Post 101 / The Next Language
August 2, 2022
Watchman
Ezek 33:6 KJV – “But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.”
Last week I was asked to address a group of people charged with facilitating the translation of the Word into their respective languages. These were on the margins of their Islamic communities charged with enormous responsibility for communicating God’s Word on the one hand and living as community members on the other. I likened their situation to the Watchman on the wall who has perspective and responsibilities going both directions – outward and inward.
Before the day of electronic and remote communication the watchman on the wall and the runners were vital to the security of a city. The watchman was responsible for both bad news and good news. How far down the road the watchman could see from his high vantage point would determine how much advance warning the news would allow.
The sobering part of this instruction from the prophet is that, from God’s perspective, the watchman on the wall was held responsible for the accuracy and timeliness of communication and any consequent damages from withholding it. That should be alarming to those who think they can guiltlessly and passively slide through this life with no liability whatsoever for what happens to their family or their neighbor. (And who our neighbor is in our current global village is very different from what it used to be — but that is a topic for a different day.)
This is a caution to the recordists who think they can guiltlessly hold recordings for months (and in some cases years) without processing and ingesting and publishing for the people to hear. That would certainly represent a watchman who has the news (good or bad) but does not blow the trumpet.
The more I thought about it I realized that this message is not just for those involved in cross cultural Bible translation. All of us who belong to Christ and are students of the Word already have a lot of insight into the future. We have both Good News and bad news. If we consciously withhold that news from those who are affected we certainly run the risk of having blood on our hands. This is especially true for those over whom we have direct responsibility.
God Bless,
Larry DeVilbiss | Executive Director
Global Recordings Network USA
If you are interested in learning how to share links on social media that will promote use of our recordings and the Gospel in general, please contact RolandHeck@GlobalRecordings.Net