We Are God's Watchmen Ezekiel 33:7-11 092814M
Now they use cell phones and text messages. A generation ago it was sirens that warned of approaching tornados, severe weather, and, before that, of nuclear attack or bombing raids. In grade school we had air raid drills and had to file out of our class room, grab our coats, and go down to our assigned place in the fallout shelter, putting our coats over our heads. Not too long ago, it was a big deal when a tornado struck a community in which the siren failed to go off, and many people perished. It was one thing if people are warned and they choose to ignore the warning. But it's another thing if they're not warned at all when they're supposed to be. Who's responsible for their deaths? The weather service? The local government? The manufacturer of the siren? You'd need to get to the bottom of it. Somebody fell down on the job.
Centuries ago, in Bible times, it was the job of a city watchman to stand on the city wall or in a guard tower and watch for approaching dangers. If he saw
something, he needed to alert the citizens. Based on God's words to the Prophet Ezekiel, we can make an interesting observation:
We Are God's Watchmen
1. To warn the wicked to repent.
2. To reassure the repentant of forgiveness.
1. The Lord compares his office of prophet to that of a watchman. As watchmen warned people of physical danger, prophets were to warn God's people of spiritual dangers. Ezekiel's job was to call people to repentance in light of the impending Babylonian conquest and captivity. That was God's judgment over their sin. Better that they spend time away from their homeland and be led to repentance than to be impenitent of their sins and spend eternity in hell. Based on Jesus' words in our gospel reading today, we can say that, like Ezekiel, WE are also God's watchmen To warn the wicked to repent.
To do that, first any prophet like Ezekiel needs to listen. God said to Ezekiel: 7 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. If you're going to warn someone, you need to understand the danger yourself. If that danger is sin and God's judgment because of it, you need to know what that sin is. What is sin and what is not? But just knowing that is not enough.
A prophet then needed to send the warning. To know the danger and not say anything is the height of selfishness. If someone saw a large object falling off of a building, or a car heading your way and failed to tell you to get out of the way, or even to PUSH you out of the way, you'd have to wonder whether or not they WANTED you to get clobbered! They'd be responsible for your injury or death, wouldn't they be? So with spiritual dangers and God's prophets when they served as his watchmen: 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for[a] their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. As with the tornado siren that didn't sound, the tornado still comes with its destruction and death. But whoever was to do the warning and didn't is responsible for that destruction and death.
However, if Ezekiel DID warn God's people and they ignored him, then it was their own fault if they perished. God said, 9 But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved. Just like the siren: if it sounds, and people choose to ignore it and they get swept away to their death, it's their own fault. That's why being a prophet was such an important position. The prophets were spokesmen for God, calling God's people to repentance for their idolatry, rebellion, disobedience, immorality, and selfishness. There were many prophets who let those things go and told the people what they wanted to hear. THEY were responsible for the people's condemnation because they didn't do their job to warn and call to repentance. God wanted Ezekiel to warn his people so they could repent. If they didn't then their condemnation was entirely their own fault.
Like Ezekiel, WE are God's watchmen who are responsible for warning each other. Yes, we usually think of pastors as being the chief watchmen to warn God's people of false teachings, and to point out their sin publicly (as in a sermon) or privately. Yes, that's what we call them to do as they represent us as a group. But obviously, when you hear Jesus' words in our gospel today, you see that each and every Christian is also a watchman. Jesus says if someone is sinning, YOU have the responsibility of going and showing him his fault one-on-one. There's no room for gossiping to others. Nor is the purpose to show how much better you are than the erring person, and to put them in their place. Your purpose is to lovingly restore a sinner. If the person doesn't listen, you go with someone else to give it another try. If that doesn't work, you tell the congregation, and they confront the sin and, if necessary, carry out excommunication: announcing that by a person's impenitence, they are outside of the Kingdom of God's Grace. But the purpose is always to lead them to repent of their sin.
We ALL have repenting to do each and every day, don't we? We each have our own catalogue of sins. But how often aren't we guilty of running others down, criticizing them behind their back, or gossiping about them without saying a word to the sinning person? How does that help? We've failed as watchmen when we do that. Or we nitpick at people and point out all sorts of things which aren't really sin at all. Or we fail to say anything, letting things go and turning a blind eye to the sin. We get used to the idea that our son is using drugs, or our daughter is living with a guy she's not married to, or our fellow church member is actually despising God's Word by almost never hearing it. If we point out the sin, are we just being judgmental? Not if God has spoken and labeled something as sin! If we don't warn them, we're as guilty as they are, because not warning someone is as much a sin as what we should be warning about!
2. The point is not to go around pointing fingers and constantly finding fault with others. When we see our own sins and daily repent, there's little room for dredging up the shortcomings of others. But if something is obviously a sin, the point of warning the person is so that they can repent. Then we have the sacred responsibility of offering them God's forgiveness. Here too, like Ezekiel, WE are God's watchmen To reassure the repentant of forgiveness.
When God's people felt their sin, Ezekiel was to have quite a different message. And it was GOOD when the people felt the weight of their sin: 10 “Son of man, say to the Israelites, ‘This is what you are saying: “Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of[b] them. How then can we live?”’ It sounds a lot like King David when he recognized his sin and sought God's forgiveness. He describes it this way: When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD" — and you forgave the guilt of my sin (Ps 32:3-5). That's how a guilty conscience feels--a ton of bricks laying on your soul. You can't get rid of it yourself, and there seems to be no way out, and no hope of ever making it right. You can't make it go away.
But God can, and he did. God promised a Savior who would be sinless, yet bear the weight of all sin and guilt as God's suffering servant. God sent that Savior in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. Because he made payment for all sin, God now announces his forgiveness to all sinners who repent. Even before the Savior came, announcing that forgiveness was the job of watchmen like Ezekiel: 11 Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’ God was not some vindictive ogre rubbing his hands together at every sinner that stumbled and could not get up. That's why he calls them to repentance--so he can bring his forgiveness to them. Consider how Jesus lamented over Jerusalem just before they rejected him and nailed him to the cross: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing" (Mt 23:37).
That's our ultimate goal in confronting sin. That's God's goal in confronting OUR sin! He assures us that because Jesus paid the price for our sin and bore our guilt, we're forgiven. He's given us the Keys to his kingdom to announce that very same message to others: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Mt 16:19).
And that's why God has made us his watchmen like Ezekiel. He wants us to warn the wicked to repent and then to reassure the repentant of his forgiveness. The result will be lives saved--not from tornados and other earthly disasters, but from eternal condemnation for eternal life in heaven through faith in Jesus! Amen.
Ezekiel 33:7-11
We Are God's Watchmen
1. To warn the wicked to repent.
2. To reassure the repentant of forgiveness.
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me.
8 When I say to the wicked, ‘You wicked person, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.
9 But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved.
10 “Son of man, say to the Israelites, ‘This is what you are saying: “Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of[b] them. How then can we live?”’
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD" — and you forgave the guilt of my sin (Ps 32:3-5).
11 Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Mt 16:19).