The Watchman's Terrible Duty Text: Ezekiel 33:1-9
Introduction: The Treason of the Trumpet
We live in an age of clerical malpractice. The modern pulpit is awash in therapeutic deism, positive thinking, and a desperate desire not to offend anyone, particularly the wealthy donors in the third pew. The pastor has been reimagined as a CEO, a life coach, or a dispenser of religious goods and services. But God has not called men to be chaplains to the sinking Titanic. He has called them to be watchmen on the wall, and the sea is full of enemy ships.
This passage from Ezekiel is a bucket of ice water to the face of a sleepy, comfortable, and compromised church. It is about the non-negotiable, life-and-death responsibility of the messenger of God. And it is equally about the responsibility of those who hear the message. This is not a game. This is not about building your brand or having a successful ministry in the eyes of the world. This is about bloodguilt. God establishes a principle here that is as simple as it is terrifying: when judgment is coming, silence is treason. A silent watchman is a murderer.
We have an entire class of professional ministers who believe their primary job is to make the goats feel comfortable among the sheep. They have traded the trumpet of warning for the flute of entertainment. They speak of God's love as though it were a sentimental indulgence, completely detached from His holiness and His wrath. They refuse to name sin, they refuse to warn the wicked, and they refuse to apply the sharp edges of God's law to the specific rebellions of our time. And God says to them, and to us, that He will hold them accountable. Their silence does not save the wicked, it only condemns the watchman. This passage is God's great indictment against the cowardly pastor and the deaf parishioner.
So as we come to this text, we must ask two questions. First, for those who are called to speak, are we blowing a certain sound on the trumpet? And second, for all of us who hear, when the trumpet sounds, do we take warning?
The Text
And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, "Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, 'If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have escaped with his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman's hand.'
"Now as for you, son of man, I have given you as a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a word from My mouth and give them warning from Me. When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. But as for you, if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life."
(Ezekiel 33:1-9 LSB)
The Civic Logic of Responsibility (vv. 1-6)
God begins not with a mystical vision, but with a simple, common-sense illustration from civic life. This is basic municipal management.
"...If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman..." (Ezekiel 33:2 LSB)
Notice first that God is sovereign over the disaster. "If I bring a sword upon a land." God is not a passive observer of history. He is the Lord of it. He brings judgment. He sends the Babylonians. He sends plagues. He sends economic collapse. The sword is His instrument. This is the necessary starting point. If you believe God is just a cosmic cheerleader, wringing His hands in heaven, then the watchman's warning is just friendly advice. But if you know that God is the one who brings the sword, the warning has teeth.
The people's response to this reality is to appoint a watchman. This is a reasonable and prudent act. His job is twofold: see the sword, and blow the trumpet. He is a lookout. He is not the army. He is not the general. He is the man with the eyes and the horn.
Verses 4 and 5 lay out the responsibility of the hearer. If the watchman does his job, if he blows the trumpet and the people are warned, and some fellow down in the marketplace decides it's probably just a car backfiring and goes about his business, his death is a suicide. "His blood will be on his own head." He cannot blame the watchman. He cannot blame the government. He cannot blame God. He heard the warning and he ignored it. This is the doctrine of personal responsibility in its rawest form. God has created a world where choices matter, and the choice to ignore a clear warning is a fatal one.
But verse 6 turns the tables. Here we see the responsibility of the watchman.
"But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned... he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman's hand." (Ezekiel 33:6 LSB)
This is crucial. The person who dies still dies "in his iniquity." The absence of a warning does not make a sinner righteous. He is still accountable for his own sin. But now there is a second guilty party. The watchman, through his negligence and his cowardly silence, has become an accessory to murder. God will hold him accountable. The blood of the slain is on his hands. This should cause every man who stands behind a pulpit to tremble. If you see the sword of God's judgment coming for the sins of your people, for the abortion mills, for the sexual chaos, for the rampant statism, and you say nothing, you are not being kind. You are not being pastoral. You are being complicit in their destruction.
The Prophetic Commission (vv. 7-9)
Having established the principle, God now applies it directly to Ezekiel, and by extension, to every minister of His Word.
"Now as for you, son of man, I have given you as a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a word from My mouth and give them warning from Me." (Ezekiel 33:7 LSB)
This is not a job Ezekiel chose. It is a divine commission. "I have given you." The authority of the preacher does not come from a seminary degree, or a denominational committee, or a congregational vote. It comes from God. And the message is not his own. "You will hear a word from My mouth and give them warning from Me." The preacher is a herald. He is a delivery boy. He is not authorized to edit the message, to soften its edges, or to leave out the uncomfortable parts. His task is to faithfully declare, "Thus saith the Lord."
And what is the content of this message? God makes it painfully clear.
"When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand." (Ezekiel 33:8 LSB)
The message is direct and personal. It is not a vague discourse on the problem of evil. It is "O wicked man." It names the condition. And it declares the consequences. "You will surely die." This is the law in all its unvarnished severity. This is the trumpet blast. To refuse to deliver this message is to incur bloodguilt.
But then comes the glorious liberation for the faithful watchman in verse 9. If you warn the wicked man, if you tell him to turn from his way, and he refuses, he still dies in his iniquity, "but you have delivered your life." Our responsibility is faithfulness, not results. We are called to plant and water, but God gives the increase. We are called to blow the trumpet, not to determine who heeds the warning. The pastor who is obsessed with numbers, with success, with the approval of men, will inevitably begin to tamper with the message. But the pastor who fears God more than man is set free to simply be faithful, to deliver the mail, and to leave the results to the sovereign Lord of the harvest.
The Ultimate Watchman
This entire paradigm finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the great Watchman who saw the sword of God's perfect wrath coming for our sin. And He did more than blow a trumpet. He stood on the wall, in the breach, and took the full force of that sword in our place. He warned of judgment more clearly and more terrifyingly than any prophet. He spoke of hell, of weeping and gnashing of teeth. He was the faithful watchman.
But He was also the sacrifice that the warning was about. The gospel is the trumpet blast that declares two things simultaneously. It declares, "The sword is coming! You will surely die in your iniquity!" And it declares, "But the Watchman has taken the sword for you! Flee to Him and you will escape with your life!"
This is the message entrusted to the church. And so the commission of Ezekiel is our commission. To the ministers of the Word, God is asking if you have blood on your hands. Have you been silent about the sexual perversion that is devouring our culture? Have you been silent about the idolatry of the state? Have you been silent about the sin of bitterness and unforgiveness that poisons your own congregation? If so, you must repent, lest God require the blood of your people from your hand.
And to everyone here, when the trumpet sounds from this pulpit, what is your response? Do you harden your heart? Do you dismiss the warning as too political, too harsh, too unloving? Or do you take warning? Do you repent of your sin and flee to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ? He is the only safe place to hide when the sword of God's judgment finally falls. The trumpet is sounding even now. Heed the warning, and you will deliver your life.