I don’t know why I didn’t think of this when the movie came out, but I heard this verse listening to a lesson today and I forgot how powerful it is. Speaking of ‘watchmen’, Ezekiel 22:30 reads, “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none” This is a direct challenge to all of us today to be Watchmen for our homes, our churches, and our communities. Who will watch the Watchmen? Well, God of course: “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” (2 Ch 16:9)
Back in the day when I was thinking about starting up this blog, I was considering the name Watchman based on the above passage, but also this excerpt from Ezekiel 33:
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, speak to your countrymen and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had taken warning, he would have saved himself. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’
“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. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself. (Ez 33:1-9)
I went with Public Christianity because of the media emphasis on the infamous Value Voter at the time. But I don’t want to get away from the call in these scriptures either. I pray as the eyes of God roam the earth… he finds you and calls you higher.