3. Ezekiel 3 : 12, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21
12 Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place.
14 So the spirit lifted me up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me.
16 And it came to pass at the end of seven days, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
17 Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.
19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
21 Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.
With the emphasis given here on watching, I the need to further study this to understand what was being said, both to Ezekiel, and to me. The following two quotes helped:
From the Concise edition of Matthew Henry’s Bible Commentary:
All this was to convince Ezekiel, that the God who sent him had power to bear him out in his work. He was overwhelmed with grief for the sins and miseries of his people, and overpowered by the glory of the vision he had seen. And however retirement, meditation, and communion with God may be sweet, the servant of the Lord must prepare to serve his generation. The Lord told the prophet he had appointed him a watchman to the house of Israel. If we warn the wicked, we are not chargeable with their ruin. Though such passages refer to the national covenant made with Israel, they are equally to be applied to the final state of all men under every dispensation. We are not only to encourage and comfort those who appear to be righteous, but they are to be warned, for many have grown high-minded and secure, have fallen, and even died in their sins. Surely then the hearers of the gospel should desire warnings, and even reproofs.
From The Book of the Twelve Prophets by George Adam Smith, volume 1, page 85:
…this is a stage of prophecy on which may be fulfilled the prayer of Moses: Would to God that all the Lord’s people were prophets! To see the truth and tell it, to be accurate and brave about the moral facts of our day — to this extent the Vision and the Voice are possible for every one of us. Never for us may the doors of heaven open, as they did for him who stood on the threshold of the earthly temple, and he saw the Lord enthroned, while the Seraphim of the Presence sang the glory. Never for us may the skies fill with that tempest of life which Ezekiel beheld from Shinar, and above it the sapphire throne, and on the throne the likeness of a man, the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Yet let us remember that to see facts as they are and to tell the truth about them — this also is prophecy. We may inhabit a sphere which does not prompt the imagination, but is as destitute of the historic and traditional as was the wilderness of Tekoa. All the more may our unglamoured eyes be true to the facts about us.
To be here in Plainfield, learning to see correctly with Christian Science and practitioner instruction, and coming to understand the need to actively stand for Truth has been a real eye-opener for me. To find I have a duty to God to do this work has been surprising, wonderful, and yes, occasionally there’s been bitterness to handle.
And, as God told Ezekiel in verse 5 of this chapter, “thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel.” This all isn’t for nameless, faceless strangers; it is for me, my children, and our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. God knows how to motivate!
Our work as watchmen is apparently to see what mortal mind wants to happen, or says is happening, and then see it does not happen. It seems we do that by giving both a human report (the truth about the lie, so we might feel the danger, as Mrs. Eddy says) and the good report (what specific statements of Truth expose the unreality of these claims, so that it can go about destroying itself).
We have quite a work to do here! Thank you for this lesson, and for the prompt to explore Ezekiel further!