Wakeup Call

 

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

After seven days the Lord gave me a message.  He said, “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel.  Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately.  If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins.  And I will hold you responsible for their deaths.  If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins.  But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me.  “If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die.  And if you do not warn them, they will die in their sins.  None of their righteous acts will be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths.  But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.”                Ezekiel 3:16-21

I’m not sure there is anything quite so annoying as the sound of an alarm clock at 5am.  It interrupts dreams, starts the dog barking, and pumps that early morning awareness that the workday beckons, and I’m still tired.  It’s a disturbance of the peace, and I’m not comfortable with that.

Ezekiel was Israel’s early morning alarm clock, the watchman for God’s signal that there was work to do, righteousness that was failing, responsibilities ignored, and the devil to pay for defying God’s holiness.  Ezekiel’s voice may have been the most annoying, irksome, and interfering sound they could hear.  But alarms are not supposed to be comfortable…you don’t want to sleep through it! 

It's impossible to read any of the prophets and not get a little uncomfortable, that is, if you’ve got an ounce of sense in your body.  The message is always disconcerting, particularly for those who have been either fighting God, or trying to ignore Him.  The duty of a prophet/watchman is to be a harbinger of judgment.  Most people don’t want to hear that; they’d rather concentrate on taking that vacation to Disney.  But judgment is at the end of things, just as surely as that sign-then-drive contract at the car dealership means you’ll be paying big time at the end of the month. 

Scripture warns of such, both death, and God’s judgment following death:

And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, Hebrews 9:27

For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.  2 Corinthians 5:10

But the sound of voices like Ezekiel, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and all the others, can also be reassuring.  The reminder of judgment also signals the lovingkindness of God, His forgiveness just waiting for us to return to Him.  As a promise, this rates better than five-stars on a hotel at Disney or the Riviera – it’s a pathway right to the throne room in Heaven.

For You Today

The next time your pastor preaches on either judgment or Heaven, remember that BOTH are always present.  If you want one, and not the other, the choice is always available.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©