The making of a watchman.
Luke 21:36, Watch
therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape
all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of
Man.”
All children of God
are called to be watchmen.
The process to becoming a watchman begins easy. With something
we're all good at and enjoy doing.
Eat.
Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll.3 And He said
to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your
stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my
mouth like honey in sweetness.
Son of man,
(not specifically, “son of Buzi” (his dad) but generally, “Ben Adam” son
of mankind) which includes you if you’re born of a human.
So, this is personal, not only to Ezekiel, but also to
you.
We can say as Ezekiel said:
He said to me.
Eat this scroll that I give you. Don’t miss the powerful
point that God initiated the conversation. He showed up for a visit. He went to
Ezekiel. He comes to you. It’s what He does.
He shows up. He came to Adam and Eve. He came to Noah.
He came to Abraham and Sarah, and even Hagar. He came to Isaac and Jacob and Joshua,
and David and Solomon, and Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and on down the line to
you and me as a Babe in a manger.
He’s the same yesterday today and forever, He still
comes. Whenever we gather, He comes in the middle.
He’s come here and now, wherever you are. Don’t miss
Him, or ignore Him, or take His Presence for granted.
As with Ezekiel, He stretches out His hand with His
Word, (Ez. 2:9).
As with His disciples at the last supper, He says, take
eat, what I give you. Matthew 26:26.
Feed your belly. Fill your
stomach.
In other words, eat what’s set before you.
Clean your plate. Eat what I give you. Don’t search
for chocolate and ice cream, when I give spinach and broccoli.
I know what you need.
I’ve come to you, why do you run from Me?
Why seek sermons that tickle your ears fatten your flesh,
leaving your soul empty and sick with no appetite for the Life giving feast I
prepared for you?
If you eat first the True food I give, you’ll
have no appetite for the deceitful delicacies of the world.
2 Timothy 4:3, Matthew 6:33, Galatians 5:16-17.
He says to all born of man, eat what I
give you.
But then, the command becomes more specific, only for those
born of man and born again.
Those who obey
and feed and fill up on His Word, He sends.
To them He gives the commission:
GO.
4 Then He said to me: “Son of man, go to the house of
Israel and speak with My words to them. 5 For
you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard
language, but to the house of Israel, 6 not
to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you
cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have
listened to you. 7 But the house of Israel will not
listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the
house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted.
Are you born again? If so, you’re called to go.
However, note, the Great Commission is specific.
Only go to those I send you.
Only say what I give you.
Jesus is our example.
He did what His Father told Him to do. John 5:19.
He said what His Father told Him to say.
John 17:9. “I don’t pray for the world, but for those
You’ve given Me.”
John 5:1-15. At the pool of Bethesda, Jesus healed one, out of perhaps 1,000. That man told the religious leaders. So, they sought to kill Jesus, because it was on the Sabbath.
Jesus didn’t say, “Oh Dad why’d we heal that jerk?”
Jesus understood:
“A prophet is not
without honor except in his own country and in his own house.” Matthew 13:57.
Ezekiel was fixin’ to find out.
Go where you’re sent, to whom you’re sent. Leave the
results to God. Only God can discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Don’t chase needs.
Trust God. Plant Seeds.
Their response is not your
responsibility.
8 Behold, I
have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong
against their foreheads. 9 Like adamant stone, harder than
flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be
dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.”
DIVINE PROVISION
He invites all to come to His feast and eat.
To those who come and eat what He gives, He sends.
To those He sends, He equips.
Where God guides, He provides.
He gave Ezekiel a hard head and thick skin for the
rebellious house he was sent to.
God gives grace for the calling.
No superhero can hold a candle to the love and care
and grace we’ve witnessed right here in our family as silver haired saints have
cared for loved ones.
Zechariah 4:6 tells
us it’s not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord.
Psalm 127:1,
Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the
LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.
10 Moreover He
said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words
that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. 11 And
go, get to the captives, to the children of your people,
and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether
they hear, or whether they refuse.”
DIVINE FRUITION
At first, he ate; feed your belly, and fill your
stomach.
Now, He says, receive into your heart.
The Seed has gone from head to heart.
This can only be caught, not taught.
For those who stay the course, the Seed takes root in
your soul and blossoms, bearing fruit.
Now God’s Words are your words.
Now, the people you’re sent to are now, your
people.
This is when Life gets exciting.
You do what you do because you, get to,
not because you got to.
Delight yourself in the Lord and He will
give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4.
Commit your works to the Lord and your
thoughts will be established. Proverbs 16:3.
This leads to Divine intervention, and passion and purpose and clarity of vision.
12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me
a great thunderous voice: “Blessed is the glory of the Lord from
His place!” 13 I also heard the noise
of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of
the wheels beside them, and a great thunderous noise. 14 So
the Spirit lifted me up and took me away...
DIVINE INTERVENTION
The Spirit lifted me up, most
likely means lifting spiritually rather than physically, since it appears he winds
up in the same place as when he started; by the river Chebar.
In our walk to becoming a watchman there will be moments,
His Presence is strong.
Like the song, Heaven came down and glory filled my
soul.
We’ll catch a glimpse, on earth as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10.
However, what we see might not be what we expect.
14...and I went in bitterness,
in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was
strong upon me.
DIVINE PASSION
Like a coach giving an impassioned speech before his
players hit the field. The Lord gets Ezekiel fired up for the mission before him.
A righteous indignation welled up in Ezekiel.
Then, filled with the zeal of the Lord Ezekiel hits his
mission field...
15 Then
I came to the captives at Tel Abib, who dwelt by the River Chebar; and I sat
where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.
DIVINE COMPASSION
EMPATHY
Or... APATHY?
What? Filled with the zeal of the Lord, Ezekiel sat down
like a bump on a log?
Was he overwhelmed by the vision and calling?
Was Ezekiel sitting where they sat, to get to know
them? To show empathy toward them? After all, they were captives.
Was he waiting seven days to reflect the time for
consecrating priests?
Was he sitting from Sabbath to Sabbath?
Some folks say those things, but it’s just conjecture.
When interpreting Scripture context is king. So, let’s
look at context over conjecture.
They’d already been in captivity for five years (since
597BC). So, sitting for seven days now doesn’t seem to make sense.
It’ll be seven years or so before Nebuchadnezzar destroys
Jerusalem (586 BC), so that’s not it.
It’d be another 55 years before Cyrus takes Babylon and
releases the captives (538 BC).
So, what’s Ezekiel doing just sitting there for a week?
Perhaps God is asking the same thing. I filled you
with My Word, calling, and zeal, and now you just sit there in silence? What
are you doing?
What would you do?
You’ve been hanging out with family and friends for
five years, now all of a sudden, God tells you they’re rebellious, impudent,
hard-hearted, hard headed.
And I’m sending
you to tell them.
Oh, and they won’t listen to you, because they won’t
listen to Me.
But go anyway.
That’s probably why God pumped him up full of passion
before turning him loose.
How do you start? Where do you begin?
Instead of standing up and speaking out, he sat down to
ponder and became bewildered.
A simple way to prevent that is to:
Obey right
away.
Now, perhaps because of his passive procrastination
the Lord shows up and spells it out in a way that’d make him take his calling
more seriously.
16 Now
it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came
to me, saying, 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman
for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give
them warning from Me: 18 When I say to the
wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn
the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall
die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 Yet,
if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from
his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered
your soul.
20 “Again, when
a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits
iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you
did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness
which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require
at your hand. 21 Nevertheless if you warn the
righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin,
he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered
your soul.”
DIVINE PURPOSE
If we will eat what God gives, stay the course until it
comes to fruition and we obey right way, God will provide clarity to our Divine
Purpose.
He made it crystal clear to Ezekiel.
A watchman is a serious calling. They sit in towers on
the city wall watching for danger. Be it fire or storm or enemy.
They are the eyes and ears of the city. The first
responders.
The security of the city lay largely on the alertness
of the watchman.
A watchman for the Lord, is the eyes and ears of the Lord,
watching, waking and warning a sleeping people.
Watchmen for the Lord are responsible and accountable in
some degree for another’s eternity.
You are
called to be a watchman.
To
watch, to wake, to warn.
Yes,
you
are your brother’s keeper.
Mark 13:33-37. Take heed, watch and
pray; for you do not know when the time is. It is like a man going to a far
country, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to each his
work, and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.
Watch therefore,
for you do not know when the master of the house is coming—in the evening, at
midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning— lest, coming
suddenly, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all:
Watch!”
The waking of a watchman.
EAT what He gives.
GO to whom He sends you.
SAY what He tells you.
DO what He shows you.
Leave the results to Him.
Stay the course.
Obey right away.
Receive His:
DIVINE PROVISION
DIVINE FRUITION
DIVINE INTERVENTION
DIVINE PASSION
DIVINE PURPOSE
Be a faithful watchman who saves souls and makes
disciples and hears Him say, to you and all those He’s given you, “Well
done.”
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, thank You for showing up, for
coming to us, for being Immanuel, God with us. Please forgive us for ignoring
Your Presence. We don’t want to do that anymore. We want to be Your watchmen,
hearing You, seeing You, watching, waking, warning, those You give us. So we
all, will one Day, hear You say, “Well done.”
We love You, forever.
Amen.
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Ezekiel 3:1-21
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This was feed for you to read. Now it’s
Seed for you to sow.
Thank you for sharing.
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