cinders. It’s not easy and it seldom seems fair that God would call you to something that seems to be failing. You share Christ with your neighbors, family, and friends but your words always seem to fall on deaf ears. You try and explain how God’s way of doing life is so much better than their way of doing life but they love the sin in their lives too much to give it up.

It can be supremely frustrating not to see the results of your faithfulness to share the gospel. It can make even the most dedicated follower want to quit and give up. If you’ve spent any amount of time standing up for the truths of the Scriptures then you know what I mean. How many times have you looked up to heaven and said, “I quit God!” and then gone back to your post? You go back to your post, not so much because you want to see some results for your efforts but because God has called you to stand guard and watch over people He loves—even though those people ignore you or even hate you. Your job is not to get them to listen or like you. God has called you to care for them and watch over them because He loves them; loves them enough to warn them; loves them enough to send you—God’s Watchman.