The Watchman (Monday) · WorkGlory.com

1Start

Ezekiel was a captive in Babylon, living by a river far from home, when “the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God” (Ezekiel 1:1).

2Read Together

Babylon’s army had carried ten thousand captives away from Jerusalem, along with King Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:14–15). Ezekiel, a priest trained to serve in the temple, lived among those captives (Ezekiel 1:1–3).

Ezekiel 3:1–3 · KJV

¹Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. ²So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll. ³And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.

Ezekiel 3:17 · KJV

¹⁷Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

3What It Teaches

Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord shining like “the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain,” a rainbow (Ezekiel 1:28). He saw it in Babylon, among captives far from the temple. The Lord had come to them where they were.

Then the Lord handed Ezekiel a scroll full of “lamentations, and mourning, and woe” and told him to eat it (Ezekiel 2:9–10). A prophet takes the Lord’s word inside himself before he speaks it. The message was hard, and in his mouth it was still “as honey for sweetness.”

Before he said a word, Ezekiel went to the captives at Tel-abib and “sat where they sat” for seven days (Ezekiel 3:15). He sat with them in their sorrow first. Jesus Christ came closer still. He took our pains and sicknesses upon himself so that he would know how to help us (Alma 7:11–12).

Then the Lord made Ezekiel “a watchman unto the house of Israel” (verse 17). A watchman kept guard over a city and blew a trumpet when he saw an enemy coming (Ezekiel 33:2–6). Prophets see dangers we cannot see yet, and they warn us because the Lord wants to save us.