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The
Lightstand Magazine
1987
• March • Reflections on the way
by Bro. Robin Lamplough
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I
have two dogs, father and son, fox terriers. I bought the
first after a
housebreaker had shone his torch into my face to make sure
I was
still asleep. The older terrier is an excellent watchdog.
No alien foot
can cross the fenceline without his giving notice of it. His
alarm
bark is quite distinct from his everyday conversational yap
and
means that something needs to be investigated. He does his
duty
reliably and conscientiously.
A FAILURE His son, however, who joined the team a few years
later, is a conspicuous failure. It is not that he is over-friendly
to strangers. He is not the sort of dog portrayed in some
cartoons as holding a burglar's torch for him. He simply barks
too much. Nervous and insecure, he gives tongue at the slightest
provocation, and one has no way of telling if the cause is
an emergency or a change in wind direction. One reacts to
him according to one's temperament. One is either kept perpetually
on edge or one learns to ignore him completely. He fulfils
no useful purpose whatever. We would be better off without
him.
In the Old Testament world, every community had its watchmen.
They fulfilled a vital role, either on the tower or walking
through the streets of the city. They needed to be alert,
to be concerned, to be ready to sound the alarm. They had
a responsibility to and for the whole community and if they
took it lightly the community was at risk. Using this comparison,
God warned the prophet Ezekiel that he had a special role
as a watchman in spiritual matters. This sober teaching emphasised
the importance of the watchman's task. If Ezekiel sounded
the alarm and his fellow countrymen paid no heed, he had done
his duty. But
if he failed to give that warning, he was directly responsible
for those who perished.
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OUR
DUTY Pondering these things, we conclude that in our age the watchman's
mantle has fallen upon us. We have a responsibility, both individually
and collectively, to warn our contemporaries of God's approaching
judgements. And if we fail to do this, their blood will be upon
our heads. So we speak in private and we lecture in public and we
distribute leaflets and booklets and set up telephone answering
machines, partly to proclaim the good news and partly to warn of
the sword which is coming upon this generation.
But the watchman had internal responsibilities also. So we warn
and exhort one another as we see the day approaching. Some of us
are better watchmen than others. Some are more concerned, more vigilant,
more perceptive than their brethren. Every ecclesia has reason to
be thankful for the brother or sister who is quick to perceive a
danger and to sound the alarm. It is not always a role which is
appreciated by the majority at the time.
A DANGER There is a danger, however, in having ecclesial watchmen
who are too quick to sound the alarm. If they fail to distinguish
between the important and the trivial; if they fail to study a development
calmly before reacting to it, they become a liability and not an
asset: because in those who heed them they will create a mood of
constant anxiety which hampers their spiritual progress; and in
others they will develop the attitude encountered by the boy in
the
fable who cried "Wolf!" once too often. And in neither
case will
God's cause be served nor His name glorified.
R.L.
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