Be ever watchful… but of what?

The Bible has many commands and instructions for us to pay attention to. There is one that I want to bring to the surface for you over the next few minutes. In several key parts of God’s story, he issues the command to His people to be watchful. I want to focus on why this is such a critical order from the Lord, and what it looks like in different contexts.

If we are told we are to be watchful, then it is helpful to know if there is something specific we should be watching for. Is this like when a person over you tells you to “watch yourself”? Are we to be “watching our behavior”?

At times, perhaps.

But in many of the commands to be watchful, God is clearly speaking of something outside of the people he was talking to. Something far off that is coming closer, and the watchfulness of God’s people is tied to them being alert and ready for a person or event that is scheduled to arrive. And if God is saying people should be ready, I think it’s worth figuring out exactly what He is talking about.

Let’s begin with the prophets.

Israel’s watchmen

The image of the watchman is ancient and specific. In the ancient world, a city’s survival could depend on the men standing on the wall at night. His entire job was to keep his eyes on the horizon, spot anything and everything that may be coming, and sound the alarm in time for the city to respond. So you can imagine, a sleeping watchman was about as useless as a smoke detector that waits for the fire to spread before going off. What’s the point? It’s too late, the house is lost.

Ezekiel 3:17 starts with “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.”

God is telling Ezekiel that he is like a watchman on the walls surrounding Israel. He has been given important prophecies for God’s people. He goes on to say that if Ezekiel delivers God’s words, and the people don’t listen, Ezekiel is absolved from all responsibility. It’s not his fault what happens to Israel. If the watchman warned the city of coming danger and they ignored the alarm, the watchman is free.

But, if Ezekiel does not deliver God’s words in the way he is instructed to, then the wicked will die in their iniquity, and “his blood will I require at thine hand”.

If you have spent any time reading the Old Testament prophets, it’s easy to become numb to the dramatic warnings and apocalyptic language that fills their pleadings. But stop and note the seriousness of the language. God is saying the watchman will be judged unto death alongside the wicked if they neglect their duty.

What was this message? What was God trying to get Israel to see?

We learn more in Isaiah.

In Isaiah 62, the future fulfillment of Israel’s promises and kingdom are in view.

“For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.”

The righteousness going forth is Israel established under the rule of Christ, fully embracing her King and Messiah, which was set in stone as their destiny since God called Abram out of Ur. This is their salvation and promise. All the nations will see and recognize their prominence, as it will be unmistakable and a clear divine act of God himself and something he does (not something accomplished by the church today or the powers that be). (Isaiah 60:1–3; Micah 4:1–2; Zechariah 8:23)

“And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.”

As Israel was being told about their coming captivity and eventual destruction, God also looked even further ahead to their future and final restoration. In anticipation of this, God told Isaiah

“I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

So there were watchmen set over Israel with 2 missions: Watch and pray. What were they watching for? The coming Kingdom. The time of the “reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” (Daniel 9:24)

I love this language. God is pretty much asking Israel’s watchmen to pester him and annoy him, like a kid asking their parent over and over in the car “Are we there yet?”, until he fulfills his promise to bring them back to their land.

In this time, God says they will no longer be called forsaken, but a delight. Their land will be reconciled, and the people will be once again married to God. This becomes even more rich when you study Hosea, where Israel is said to enter their Lo-ammi state (Hosea 1:9 — “Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God”; cf. Hosea 2:23 for the promised reversal), meaning they were no longer God’s people. They were effectively divorced from God. He set a covenant with them under Moses in the wilderness, and yet due to their covenant breaking behavior, God divorced them, and removed mercy from them.

Side note: Today in this dispensation of grace revealed first to Paul, we are not a divorced people looking to be remarried to God. The Church, the Body of Christ, is not the bride of Christ. We are a new creature, baptized into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. Israel, on the other hand, was told they were to be divorced by God, scattered from their land and utterly destroyed. Yet in the same breath almost, as is the case with many prophets, God assures them there will be a remnant that recalls the promises of God, believes in the Messiah, and will be regathered to the land. This is not something that is happening today in our age, but it will in the age to come.

All this to say, this is what the watchmen in Israel’s context were watching for: The coming kingdom on earth and the Day of the Lord (Joel 2:1–2; Amos 5:18; Zephaniah 1:14–15)

We are going to come back to Isaiah, but really quickly let’s jump forward to Hebrews to see some parallel language. Hebrews, as we teach, is a letter to, well, the Hebrews. More specifically, it is a letter written to the believing remnant of Israel, scattered from the land, during the tribulation who are awaiting the coming kingdom and the Day of the Lord.

In Hebrews 10:25, we read
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

I have other writings that dive more into the context of Hebrews, but this is an exhortation to the suffering remnant of Israel during the Tribulation to stick to one another, hold fast to their promise, and endure to the end as they are watching that day approaching. Which day? The Day of the Lord when he returns to destroy the wicked nations on earth and establish the kingdom of Israel and the gentiles that believed in the gospel of the kingdom. This is the same day that the watchmen that were placed on the walls in Isaiah 62 are watching for. This will be a terrible day for the enemies of God (including unbelieving Israel), but a glorious day containing salvation for believing remnant Israel and her friends.

“Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.” — Isaiah 62:11-12

This is the day the audience of Hebrews is looking for, if they but hold on and endure to this day.

And so Israel and her leaders were tasked with being watchful and alert. They failed at this miserably.

Isaiah 56 also has Israel’s future salvation and kingdom in view. Isaiah 56:1 speaks of the Lord’s salvation which is “near to come”. He speaks of the house and walls of God which, in this context, is referring to the kingdom of heaven that descends on Jerusalem after he gathers true Israel (John 14:2–3; John 16:16–17; Matthew 24:31; Isaiah 11:11–12; Deuteronomy 30:3–4) and the remnant that endured through the tribulation into the kingdom. “Even them will I bring to my holy mountain” (literally mount zion). This is about Israel being saved in the kingdom after the current dispensation of grace ends.

Then in verse 10-11

“His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.”

Often in Scripture, gentiles are called dogs – and as much as we love dogs in our culture, this is not meant to be an endearing term. Gentiles are outsiders, people without God and without promise. The metaphor of dogs is meant to show them being left outside, not invited to the table. Jesus even uses this term when speaking to the syrophoenician woman who came to him and begged for healing for her daughter. Jesus said he came for Israel, and referred to her as a dog. He wasn’t being “mean” but merely stating the fact that Israel had a place at his table. Astoundably she recognized her place in prophecy and agreed that she was only expecting “scraps” from the table. Jesus was blown away by her knowledge and wisdom and proceeded to bless her. Without going to deep into this right now, she essentially knew that the gentiles would be blessed through the rise of Israel in her future kingdom (Matthew 15:21–28), and she was asking humbly for a piece of fulfillment that day and Jesus lovingly gave her what she asked for.

Once you realize that, it puts much more insult to injury when God refers to Israel herself as dumb dogs. Ouch. Now I know that part of the metaphor is showing that unlike a barking dog, they are quiet when they should be screaming and warning the city, but it still adds more understanding to the seriousness of the Lord’s anger towards them. We are going to talk more about who these sleeping watchmen were in a little bit.

Isaiah 56 says that the sleeping watchmen, the supposed shepherds and leaders of Israel, are judged and destroyed, while those that are faithful to the covenant are gathered in. God is looking for faithfulness. Over and Over again Israel is warned that being the seed of Abraham is not enough, their faithfulness to the covenant and God’s Word is required. Their alertness and readiness to receive their kingdom is intentional and requires covenant obedience. The watchman who sleeps is worse than having no watchman at all. God will have his kingdom, and he will raise up a people out of stones if that is what it takes. He has no need of unfaithful shepherds and will not suffer vipers in his kingdom.

John the Baptist was a watcher, and he was calling out the slumbering watchmen of Israel in his generation.

The watchmen who slept

Matthew 21. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt — exactly as Zechariah 9:9 had prophesied: “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.” The timeline of Daniel’s seventy weeks (Daniel 9:24–27) had been playing out for centuries. All of the signs and prophecies were being fulfilled right in front of Israel’s eyes. But they had not eyes to see. Their leaders were asleep on the city walls, and Israel fell in her iniquity, stumbling over the stumbling block (Isaiah 8:14; Romans 9:32–33).

Luke 19:44 records Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and pronouncing judgment: “because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.” What a devastating verdict Jesus determines over God’s people. The watchmen on the walls were told to give God no rest in Isaiah 62, yet they gave God no attention at all when the King came to Jerusalem. The price? They forfeited the promises of Abraham and fell from the promise (Romans 11:11–12; Matthew 21:43)

Paul takes this up in Romans 9. He is careful to make the point that God has not failed. “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect” (v. 6). The covenant was real and the promises were everlasting. But the nation that was supposed to be watching had made itself blind. A watchman who won’t watch is no watchman. Israel disqualified herself — not by God’s failure, but by her own faithlessness. Romans 9 through 11 is the full explanation of how that happened and what still awaits her.

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The remnant’s commission

When you get to the New Testament letters addressed to Jewish believers in the tribulation period — Hebrews through Revelation— you find the same urgent language. Watch. Endure. Be faithful. The day is coming.

Jesus himself, in the Olivet Discourse of Luke 21, prepares a believing Jewish remnant for what is ahead. “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (v. 36).

Jesus warns them to Watch and pray so that they may be accounted worthy to escape the troubles coming upon the earth - the judgement that is about to be poured out on the world, the abomination of desolation by the Antichrist prophesied in Daniel (Daniel 9:27; Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11). They were warned to take heed so they don’t become like the drunken, slumbering watchmen of Israel’s supposed shepherds and leaders, not forsaking the assembly, not blaspheming the Holy Spirit, so that that Day does not come upon them unawares (Luke 21:35). Jesus wants them to be found a ready, watchful, faithful, fruit producing remnant when the Son of Man comes and calls them to stand before him, on that Day. These are instructions for the believing remnant that will escape the destruction sentenced to unbelieving Israel.

In Matthew 24:15, Jesus tells them to literally watch for an actual event: The abomination of desolation which is when the anti-christ will break his covenant and set himself up as god in the temple to some degree (Daniel 7:24–25; Daniel 11:36–37; 2 Thessalonians 2:3–4). Jesus says when you see this, flee. Here, they better be actually watching for specific signs and events to know what they are supposed to do next. The point? Watchfulness was not unimportant.

Hebrews 4 describes the labor of that watchfulness: “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest.” The rest they’re laboring toward is not a generic spiritual peace. It’s the Millennial rest. The Kingdom rest promised to Abraham. The endurance and the covenant-keeping is the labor. And it isn’t easy. The Hebrews writer quotes Psalm 95 — “harden not your hearts” — as a warning that history could repeat itself. Israel wandered for forty years and never saw the rest. That generation fell in the wilderness. The remnant is being told: don’t be them.

James 5:7-9, Hebrews 10:36-39 both contain similar exhortations: Be patient, the Day is drawing nigh, hold fast, the Lord will not tarry, have hope – He is coming soon. Watch for him.

Revelation 3:3 continues the same message: “If thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief.” The Lord’s return to earth will be like a thief in the night to those that are not watching, but to those that are, they will be expecting it. It will not be a surprise. Revelation 16:15: “Blessed is he that watcheth.” These are not addressed to you and me today. They are addressed to believers under the prophetic program, in the tribulation, for whom watchfulness is literally a matter of whether they are found standing or sleeping when the Son of Man returns.

For them, the Day of the Lord is what they are watching for. And those who are faithful will not be caught off guard

What the Body of Christ watches for

You see now how Israel is to watch for the return of the Messiah on the Day of the Lord, the kingdom of heaven, and the signs of the tribulation.

But if you know our position, you know that we separate the program and destiny of the Body of Christ from the destiny of Israel. However, we too are to be watchful…but of what?

“Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” — 1 Thessalonians 5:6

The Thessalonians had a practical problem: believers in their assembly had died, and they were afraid those saints would miss the coming of the Lord. Paul corrects them with what he calls a mystery — something not previously revealed. The dead in Christ rise first, then the living are caught up together with them. No one misses it.

Then immediately in chapter 5 he addresses the natural follow-up question: what about the timing? His answer is almost casual. “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.” You don’t need a calendar. You don’t need a sign chart. You don’t need to calculate anything. Paul essentially tells them they already know what they need to know.

What they need to know is this: the Day of the Lord — all those prophetic events, all those tribulation judgments, all that watchfulness language directed at Israel — that is not our day. “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 9). The Tribulation and Day of the Lord is a period where the wrath of God that he is currently restraining in his patience and long suffering in this dispensation of grace will be let loose on the earth is not the destiny for those saved by grace. That makes no sense. It’s contradictory.

We are not in the program that ends in the Day of the Lord. Our departure from this world precedes those events. So not only do we not have to worry about the Day of the Lord because of the resurrection reality of those dead in Christ, but because it is not our destiny to begin with. Paul’s new revelation is that the church that he was building by order of the resurrected Lord will be removed before that prophecy begins again with Israel.

Our day is the Day of Christ — the catching away — and it is imminent. That means no signs precede it. Nothing has to happen first. It could be today. It could be a hundred years from now. There’s nothing to watch for, because there’s nothing that signals it’s coming. The tribulation saints watch for signs because the signs are how they navigate. We don’t watch for signs because there are none.

So what does Paul tell us to do? Watch our walk.

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15–16). That word circumspectly is the Greek akribōs — carefully, with exactness. The watchfulness Paul calls us to is not about looking to the horizon for a coming event. It’s about walking in the heavenly position Christ has given us already today. Are you growing in your understanding of sound doctrine? Are you edifying the people around you in the body? Are you redeeming the time — taking advantage of every moment of this dispensation to point people toward heaven?

That’s it. That’s what watchfulness looks like for a member of the Body of Christ.

There’s no prophetic code to break. No blood moons to calculate. No news cycle to cross-reference against Daniel. The moment you start doing that, you’ve picked up Israel’s assignment and put it on yourself which doesn’t fit, because it wasn’t made for you. It wasn’t made for any one today. Israelite, Gentile, American, Pakistanian, it makes no difference today in this dispensation. We all are to follow the gospel of grace as revealed to Paul, not the gospel of the kingdom.

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The ambassador’s job

Paul calls us ambassadors. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).

An ambassador doesn’t spend his time looking for the plane that will take him home. He represents the leader right now, in this country, to every person who walks through his door. His job is to make his home country known. To speak the leader’s message. To be the leader’s presence in a place where the leader is not yet recognized. Once you believe in the gospel of grace and put your faith in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross, your home country becomes heaven, and you are representing Christ to a present evil world right now.

That’s you. That’s the job.

Ephesians 5:14 is the call: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” The irony is that the people spending all their energy watching for prophetic signs are often the ones who’ve fallen asleep to their actual calling. The labor Israel was given was endurance. The labor we’re given is grace — pouring it out, living it, speaking it, every day we have.

We are not guaranteed tomorrow. We are not guaranteed that the catching away happens in the next five years. We were not told. We are, however, guaranteed that we are here right now, sealed by the Spirit, entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, with people around us who have never once heard that Christ died for their sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3–4).

That is the watch. Not a future fulfillment of promises given to our fathers. The people in front of you.

Watch your doctrine. Watch your walk. Watch over one another in the body. Redeem the time. Be faithful with every moment God has given you in this dispensation, because this is the age of grace, and it will not last forever. When it ends, prophecy will resume and the signs will unfold. But that is not our story

You are a watchman. But you’re not standing on a wall looking for the fulfillment of Israel’s kingdom on earth. You’re standing in the middle of your life, looking for everyone you can reach before the trumpet sounds.