PAY ATTENTION TO THOSE WARNING LIGHTS!!

Today’s vehicles come with countless warning lights. Lights warn of the need to change oil and buckle your seatbelt. Lights warn that the gas tank is low or that your tires need air. Lights can warn that the engine needs to be checked or even that your gas cap is not properly seated. And the problem with most of these lights is that we can drive quite comfortably for miles after they come on with little to no issues. Our behavior does not change even while we drive for miles with the warning lights flashing. There are even times when the crisis the warning lights are warning of have to occur for us to take their warnings seriously…and then it is often too late.

In today’s reading (Ezekiel 33), God appointed Ezekiel a watchman for the house of Israel (Ez. 33:7). Ezekiel was going to get a message from God. It would be a message of warning which, if they heeded, would save their lives but if ignored would destroy them. The Lord also spoke to the shepherds of Israel in chapter 34. He found them feeding off the sheep and not feeding or the flock. He expected His shepherds to seek the lost, bind the hurting, care for, protect and provide rest for the sheep.

Whether you are a shepherd or a sheep, a watchman or one of the people of the land, we all have our God-given roles and responsibilities. The bottom-line for each of us is obedience. The Watchman is to deliver the message and warn the people and the people are to heed that message. The shepherd is to tend the flock and the flock is not to abuse one another (34:17-22). Do not become like the one spoken of in today’s reading from Proverbs, “Though you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with crushed grain, yet his foolishness will not depart from him.” (27:22)