The Watchmen of a Burning City

We walked through the streets of the Old City, watching the soldiers perched on the walls looking down. I was twelve years old following my parents on my first trip outside the country and we made our way to Israel, the Holy Land. Up and down the country we went, but my eyes couldn't escape those green, camo-colored men sitting high upon walls with guns bigger than me in hand. Watching.

There are still watchmen in Israel today. There have always been watchmen in Israel. High upon the walls they wait for movement. They wait for a sign of something.

Recently I find myself thinking how the scriptures effect me. How some passages move us, some challenge us, or free us. For some its the calmness of Psalm 46, or the comfort of eagle's wings in Psalm 91. Others find the confidence of Romans 5 and 8 to be their rock of stability in times of uncertainty. Some live in the magnificence and startling images of John's dream of the things to come.

For me its the watchmen.
I think it's always been the watchmen.

The prophet Habakkuk stood on the rooftop of his city, looking at the utter destruction and atrocities taking place and he cried out.
Like one sending a signal fire down the line.

How long, O Lord must I call for help,
but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save?
Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous,
so that justice is perverted.
Habakkuk 1:2-4

While their homes and city burns, the prophet, like a watchman, looks to the horizon for the Lord. When will he come? The answer finds the prophet, with the fires of Jerusalem burning around him, destruction in every direction. The end.
The Lord says:

"'Woe to him to piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion!
How long must this go on?' Will not your debtors suddenly arise?
Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their victim.
Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you."
Habakkuk 2:6-8

Judgment has come, and desolation creeps in like the black smoke of an undying fire. We have brought this on ourselves he knows. This is our doing, not His.
But the watchman prophet responds to the rebuke of his God:

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fail and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights."
Habakkuk 3:17-19

A watchman waits, and waits. The sound of those arriving he listens for, and his eyes look back and forth for signs of change in the land. The horrific end of Habakkuk's beloved city was the result of the emptiness of justice in the land. Righteousness hid like sunlight in a forest. What was left when the fire burned were only a few. A few watchmen who kept looking to the hills. They looked to the heights where they knew salvation would come.

The Christian message of Jesus Christ teaches more than just a forgiveness ticket to a celestial heaven. It's more than the hope of escape from this world to a heaven "somewhere, out there". We do not long to abandon this God-forsaken place. Habakkuk longed for its peace. Jeremiah wept for his people. Daniel pleaded and prayed that God would restore it to its former glory, that the reviving of his city would come.

"Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant.
For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary.
Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation
of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you
because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.
O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act!
For your sake, O my God, do not delay,
because your city and your people bear your Name."
Daniel 9:17-19


We wait like watchmen for the call of the king. It comes to the watchmen on the walls, looking out to the hills calling for the Lord their God to act, to move, to rebuild, and bring joy to darkness. The cities of this world are burning. The Church is burning. The pages of the Old and New Testaments tell us of the story time and time again.

To restore something is to bring back what was lost. This world, its cities, its people, lost everything. The work of the kingdom of God is to prevail in bringing all things back. To see the storehouses filled, the olive crops producing, law and justice upheld, and righteousness flowing like a mighty stream.

John's dream ends with the final restoration. The city of peace, the city of God, coming down to this earth! He is the great watchmen of the end seeing all things brought back to the glory of their creation.

Just as Jeremiah saw.
Just as Habakkuk and Isaiah saw.
The answer to Daniels plea.

And so we pray and work to see it. Like watchmen on the walls we long for help to come from the hills. If we store these thoughts in our hearts. If we keep the word of the LORD close to our minds and buried in our souls. If our strength is given to justice in the courts, and righteousness in city squares. If we pray, not because we are righteous, but because of his great mercy. If we call on him to act, to heal, because his city is burning, and this city and its people bear his Name!

John's dream in fact, asks us to climb the city walls to find what we so desperately are looking for. It asks us to see a kingdom coming on the hills where all the colors will bleed into one.* On our knees we plead and pray as Daniel did.

Like watchmen...

"Where are you Lord?"

Come.
For your sake.
For your city.
For your Name.

We are burning.

*U2's "Still Haven't Found what I'm Looking for"