God’s Word is delivered to Ezekiel so that in turn Ezekiel can instruct the son’s of Israel. The instruction relates to haṣ·ṣō·p̄eh, the watcher, and the role of a watcher.
The watcher is to be taken from the people. The role of the watcher is to warn the people when the sword is seen upon the land.
One New Testament related treatment of this role is the evangelist. The evangelist has been profoundly influenced by the good news of God’s love and the pending sword upon all people. I do not say spiritual only as there is an impending sword of fire for the body. The causal field is that of the spirit but the result effects spirit and body. I feel like I am speaking to some watchers. To those, I request you keep the responsibility where God has stated and not in your hands after your have warned. May God give your the grace to let the weight of blood be on the ones to which it belongs.
God appoints the watcher and the watcher will see the sword coming. The watcher does not need to worry that they will not see the sword coming to the land, “he sees the sword coming.” The watcher has two responses when the sword coming is seen. The watcher can fail to warn the people. When the watcher fails to warn the people, “his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.” The “his” refers to the person who perishes due to the watchman failure to warn. When the watcher completes the role and warns the people the responsibility transfers from the watcher and resides back upon the people.
The coming sword is set against wickedness, iniquity, sin, and transgression. The one, who will “die in his iniquity”, is the one who ignores God’s warning. In ignoring the warning “his blood will be on himself.” In the act of warning, the watcher is delivered. because the warning given is toward life. For the message of God is, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.”
It is not complicated to warn someone. Just give the warning, “5 He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life.”
Don’t sufferer the weight of sin of others, but don’t incur that debt by failing to warn. This is spirit and this is life. Your ways, oh God, are Just.
Ezekiel 33:1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, 3and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, 4then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. 5‘He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life. 6‘But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’
7“Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them warning from Me.8“When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. 9“But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life.10“Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus you have spoken, saying, “Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we are rotting away in them; how then can we survive?”’ 11“Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’ 12“And you, son of man, say to your fellow citizens, ‘The righteousness of a righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression, and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he will not stumble because of it in the day when he turns from his wickedness; whereas a righteous man will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day when he commits sin.’ 13“When I say to the righteous he will surely live, and he so trusts in his righteousness that he commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered; but in that same iniquity of his which he has committed he will die. 14“But when I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and he turns from his sin and practices justice and righteousness, 15if a wicked man restores a pledge, pays back what he has taken by robbery, walks by the statutes which ensure life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 16“None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has practiced justice and righteousness; he shall surely live.
17“Yet your fellow citizens say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right,’ when it is their own way that is not right. 18“When the righteous turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, then he shall die in it. 19“But when the wicked turns from his wickedness and practices justice and righteousness, he will live by them. 20“Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”