Ezekiel 33:1-9

The watchman was his city’s alarm. He was vital to his city’s safety. He would be placed upon the top of the city wall or a high hill, and his post was designed to spy out incoming threats. The watchman had an entire city worth of people depending upon his vigilance and faithfulness to his task.

God has called you and me to be watchmen. We are to watch for the souls of men. Our generation needs faithful preachers and fervent soul winners. We need some watchmen who understand that their post is not a menial position, but it is of utmost importance. Your family, your city, and your church need a watchman. Every daddy ought to be a watchman! Every momma ought to be a watchman! Every Husband and each wife ought to be watchmen!

The watchman needed a few attributes to be a success:

  1. The Watchman Needed to be on High Alert!
  2. The Watchman Needed to be on Higher Ground!
  3. The Watchman Needed to Realize the High Stakes!
  4. The Watchman Needed to Understand His High Calling!

Ezekiel 33:7 “So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.”

One of the best examples of a watchman found in American History is the account of Paul Revere during the time of the American Revolution. The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of Revere’s midnight ride. Here are the first two stanzas of Wadsworth’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride.”

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch
Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light,–
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country-folk to be up and to arm.”


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