Ezekiel 33:1-9 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,… The supposition in the text is that it is a time of war and consequently of danger; that therefore the people choose one that lives near the boundary of the kingdom or the province, and appoint him as a watchman, to give the signal at the first approach of the enemy. It is not pressing the figurative very far to say that all the life of man below is a time of spiritual conflict; we are all engaged in a long, a lifelong campaign. The enemy whom we have to fight is strong, subtle, dangerous (see Ephesians 6:12); and it may well be that one here and another there should be chosen as a spiritual "watchman "to observe and to forewarn. I. THE MINISTERIAL FUNCTION. Those who have accepted the post of the Christian minister today are in a very similar position to the Hebrew prophet. It is their province: 1. To keep well in view the movements of their time; to observe with great care the advances which are made on the one band, and the withdrawals and retreats upon the other hand; to note with constant and sleepless vigilance the temper and spirit, the tendency and current, of the time. 2. To understand and to interpret all that is passing, in the light of revealed truth; to distinguish between a change of form and a decadence of life or a departure from Divine truth; to know what attitude should be taken up toward that which is new, and which approaches the people of God with professions of good will, - whether of welcome or resistance. 3. To utter the voice of truth, which is (or should be) the voice of Christ, with all promptitude, decision, earnestness, unflinching fidelity. II. THE DUTY OF THE INDIVIDUAL CITIZENS. This is very clear; it is to heed and to act. 1. To give earliest heed to the warning that is uttered, to consider well whether it is not true, to have a mind prepared to receive the message. For as the watchman has been "taken" and been "set" by them (ver. 2), and is their chosen guardian, he is entitled to their respect, while to his solemn monition a serious regard is due. 2. To act immediately on conviction; to place a distinct distance between themselves and the threatened evil; to keep the insidious theory, the subtle falsehood, the dangerous half-truth well out of their mind; to refuse any entrance to the perilous habit or the tainted practice; or, on the other hand, to welcome the old truth in its new form, render the old service in the new method, as the more suitable and the more excellent way. III. THE LARGE ELEMENT OF MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY. The watchman who sleeps at his post or who fails to arouse his fellow-citizens when the enemy is in sight, is severely condemned (see vers. 6, 8). The spokesman for God who does not "watch for souls as one that must give account," who has no deep feeling of the seriousness of his position, and no abiding sense of the urgency and imperativeness of his duty, is gravely at fault; so also is that watchman (minister) who perceives but who does not speak, or who does not speak quickly, plainly, forcibly in the ears of the people, - he will have an account to give, and a judgment to bear, from which he may well shrink. But there is also - IV. A LARGE REMAINDER OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY. "Every man must bear his own burden" here. No man can devolve it upon his religious teacher. He is only responsible for speaking the truth faithfully; that done, his soul is delivered (see vers. 5, 9). Whether we, as individual men and women, are assimilating Divine truth or are appropriating deadly error; whether we are forming healthy and life-preserving habits, or poisonous and pernicious ones; whether we are moving up the incline of heavenly wisdom and Christian purity, or descending the decline of folly and of wrong; whether we are exerting an elevating and redeeming influence, or a depressing and degrading one, upon our contemporaries and upon those who will succeed us - this must depend very largely indeed on whom we hear, and how we hear. Therefore let the Master say to us, "Take heed how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have [thinketh that he hath]" (Luke 8:18). - C. Parallel Verses KJV: Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, |
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