The church is the object of God’s constant watch. ‘I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.’[1] Whatever the peculiar situation of the modern church, whatever the form or nature of its trials, the enemy is one. Heresies may damage its purity and persecution thin its ranks, but the foe that sows the one and kindles the other is the devil. Visible malice against the sons of God is evident, but though small and often weak, we are refreshed by God’s influence and kept by His power. He promises that ‘when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against Him.’
We can be assured that whatever assault the enemy may encourage, God’s interposition is certain. The promise is true to those who falter. “He will keep the feet of His saints.2 To help against this continual opposition, God has set in the church watchmen, men who can see and seek out the mingled seed within the fields of Zion.3 They stand unflinching watching for the devil’s devilry.
The Example He Sets.4
He discerns the truth – There is a flood of error sweeping the present church. Many will be side-tracked to issues mortal and mundane. The real spiritual energy that propels the church to action must be preserved at and in all times. The watchman perceives the darkening around the bright circle of revelation. The cancer spots of false doctrine must be cut out with a knife “sharper than any two-edged sword;”5 so many are caught up in a wrangled, tangled web of theological nonsense, putting the cart of mortality before the horse of faith. One cannot travel far through church history without treading on tares subtly sown alongside the wheat. All too evident is the painful discovery that an insidious insertion has been made into the simple sanctity of the faith.
The Watchman is called to set before the souls of men a standard built into the living fabric of the soul, a level of attainment based upon lasting dedication. He is the guardian to stand upon the buttresses of life, to safely keep the trust committed to his care. A sentinel to turn the hosted legions back upon themselves, confusing sin’s disorder by a standard red with blood; to thrust a searching glance through every ordered thing and show the captive sons of love the error of their ways.
When all around is undermined by awful degradation, he takes the lawless rules of men into the code of God and shows the senseless, stubborn heart the perfect way to heaven, seeks for that golden truth that burns sevenfold more brightly as the days grow darker, knowing like old Jacob, who in the eventide of life guided his hands ‘wittingly’6upon the heads of Joseph’s sons.
He Determines the Time – “Watchman, what of the night?” or ‘What time is it?’ It interrogates the Watchman and checks the conception of the situation; for how long has he been waiting? How long is there until the dawn? Every passing moment has brought him closer to a new eternity. He is aware that in the midst of the watch the progression of it. He counts the passing hours in terms of unwrapping a new era. He assesses the hours past in point of time to those which are to come. Sleep has lain heavy on his lids, but he has not slumbered.
The night is a dark unknown and terror awaits; he must be equal to the task. Not to him does Jesus say, “Could you not watch with me one hour?”7 He knows that the long promises of God are short in heavenly measure, that “they who through faith and patience inherit the promises,”8 clearly he understands that God who can pass 1000 years with the twitching of His eye, can faithfully say “that his salvation is nearer now than when he believed.”9.He is insistent to make every season acceptable that nothing may perish. He cries, “The night is far spent and we are not saved!”10 He has numbered his days that he may apply his heart unto wisdom because man is mortal; only God is “from everlasting to everlasting.”11 He knows that in the gathering gloom it is time to serve the Lord. Like Noah, who in the morning of his life made a boat for the evening of the world, spends his time timely employed, balancing bare necessities against the demands of a stricken world. So should we.
[1] Isaiah 27:3 7 Matthew 26:40
2 Isaiah 2:9 8 Hebrews 6:12
3 Leviticus 19:19 9 Romans 13:11
4 Isaiah 21:11-12 10Romans 13:!2
5 Hebrews 4:12 11 Psalm 41:13
6 Genesis 48:14
