26 May 2005 Devotion for Today "Rothenburg" Ezekiel 3:16-19

26 May 2005  Devotion for Today  “Rothenburg”  Ezekiel 3:16-19

 

As I read this passage of Scripture from Ezekiel I am reminded of the many trips to the medieval city of Rothenburg-ob-Tauber in Germany.  It was about 90 minutes from our home in Hanau, and each time we would have guests we would take them there.  This beautiful, picturesque town still had its ancient walls, fachwerk timbered town houses, and cobblestone squares and streets.  It was not difficult to imagine what life had been like in the Middle Ages.  Its many watchtowers still stood sentinel throughout the city.  Most memorable, however, to me was the old glockenspiel clock on the Rathaus (city hall) which not only told time, but told the story of the time when, back in the Thirty Years War of the early seventeenth century, General Tilly, the commander of the Emperor’s troops, laid siege and eventually captured the city.  He commanded that the city be burned to the ground.  The Burgermeister did not want his city to fall to the sword, and pleaded with the general to spare the city.  General Tilly commanded a huge fass (drinking vessel) comparable to about five gallons of beer be brought to the Burgermeister to drink.  If he successfully drank that volume of beer, the city would be spared.  The Burgermeister promptly accepted the challenge, and drank the contents of the fass in about an hour.  Then he passed out unconscious.  But his action spared the city and it remains to this day because of his faithfulness to watch over his citizens and not to surrender his city to destruction.

            Please read now these words from Ezekiel, the prophet:

                ¹⁶Now it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹⁷"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: ¹⁸When I say to the wicked, "You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. ¹⁹Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.”  Ezekiel 3:16-19

 

Ezekiel is called by God to be a watchman.  A watchman is not only someone standing in a watchtower or on night guard duty.  He is standing ready to give his life, if necessary, and to be alert to signal when danger or when the enemy approaches.   Too many so-called “watchmen” are all too willing to switch sides when they see the enemy at the gates.  The Great Wall of China is a testimony not to the engineering skill of the ancient Chinese as it is a symbol of the treachery of the human heart- for the Mongols conquered China by bribing the ones who stood watch on the wall.  Ezekiel was not that kind of watchman.  He was to warn his people even when the message was not popular.  He was to warn them of God’s judgment when they were unwilling to listen.  He was told however that even if the people would not listen, that his soul would be delivered because he had done what God wanted him to do.

 

To be the kind of watchman that God called Ezekiel to be was no easy task.  Thousands of God’s servants are on the wall right now, crying out the danger that you may be in if you do not heed the message.  Don’t condemn them for it.  Don’t shun them or withhold your fellowship from them.  They need your love and support, but they will do their job nonetheless.  Pray for them that they do not fall asleep on the wall, so that they will be faithful to pray for you.   Do this and you will have a blessed day.

 

 

Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Salem Baptist Church
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@earthlink.net

 

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