Made a Watchman

A watchman on an ancient city wall had a simple job. He stood up there in the dark and watched the road. He made no decisions. When something moved on the road, he shouted. After the shout, everything belonged to other people: they decided whether the city woke, whether the gates were shut, and whether anybody believed him.

That is the job God gives Ezekiel: "Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me." First he hears, and then he warns. The message is not his to make up, and the words "from me" carry the weight of the whole verse.

Then come the terms, and they are heavier than the job looks. If he keeps quiet and the wicked man dies, God says, "his blood will I require at thine hand." But if he warns him and the man refuses to turn, "he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul." So the watchman answers for the shout and for nothing else, and that cuts both ways. It will not let him stay silent, and it will not let him carry the blame for a city that would not listen. The result he wants most was never his to produce.

Look at where Ezekiel had been sitting a week before: "Then I came to them of the captivity at Telabib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days." The wall he is given stands over a camp he lives in. He is one of the captives himself, placed where God lets him see.

So the watchman's job is smaller than we fear and weightier than we think. If God gives you a word for someone, your part is to hear it from Him and say it plainly. What they do with it is between them and God, and so is the outcome. You can rest in that, because the God who posts the watchman on the wall cares about the city more than the watchman ever could.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 110 is Eyes and Ears Open (Psalm 34:15).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two