The Watchman Speaks: A Meditation on Ezekiel 33 for the 3rd Sunday in Lent

Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them,

When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land

take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman:

 If when he seeth the sword come upon the land,

he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; 

Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning;

if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.

He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning;

his blood shall be upon him.

But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet,

and the people be not warned; if the sword come,

and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity;

but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.

 

 So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel;

therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.

When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die;

if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way,

that wicked man shall die in his iniquity;

but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it;

if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity;

but thou hast delivered thy soul.

Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel;

Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us,

and we pine away in them, how should we then live?

Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God,

I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked;

but that the wicked turn from his way and live:

turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways;

for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

 

Ezekiel was a Prophet called to speak God’s Word of faith and repentance to the people of Israel before the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians.  In chapter 33, God outlined the duty to which He had called Ezekiel, and declared to him that as a divinely appointed Watchman of Israel who was given to see the calamity which lay ahead due to the nation’s sin, any failure to speak the Word of God to the people would be laid squarely upon the prophet.  In this case, the call to faith and repentance was universal for the nation; those who repented would live, and those who did not would die in their sins.  The righteous judgment of God was coming upon the people, and the people would still bear their own guilt if they persisted in their evil, but the Watchman could only deliver his own soul by faithfully proclaiming the Word he was given.  600 years later when the Incarnate Word of God came to the same rebuilt Jerusalem, Jesus spoke similar words of faith and repentance that evoked a similar response.  Just as much of the nation ignored Ezekiel’s Word from God before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, so did many ignore Jesus’ Word before the Romans came and laid it waste again.

 

While Jesus fulfilled the work of the Prophets that came before Him and is now seated at the right hand of the Father until the end of days, He left His Word and Spirit among His people to enliven, enlighten, and sustain them until His return.  This is the Word which He spoke from the beginning, traced through antiquity to Moses, David, Elijah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Nehemiah, and into the Apostolic Age in which the New Testament was written.  This Word of Law and Gospel, of Repentance and Faith, continues to call all people into restored community with God their Creator, from the largest of nations to the humblest of individuals.  That Word of Life continues to call all people to turn from their evil, and receive the grace of forgiveness and salvation which comes only through the Vicarious Atonement of Jesus Christ.  And while we may not have prophets like Ezekiel walking among us today, the Eternal Word still calls Watchmen to declare that Word to the world, even as the various seasons of providence and judgment come upon the nations of the earth.

 

These Watchmen we call pastors in many of our fellowships today:  those who are called and ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament for the care of souls.  And while not everyone will listen to the Word which pastors are given to speak from Holy Scripture, the Watchman is not measured by the response of the people, but by their own faithfulness to the Word.  If the pastor knows by the Word of God that failure to repent of particular evils will bring destruction upon those who reject Jesus and His Word, and that pastor fails to speak the warnings of the Word to those souls, those people will die in their sins—but the blood of those people God will require from the Watchman.  If the pastor speaks the Word of Law and Gospel and the people reject it anyway, they will still die in their sins, but the pastor’s soul will be preserved.  Given the cavalier levity and apostasy which runs rampant in pastoral circles today, we all need to hear this warning from Almighty God, knowing that we will be held accountable for every word we have declared or kept hidden.

 

In a similar way this is also true of every Christian, according to the duties of their respective vocations.  Where we have received the Word of God as fathers and mothers, workers and business people, citizens and servants of our communities, we are also accountable for that Word we are given for the sake of others.  Those who have received the Word of the Lord are responsible for bearing witness of that Word to others, because God has declared that He takes no pleasure in the destruction of any person, but desires all people to be saved.  God has given His Word, His Only Begotten Son, to be the true and faithful Watchman of His people, so that He might work through His people to call every soul away from sin and perdition, and into the grace of His everlasting life.  Every soul stands on the precipice of eternal life or eternal judgment, with the only hope of mankind to be found in the Eternal Word of Jesus Christ.  No matter our walk in life, no matter our nationality or tribe or tongue, it is the Word of the Lord which endures forever, and only in Him is eternal life to be found.

 

Thus we also know, that it is not upon the merits of our earthly watchmen that our hope resides, but only upon the Word of the true and good Watchman, Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus who has been speaking the Word of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit from before the dawn of Creation, and it is He who will keep speaking that Word of life unto ages of ages.  In Jesus alone do we find our hope, our calling away from the works of darkness, and into the light of His righteousness, beauty, and virtue.  In Jesus alone we find forgiveness for our failure to faithfully and at all times bear witness to Him and His Word, even as we are called to rise up again in faith and repentance by that same Word.  Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes to you today, that you might believe in Him, turn from death to life, rising up in His love and grace so that His Eternal Word may shine through you forevermore.  Amen.