By Billy Keller

I’m sure many of you have heard the phrase, “Do not leave your post!” This often refers to a specific duty or responsibility for which a person is accountable.

Marriage, parenting, employment, along with many others, are commonly looked upon as areas in our lives we should stand with strong conviction, never to relinquish our duties and responsibilities.

However, as important as these are, there is a greater area of concern that not only affects us individually, but it affects us as a nation and as the Body of Christ.

This is the need for spiritual “watchmen.”

The Old Testament was written for a further understanding of our salvation in Christ. From its pages, we are given examples which admonish us to avoid sin and to live faithfully with our God.

The admonition to hear and obey the word of God was given to Israel by the prophets. God likened the work of Israel’s prophets to that of watchmen; stationed upon the wall of a city, watching and warning of approaching danger.

The use of the watchman has since been the Lord’s method as he seeks to bring man to repentance and a right relationship. This was true during the days of the patriarchs, in the appointment of Moses as lawgiver to Israel, in the time of the judges of Israel and during the reign of kings in Israel, as God called prophets to preach to the people judgment and deliverance.

It is the preaching of the Word of God which brings about repentance and delivers souls from the bondage of sin and death.

Watchmen have been given the charge to warn, and the people have had the obligation to heed their voice. When they have refused, God’s judgment has been the result. When they have taken heed of the voice of God, he has blessed them.

That pattern in no way changed in the New Testament.

John the Baptist was given a word by God, preaching “Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2). The ultimate example of this is the sending of our Lord himself to establish his covenant, as described by the Hebrew writer, “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

After the Lord left the earth, he sent the Comforter (the Holy Spirit), to guide the Apostles into “all truth.”

It was part of God’s divine plan in establishing his kingdom to equip the church to be watchmen. Our purpose, as always, is to instruct and admonish with a word “given” by the Lord.

Being a watchman is a necessary and commendable work.

Our world today needs God-fearing, truth-loving, soul-loving Christians on the walls of Zion, watching and warning men and women of the dangers of sin and the importance of living faithfully in Christ.

Billy Keller is the Pastor of Trinity Church of God. You can contact him at pastorbilly1@bellsouth.net