5/4 Life

His Watchmen are Blind
(ISAIAH 56:9-12)
 
Pause & Reflect
 
9 All you beasts of the field, come to devour--
    all you beasts in the forest.

 

1. [v.9] *Biblical principle – BLIND WATCHMEN DEPART HIS FLOCK – who become open prey for the beasts: While God’s flock are devoured as the beast’s prey, are we walking away? Just as Jesus could not stand still and watch any longer while His Father’s house of prayer became a den of robbers, are we standing still or even walking away while God’s flock continually become open pray for the demonic beasts of the world? These beasts will not only devour God’s flock, but also their unfaithful watchmen who should have guarded them from the open field of danger. The beasts are invited to come devour, commissioned by the prophet Isaiah himself, especially these watchmen, as a sign of God’s unrelenting wrath against those who lead His sheep astray or fail to keep them to account. Instead of searching, rescuing, and protecting the sheep and His house, they have been idle and fed themselves.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – In what ways are we departing God’s flock – with our presence, with the ministries God has entrusted and called us to do together, with prayerful concern for one another, with forgiveness given and received from each other, etc. – how are we walking away instead of walking into fellowship with Jesus, with His people and aligned to His mission? As a result, in what ways do we live like beasts of the field, devouring everyone in our way and everything in the world apart from the Lord?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – Define “beasts of the field… beasts in the forest” – the demonic influences of the world sourced in the head devil – Satan (the beast of REVELATION 21). What devouring and demonic influences lead us away from the LORD?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – Have you experienced a time when someone who should have been responsible to watch over you failed to do so, even departing you? Have you experienced a time when you should have been responsible to watch over someone, but failed to do so, even departing them? How can Jesus – our faithful watchmen, our good shepherd – speak into both failures and heal us?
   4. *FOCUS QUESTION #4 – How can we stop devouring and start devoting? How can we stop devouring (one another and the world)? How can we start devoting ourselves to Jesus and to one another?

 
10 His watchmen are blind;
    they are all without knowledge;
they are all silent dogs;
    they cannot bark,
dreaming, lying down,
    loving to slumber.
11 The dogs have a mighty appetite;
    they never have enough.
But they are shepherds who have no understanding;
    they have all turned to their own way,
    each to his own gain, one and all.

 

1. [v.10-11] *Biblical principle – BLIND WATCHMEN NEGLECT HIS FLOCK – without proper warning: While warnings of danger need to be sounded to God’s flock, are we staying silent? When we live like beasts instead of God’s image-bearing humans, there is no sense of godly responsibility. We live with mighty appetites for our own gain, without any understanding or knowledge of our God-given responsibility and purpose to grow into faithful watchmen of His house (His church), that is His flock (His people), whom He purchased by the shed blood of His Son. Instead, we live in negligence of God’s purposes, like blind watchmen, like dogs who are silent and cannot bark when danger is at hand, loving to slumber. Also like dogs, our hunger is set on a mighty appetite of anything on the table (or under the table) of the world – what never satisfies but what we can never get enough of.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – The apostle Peter warns us, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 PETER 5:8). How are we neglecting God’s warnings in His Word as false alarms? How would a lion, a serpent, or a beast (all representations of the devil in Scripture) in our midst seeking someone to devour, bite, and tear us apart change the way we live today?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – What warnings from God (ex. His coming judgment, His call to repentance, His call to forgiveness, His second coming) are we staying silent about and “loving to slumber” about?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – Watchmen warned of approaching danger, signaled entrance into battle, and sounded victory with their hollowed ram’s horn called the shofar. Being called as a watchman required a sense of great responsibility and stewardship to sound the horn at the appropriate time out of a sacred trust from God to care for His people. In our families, God has entrusted us to be watchmen over our children at home. When is a time you sounded the horn (shofar) of alarm in times of danger and the sound of triumph in times of celebration? Are we doing the same for God’s flock in His house? Are we not as responsible for His house as we are for our own homes?
   4. *FOCUS QUESTION #4 – In the world, joy is found “each to his own gain.” Yet in Christ, it is found each to his own loss. Joy in Jesus is found in (J)esus first, (O)thers second, (Y)ourself last. How can we be watchmen who understand this kind of joy from Jesus today?

 
12 “Come,” they say, “let me get wine;
    let us fill ourselves with strong drink;
and tomorrow will be like this day,
    great beyond measure.”

 

1. [v.12] *Biblical principle – BLIND WATCHMEN STARVE HIS FLOCK – by filling themselves: While we fill ourselves with all kinds of influences to satisfy our appetites, is not God’s flock starving? Why are God’s watchmen acting like they are blind, not sounding the alarm as they should – the alarm that the flood of His judgment against all ungodliness is coming, so build the ark as Noah did, get on that ark of Jesus, be rescued by Jesus? It was because they were dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber, and had a mighty appetite to fill themselves with their own gain. Whether it be intoxicating drinks or the hope of an endless tomorrow, the “relax, eat, drink, be merry” (LUKE 12:19) lifestyle of ignorance to the glory of God or the body of Christ’s flock was of no real concern. By filling themselves, they starved His sheep. By filling themselves, they became ignorant of their responsibility before God and His people.
   1. *FOCUS QUESTION #1 – How are you feeding yourself while starving His sheep? How can we starve our flesh to feed His flock?
   2. *FOCUS QUESTION #2 – How can we not live like “tomorrow will be like this day” but rather like tomorrow will be our last day? If tomorrow were our last day, how would we spend it in the way Jesus desires us to?
   3. *FOCUS QUESTION #3 – As the good shepherd that searches for His one lost sheep until He finds it, how is Jesus like a watchman for us (LUKE 15:1-7)? As the father who waits and watches from afar for his prodigal son to return home, how is our heavenly Father like a watchman for us (LUKE 15:11-32)?   
   4. *PRAY THESE SCRIPTURES:
      1. Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. (EZEKIEL 3:17)
      2. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (REVELATION 1:7-8)
      3. Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 PETER 5:7-10)
      4. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. (PSALM 121:4-7)

 
The central truth of this word was –
We are not the blind leading the blind! Jesus has opened the blinded eyes, deaf ears, mute mouth of His flock. He has called us to the post of His watchmen to sound the alarm of His Word – both to warn His people of danger approaching and to bless His people of victory already-achieved in Christ Jesus’ finished work of the cross and through the resurrection. Take this responsibility seriously! Do not forsake His flock, neglect His flock, nor starve His flock! Instead, grow in covenant with His flock. Nourish them, and as Jesus instructed, “Feed my sheep” (JOHN 21:15-17).

– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 
Apply & Be Doers of the Word
 
(1) The JOY that only Jesus can bring: (J)esus first. (O)thers second. (Y)ourself last. Take this joy seriously. Take this responsibility as watchmen over His flock seriously. Live with His joy.
 
(2) Sound the alarm! Do not stay silent about what Scripture warns against. The most loving thing we can do is to keep warning one another – not as enemies but as comrades in Christ – of His commands with all gentleness, compassion, and conviction.
 
(3) Feed His sheep! By feeding them, Jesus is feeding you.
 
 

Holy Spirit Moment & Group Prayer
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray for one another.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)
 
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. (GALATIANS 6:2-5)
 
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (HEBREWS 10:24-25)
 
For the body does not consist of one member but of many... The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 CORINTHIANS 12:14, 21-27)
 
- Park’s (JP, Maria – Julia, Ben, Abe)
- Park’s (Hanna, Jim-Bob – Samuel, Sophie)
- Huh’s (John, Angela – Athena, Eliana)
- Choe’s (Chong, Kate – Stella)
- Park’s (Ben, Hanna – Evelyn, Louie)
- Jeng’s (Jonathan, Nara – Emma)
- Yi’s (Jonathan, Christina – Samuel, James, Ethan)
- Gee’s (Waywah, Gloria – Emilee, Melanie)
- Kim’s (David, Josephine – Elliot, James)
- Lee’s (Andrew, Heather – Amanda [Jake], Kristen)
- Krief’s (Miki, Mr. Krief – Noa, Mya)
- Shin’s (Jay – Ethan, Ivy, Iris)
- Jun’s (Kevin, Sarah – Ellie, Ella)
- Chung’s (Chester, Ashley – Joy, Jonah)