Ezekiel 33:7

In the picture of a watchman, God sets Ezekiel to warn the house of Israel. If anyone ignored the sound of the trumpet, their blood would be on their own head. If the watchman did not blow the trumpet, his own blood would pay the penalty.

Notice first that men might appoint a watchman for themselves, and normally would. But the prophet is not appointed by the people. God appoints him on their behalf. If there were no word from Him, the people would still be accountable. Yet God had provided a watchman for those too careless and indifferent to look after their own interests, even the most serious ones. How this would still increase the guilt of those who refused the Voice that spoke to them!

He was to deliver God's word, "not in words taught by human wisdom," but in the words God had given him to say. Those today whose work is to reason with sinful and lost men "about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment" must not tone down God's truth. They must not shrink from telling a sinful world what lies ahead of it. The sweet story of the gospel — our precious Saviour dying for ruined and guilty man, pardon for rebels, salvation for the lost — is indeed the heart of their testimony, and it must always be given its full place. But they also have to bring God's warnings to the wicked.

From now on, individual responsibility becomes the ruling principle. Even so, as we see, one man is still called and bound to warn many. That was the prophet's place.

God's words come first of all to the prophet himself. He is put in charge as God's watchman for the people. His task is to place every individual soul on his own responsibility before God. And his own responsibility stays the same, whatever the result, or the apparent lack of result... This matters for us at all times. We are so quick to argue from results, and results can never be our guide. They cannot come first; they only follow. They cannot touch the question of duty for people who are to walk by faith and not by sight.

The Lord replies, as He had already said again and again, that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. What He wants is that they turn from their wickedness and live. If a man truly turned to Him, none of his past wickedness would be held against him... So there was only one way open. God still pleaded, as He had been pleading, that they turn from their evil ways and live. Why would they die? Their death was of their own choosing, not His.

It is God's way to sound the trumpet before He draws His sword... Before God destroyed the earth by water, He sounded the warning trumpet through Noah. In our own time, before the last blow falls, His trumpet sounds out in the gospel call. Will you not take notice of it, and seek salvation while you may?