“The word of the LORD came to me: “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, and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 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. 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.” -Ezekiel 33:1-5, ESV God raised up the prophet Ezekiel to be his voice among the people of Israel as a watchman who would warn them of the coming judgment of the Lord. Conquered by the Babylonians, many Jews were exiled to Babylon, but others stayed in the land. God had sent judgment on the Israelites because of their continuous rebellion and disobedience towards him and his Word. The watchman on the wall was God’s instrument of grace toward the people who remained in the land.
The Watchman and God’s Grace
The entire context of this passage hinges on the phrase, “If I bring the sword upon a land.” The watchman is really a picture of the grace of God, this is God’s warning of his coming judgment. If the watchman blows the trumpet but the people do not heed the warning, their blood is on their own heads because they did not take the warning seriously. “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.” -Ezekiel 33:6
The Call to Salvation
Fellow pastors, we are God’s watchmen, called to blow the trumpet in warning of the coming judgment of God upon our land. The wrath of God is being stored up to be poured out on all who do not heed the warning of the watchman and flee into the salvation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. -Romans 1:18 We cannot make them heed the warning when we preach the gospel and the whole counsel of God’s Word. If they do not repent and believe their blood is on their own heads. But if we fail to communicate the seriousness and urgency of this message their blood is on us—and remember we will be judged more strictly as teachers, preachers, and pastors (See James 3:1).
Warning of Judgment
Blow the trumpet loudly and clearly because while some will ignore it others will hear the glorious sound of the call to repentance, heed the warning, and call on the name of the Lord who will judge the living and the dead, and instead of experiencing God’s judgment, they will be saved! We must remember that our proclamation of the coming wrath and judgment of God is the grace of God. If there was no coming judgment, then there would be no need for salvation. “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” -Romans 10:13 Most of the time when you preach biblical truth in love you will be called judgmental. But don’t mistake a warning for judgment—judgment is what comes to those who do not heed the warning. We are God’s servants, administrators of God’s grace, proclaimers of God’s salvation, and watchmen who blow the trumpet in warning of God’s judgment.