The Watchman

The Watchman

Titanic

Convocation of Virginia and North Carolina Clergy

St. Jude’s Anglican Church, Richmond, Virginia

March 11, 2017

Old Testament: Ezekiel 33:1-9

Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, 3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’

7 “So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. 8 When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 9 Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

At 10:20 PM, April 14, 1912, the British ship Californian found herself in a large ice field in the North Atlantic. Captain Stanley Lord decided to stop the ship for the night. At 11:00 the radio operator sent out a message to a ship 10 miles away, “We are stopped and surrounded by ice.” The radio operator on the other ship, who was busy sending a backlog of private messages, was irritated because the message from the Californian blocked the message he was in the process of sending. He radioed back, “Shut up!” Forty-five minutes later the Titanic hit an iceberg. Captain Edward Smith quickly knew the gravity of the damage and ordered the lifeboats loaded and launched. He also ordered the crew to fire distress rockets. Eight of these were seen by the Californian, but captain Lord ignored them. At 2:20 AM the Titanic sank with the loss of 1503 lives. Warnings sent; warnings ignored.

Illustration. We read this morning from Ezekiel 33 the Lord’s call to Ezekiel to be as a watchman for Israel. The LORD began with a parable. Suppose the Lord sends a sword against the land where his people live. They would appoint a watchman and give him a trumpet to blow to warn the people when he saw the approaching sword. There are two possibilities of what the watchman may do: (1) He blows the trumpet. If he blows the trumpet, there are two possibilities of what the people may do: (a) Some may hear and heed the warning and save their lives. (b) Others may hear the warning, and ignore it. They will die, but it will not be the fault of the watchman. They heard but did not heed the warning. (2) The other possibility for the watchman is that he does not blow his trumpet. In this case, the sword will kill the people. Since the LORD would not send a sword against his people without cause, those who die will die because of their sins, but the watchman will not be guiltless. The people’s blood will be on his hands, because he did not blow the warning trumpet.

Interpretation.  So that Ezekiel will have no doubt, the Lord explains the parable:

“So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul (33:7-9).

Ezekiel is the watchman for Israel. If the Lord tells him to warn the wicked they will surely die, and Ezekiel says nothing, the wicked will die because they are wicked, but their blood will be on Ezekiel’s hands. But, if Ezekiel gives the warning, and the wicked do not repent, they will die because of their sins, but there will be no guilt on Ezekiel’s soul.

Application. So what?

1. We are all appointed watchmen in the church of Jesus Christ. That is not all we are, but it is an important part of our commission.

St Paul reminded the Colossians: “Christ we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom.” When St. Paul met with the presbyters of the church at Ephesus he charged then to watch over the congregation citing his own example:  “Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears” (Acts 20:31) He charged Timothy, “Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2).

When we were made or received as Presbyters the Bishop exhorted us “in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye have in remembrance, into how high a dignity, and to how weighty an Office and charge ye are called: that is to say, to be messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord; to teach, and to premonish, to feed and provide for the Lord’s family…” We promised with with the help of the Lord that we would be “ready, with all faithful diligence, to banish and drive away from the Church all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God’s Word; and to use both public and private monitions and exhortations…”.

Christ calls to us to be watchmen for the Israel of God. It is a fearful thing, for the eternal welfare of our people depends on our fulfilling our calling.

2. We must sound the trumpet of warning. We have no trumpet to sound except the trumpet the Lord gave Ezekiel: “you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me.” Where shall we hear a word from God’s mouth? Nowhere, except the Holy Scriptures. St. Paul says to us as he said to Timothy: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God (the minister) may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

Bishops also reminded us: “...that ye cannot by any other means compass the doing of so weighty a work, pertaining to the salvation of man, but with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the Holy Scriptures…” When we go into our pulpits it must be with a word from the Lord. We can faithfully sound the trumpet of warning to turn our people from sin to the Lord only as we say all but nothing more than what we are convinced from Holy Scripture the Lord says to his people.  

3. We will be found faithful or unfaithful watchmen. We can warn clearly, solemnly, winsomely, but we do not control the way people will respond to our warnings. They may hear and repent. They may hear and harden their hearts. But they must hear. The basis on which we will be judged at watchmen is not how eloquently we have warned or how people have responded to our warnings, but whether we have warned. St. Paul said to the Ephesian presbyters, “...I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:26,27).

May our Lord so overcome our many sins and weaknesses that our consciences testify that we are innocent of the blood of those the Lord has entrusted to our care. And may he so bless our ministries as watchmen of his flock that our people may continually repent oftheir sins and turn in faith to our Lord Jesus Christ.