Is your watchman asleep?

 This week's verses are Isaiah 56:9-12:

All you wild animals in the fields, come and devour,
all you wild animals in the forest!
All their watchmen are blind,
they are unaware.
All of them are like mute dogs,
unable to bark.
They pant, lie down,
and love to snooze.
The dogs have big appetites;
they are never full.
They are shepherds who have no understanding;
they all go their own way,
each one looking for monetary gain.
Each one says,
‘Come on, I’ll get some wine!
Let’s guzzle some beer!
Tomorrow will be just like today!
We’ll have everything we want!’

 

In these verses, God is berating Israel for not being alert, for focusing on themselves and just following their whims. The people in Isaiah's day were plagued with selfish attitudes. They had no awareness. No foresight. No drive. They just lived in the moment and thought about themselves.

It's easy to rush through verses like these because we don't live in the ancient Middle East. We go to church. Our cities don't have watchtowers. The whole concept of a shepherd is foreign to us. The message Isaiah is delivering is clearly not addressed to us. But what if it was?

People sometimes look at verses in the Bible as being not only historical but also allegorical. When they talk about rebuilding Jerusalem's wall in Ezra, for instance, we can also hear a message about rebuilding our holiness. The "wall" for us is the separation between the things of God's kingdom and the things which run wild outside of it, things which prowl around with ulterior motives. So, what if we read these verses in Isaiah as if God was talking to us about our own "watchmen?"

I was talking with some friends of mine the other day, and we all talked about how hard it is to not get swept away by things in our lives. Every one of us that week had let our guard down, lowered our standards, or just settled down to be self-absorbed and selfish. Why do we talk about letting our "guard" down? Does our guard actually guard anymore? Or is it like the watchmen in the verses? Are our watchmen blind? Are our guard dogs unable to bark?

Pant, lie down, dream. Isn't that our life in 2022? We look to feed ourselves, but our appetites are never satisfied. Do we ever decide that we've got all we need and just stop looking for more? Or do we just want just another 10%? One more thing. The next vacation. A new series. Another podcast. A new restaurant. Isaiah talks about alcohol and wine, but we could just as easily talk about entertainment and comfort. We have thousands of recreational choices now where Isaiah's people only had booze and hookers.

The self-absorbed blinded guard says "Tomorrow will be just like today." But will it? Will we always have this many opportunities? Unlimited abundant food? Newer and better and cheaper entertainment every year? Clean water, readily-available medical supplies, and so on? When we are caught in the moment, we think every moment will be like this, good or bad, and we start getting complacent. But that's a trap.

We have a territory to defend. Our guards have a responsibility. We have to keep our eyes open, not just to our physical surroundings, but to our spiritual and temporal surroundings too. Is something a bad influence or a danger to our relationship with God? Is something harmless now not going to be so harmless in a few months or years?

But just like in Isaiah's time, we're prosperous. Prosperous people don't have to think about the future. They have money or government for that. Prosperous people don't really have to worry about the present either. Wild animals no longer attack. Global grain supplies somehow always find their way to the region with the most money.

I was talking with another friend of mine recently and he was concerned about his prosperity. "Life is good. I have a great wife. Great kids. Everyone's healthy. My job is great. I have money. And I'm about to take a three week vacation someplace nice. I don't struggle with anything. What am I supposed to ask God's help with in a world without danger or disappointment?" We all kind of laughed, but he had a point. When things get too warm and comfortable, we're in serious danger of falling asleep.

In the end, God sends the wild animals after Israel in their complacency. What would the wild animals be for us? What would it take to wake us up? What would it take to make our lives revolve around more than the weekend, or the sports season, or what's on TV? Can we wake up while life is good? Or are we in danger of getting dragged off?

Ask yourself if your watchmen are awake. Is your life too comfortable? What drives your priorities? What would it take to wake that part of you up before it's too late?