Day 222- Ezekiel #3

• The focal point for today’s passages are the words in Ezekiel 33, which reprise those found in the first passage. Today’s New Testament linking passage are helpful in putting the message of the Old Testament passages into practice.
• What’s the job of a watchman, in the image given by God in Ezekiel 33? Ezekiel was given this job in a very specific way, but you might like to think how it applies to all people who know God.
• According to Ezekiel 33:1-9, what happens to people who don’t listen to the watchman when he warns them about their sin? Will the watchman be held accountable for the actions of the people who don’t listen to him?
• What about the other way round? If the watchman fails to do his job, and doesn’t warn the people about God’s anger, who is then held accountable when the people don’t turn away from their sin?
• Ezekiel might have been given the role to speak to the exiles, but as Christians, these verses should challenge us too. Why, do you think?
• How are you doing at being a “watchman” for Jesus? When you consider, and pray about, your own sin, do you ask for forgiveness for the times when you have purposefully chosen not to tell people about Jesus?
• Ezekiel 33:11 is a famous, and encouraging verse. What does it, and the passage around it, help us to remember about how God treats people (righteous or not) who turn away from their sin and back to God?
• Paul, who is described in the passage in Acts, may well be considering the words of Ezekiel when he said the words in 20:25-27. He is considering himself free from blame for the times when the people he preached to turned away or ignored him. Why? Look at verse 27 especially. Was Paul a good watchman?

A watchman needs to know about the dangers to look out for, and warn the people. Imagine if the watchman struggled with any of the following:

– he (or she) didn’t know what to look out for
– he didn’t care about his job
– he didn’t think it was important to tell people when he saw something wrong, or left it too late
– he was distracted with something else
– or he fell asleep!

He would lose their job pretty quickly, wouldn’t he! Imagine your day to day job, for which you earned your wages, was to be a watchman for God. How do you think you’d do? Would you…

– know the dangers for those who put their trust in things other than Jesus?
– care about your job of sharing the gospel?
– keep this good news to yourself?
– get distracted by temptations around you?
– give up and go to bed instead?

I bet we’ve done all those things, haven’t we? I think I’d get the sack pretty quickly if my boss was checking out my abilities and successes in being a good watchman for God.

Awesomely, God won’t sack us, even if we fail. We should keep on working though! God gives us chance after chance to be a good watchman for Him, so we should never think our job of being a watchman for God has finished. Each time God forgives us for our failures is another chance to get up again and man the watchtower.

What are you waiting for then? Battle stations!