Ezekiel 33:7-9 So you, O son of man, I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear the word at my mouth… I. THE TRUE WATCHMAN'S VISION OF HIS OWN WORK. He sees — 1. It entails great responsibility on himself. Failure of duty here is nothing less than "blood guiltiness." 2. It involves the greatest results to his hearers. 3. It utters the emotions of God. 4. It proclaims both the hope and the method of men's improvement. The hope is in God; the method is from God. The hope is in His call and promise of love; the method is in penitence, "pine" for sins; return; pardon, "none of his sins shall be mentioned"; rectitude, "doing righteousness." II. THE TRUE WATCHMAN'S VISION OF THE CONDUCT OF OTHERS. He is emphatically the seer. For he not only has to gaze steadily, reverently, intelligently at the truth of God he has to reveal to men, he has to look bravely, fixedly, tenderly at the condition and character of men. The old English watchman, to whom the care of our streets by night was formerly entrusted, often uttered in his hourly cry of "All right" what was indeed a sorrowful satire. For under the pall of night what concealed felons, what secret assassins, were plotting their cruelty and wrong! No such misleading watchman must be ours. In his vision of the conduct of others the true watchman sees — 1. The gross sins of many of them. 2. The hypocrisy of many more. The cloak of the hypocrite's profession, the words of flattery that trifle with himself, fail to mislead the true preacher. (Urijah R. Thomas.) Parallel Verses KJV: So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. |
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