Principle: God’s Constant Warnings: The Watchman-Prophet

Text: Ezekiel 33

Context: Like the rest of Ezekiel’s book, chapter 33 is a series of prophetic warnings to a stubborn and rebellious people. But here is where I want to focus for today: God has not left himself without abundant warnings about judgments to come. He raised up this prophet (Ezekiel) to speak, preach, teach, act out in dramatic and symbolic fashion (God even took the life of Ezekiel’s wife), etc. for one formidable purpose–to warn of God’s coming judgment.

The chapter begins,

33 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, ³ and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, ⁴ then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. ⁵ He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. ⁶ But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.

Verse 7 again says God has “made [Ezekiel] a watchman.”

Verse 10 commands Ezekiel to warn the people.

Verse 12 commands Ezekiel to preach to the people.

In verses 23-33, God commands Ezekiel to pronounce God’s judgment upon the people for their repeated refusals of God, and recounts God’s calling to them through the voice of his prophets like Ezekiel and Jeremiah.

And verse 33 sill rings in my ears each time I read it: “When this comes–and come it will!–then they will know that a prophet has been among them (Ez 33:33, ESV).

I don’t know how such clarity does not shatter people’s recalcitrance.

Takeaway: No one can protest, “I didn’t know. God never showed me his will. I had no idea of judgment or sin.” Every mouth is stopped before the holiness of God. We all are stopped short of any defense; we are all Adams in the garden, fleeing God’s holy eyes.

And yet God seeks to reclaim sinners. It is a marvelous work of pure grace that God would save anyone. And yet he does. SDG.