We are Watchmen
I have been thinking a lot about this lately. I’m in a Bible study on I John right now, and it’s talking a lot about recognizing false teaching. False teaching is anything that goes against the word of God, and I’m going to stick my neck out here and mention the elephant in the room, so I hope you’ll bear with me: it’s sexual immorality. We have become so accustomed to it, and we are so afraid of stepping on anyone’s toes, that it seems like it’s better to pretend that everything is ok. But it’s not, and every day that goes by is just another day that God has been gracious to us, waiting for us to repent. Yes, we need to repent. From all of it. I only say this because I was here once. I was once caught up in a relationship I had no business being in, and it was keeping me from knowing God. if I can help you NOT make the same mistakes I did, or encourage you to turn from your sin, then I want to do that!
So in Ezekiel 33:7, God is telling Ezekiel that he is to be a watchman for the house of Israel. ‘When you hear a word from my mouth, give them a warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘Wicked one, you will surely die’, but you do not speak out to warn him about his way, that wicked person will die for his iniquity, yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. But if you warn a wicked person to turn from his way and he doesn’t turn from it, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have rescued yourself.’ God goes on to say that he takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked! But rather, that the wicked person should turn from his way and live!
This is just another glimpse into the heart of God…He wants to be with us! All of us! But He had to send His son to die for our sins, and we simply cannot continue in them if we want to live forever with Him. If we persist in our sin, it says that we don’t agree with God. And that is arrogance and causes separation from Him. I John says that it is impossible to say that you love God and still walk in a pattern of sin. If you are hanging on to a sin, either you don’t know God at all or you don’t really love Him. We can’t have both sin and God. That’s where I used to be: hanging on to something that was destroying me. But at just the right time, when I had exhausted all of my own ideas of happiness, God came and got me. Literally! And when we read that ‘it’s His kindness that leads us to repentance’, well, it really does. When God came and got me, He showed me how good my life could be. Not what a sinner I was, but how good I could have it! That’s kindness. And when the scales fell off my eyes, (almost literally), I wanted to know God. I wanted to know what He thinks about everything. And when I started to look around at His creation, in wonder and amazement at how cool it all is, I realized something else.
God makes beautiful things. And if the world we live in is this beautiful, even though our sin has impacted it, then what will the next world be like? Even more beautiful. Unimaginable. And He tells us that He has good plans for us. Suddenly I started to believe that. And that led to trust. I trust Him.
So, when I read in Ezekiel that God wanted him to warn people when they were walking in sin, it occurred to me that we need to be doing that too! If God has rescued me from my sin, and He has, because now It see it completely differently. It’s NOT attractive, no: it’s something to run from. But all around me people are committing the same sin. People living together without being married doesn’t seem like a big deal, does it: but God said sex is for marriage between a man and a woman. ‘Do not commit adultery’. That is defined as sex between two people who are not married. And those who are walking with God will care and speak up when they see their brother ‘living in sin’.
Here’s the thing: when my marriage almost ended because of my husband’s addiction and terrible choices made by both of us, God came and redeemed it. After a time of separation, our marriage was restored and my husband was healed. But that was just the outward result: what happened on the inside was repentance, turning from sin, and finding out what it’s like to forgive and renew a marriage. The Holy Spirit poured out in our hearts. Realizing that this marriage could be restored and become even better than it was before. And I now have a relationship with God that is more alive than it ever was before. It’s worth it! if you really want to see your life improve, get rid of the sin that you know is wrong.
God will meet you there and open your eyes too. And you will find yourself wanting to be a watchman, restoring gently those who are trapped and don’t even know it.
‘Have mercy on those who waver; save others by snatching them from the fire, have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.’ Jude 22-25