Watching out for our marketplace

Watching Out for Our Marketplace Ezekiel 3:17 

God uses the word sāpâ to describe a watchman that makes him or her self so aware of all of their circumstances that they are able to gain an advantage over their enemy. It also suggests the ability to lie in wait or to ambush. In a negative way the wicked are said to watch the righteous in order to find an opportunity to slay him (Psalm 37:2), but on the other hand a wise woman looks to (or watches over) her household (Proverb 31:27). Watchmen were commonly employed by rulers of a city to warn against attack or to look out for something or someone (1 Samuel 14:16, 2 Samuel 18:24, 2 Kings 9:17-20) and Ezekiel was appointed as a watchman over the house of Israel so that he could convey God’s warnings to the people.

The role of the watchman is prophetic, he or she is appointed to warn against danger and to alert the inhabitants of a city to the threats they face. God has appointed you as a watchman or woman over your community and marketplace. If you are going to be effective in your task then you must be fully aware of the dangers and threats as well as the requirements God places on the people. What are the threats that face your community or marketplace today? Are there significant moral issues, perhaps hotspots of drug abuse or crime in your neighbourhood? Maybe there are business practices that are unethical or even illegal in your workplace. Are there people you care for whose lives are on a downward spiral due to alcohol, promiscuity, greed or dishonesty? The watchman is to warn against danger and alert the people to the consequences of their action. Ezekiel was told that if he failed to warn the people he was to watch over then he was liable for their lives, but if he faithfully proclaimed God’s message then he was free from any other responsibility toward them even if they refused to listen.

God has appointed you as a watchman or woman. The wise woman in Proverbs 31 diligently took care of her family’s every need; this is the first responsibility of every father or mother. This is how you exercise your role as a watchman. Then you are responsible for your part of the marketplace, the lives of those under your influence are your responsibility. If you don’t warn them of the danger they face, their lives will be held to your account. This is an awesome responsibility – it would be well to pause and think on this for a moment. God has placed you on the wall of your community or workplace to look out for the people and to tell them whatever he has to say. This is why you are there, you are his spokesperson, he is depending on you.

It is not popular to speak out against the moral, social and ethical ills of our community and workplaces; it is much easier to just pray about them. But there comes a time when the watchman does more than pray, he or she also speaks out. If you are to be God’s watchman or woman then you must be prepared to be more than just a quiet witness, certainly there are those who have been clearly given a prophetic gift or office, but all of us are called to watch out for those under our care. The good watchman makes himself aware of the dangers and takes action to warn those at risk, in this way he or she complements the intercessor who brings these needs to God in prayer, but at the same time he or she is urgent in making the threat known.

The battle we face is a spiritual one, it is fought in the heavenly places but its effect is felt right down here on earth. While the intercessor takes up the fight in the heavenlies the watchman prepares the troops for battle on the ground. He or she is informed about the enemy’s strategies and also the weaknesses in the community’s defence. If the watchman is doing his job, then not only will the people in the city be prepared for the attack when it comes, it will be delivered and the enemy defeated

Watching Over the Marketplace

Watching Over the Marketplace Isaiah 62:6-7 

On a number of occasions in the Old Testament God spoke to the people of the need to appoint watchmen. He used three different Hebrew words when describing their role. In Isaiah 62 God describes these watchmen as shamar; this is a word that suggests the need for the watchman to exercise great care over those in their charge. That care involved physical protection but also other aspects of a shepherd's role including nurturing, feeding and nourishing. God claimed that he had appointed watchmen over Jerusalem and he gave them specific instructions. It is not too much of a leap to extend this role to the watchmen he appoints over our city and then perhaps to the marketplaces in which we are engaged.

These watchmen are to never keep silent, not that they are to talk incessantly or to preach ceaselessly, but their responsibility was to pray continually. They were to constantly remind God of the need to re-establish his glory in the city. The watchman was to take no rest for himself and in turn to give God no rest until he did what was asked. The primary responsibility of the watchman is to intercede. The intercessor prevails in prayer, often taking no physical rest, but more accurately never giving up until his or her prayers are answered.

God has appointed watchmen over the communities in which we live, further than that he has appointed them over the market and workplaces in which we are engaged. We are those watchmen and women; we have a responsibility to intercede on behalf of the communities of which we are a part. God commands his watchmen to never give up, but to keep on nagging him, not allowing him rest until he establishes his glory in our cities, workplaces and communities. It is God’s desire that we pray, but this is costly prayer, it requires that we make it a priority, taking no rest until we have what we ask of him.

The watchman prays from a shepherd’s heart, he is concerned for the sheep over which he watches. Some of those sheep are in the fold, but many are not and the shepherd must care for them also. The fold represents all those who have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; they are his sheep and he promises to care for and protect them. But there are many other sheep that are not in the fold, they are the lost sheep and the shepherd will leave those in the fold to go and find them. In your workplace and community there are many lost sheep, many who are outside of your congregation who are lost and in need of a shepherd. As the watchman or woman of your community or workplace it is your responsibility to care for them and bring them into the fold. The first part in fulfilling this responsibility is intercession. Pray continually; don’t give God any rest until he establishes his praise and glory in your marketplace, this is what he commands you to do.

The watchman’s role is a pastoral one; he or she is to care for those in his or her charge as a shepherd would. In other words God has called you to be a pastor of your community, whether that be the place where you live or the marketplace in which you are engaged. Paul told the elders of the church at Ephesus to be on the guard for themselves but also for flock over which the Holy Spirit had made them overseers (Acts 20:28). In this same way you are to shepherd the flock that God has given to you. You are a shepherd and you have a flock to care for. How well do you know thecondition of your flocks? Are you able to intercede on their behalf, asking God to meet specific needs? Do you give yourself no rest, praying continually for God to establish his praise in your workplace or community? This is your responsibility, this is why God has put you where you are so that you can remind him of his plans and purposes and lead those who are in need of a shepherd into the pasture he has provided for them. 

The Welfare of your City

The Welfare of Your City  Jeremiah 29:7 

The significant thing about God’s command to the people to seek the welfare of the city is that the city was part of Babylon – they were expected to seek the benefit of a city which belonged to a pagan nation and ruler! This was the city that God was going to send his people to and they were going to be there for a while. In seeking the welfare of this city the people would find welfare for themselves. God expects us to be a blessing to our city; our presence there should mean welfare for all who live in it. We are to be actively doing things that will bring a benefit and prosperity.

God has placed you in a community, it may be a town or a larger city, but you are not there by accident. He has sent you there so that you can be a blessing to it. In the same way you have been sent to a place of employment for the same reason. Apart from the fact that you will bring welfare to your workplace, there is a more selfish motivation, that is, in its welfare you will find welfare. In other words, as the business grows you will receive the benefit. There are many ways we should be working toward the welfare of our workplace, we should work hard, turn up on time, make sure we are honest all that we do, be polite and courteous to our workmates, employees, customers and suppliers and so on. Above all these things we should pray.

Jeremiah told the people to pray to the lord on behalf of the city that they were sent to. This principle should be extended to your work place; you are to pray on its behalf. But for what should you pray and how do you go about it? The most obvious thing is to pray for the people that you work with or for, then of course are your suppliers and customers. But we can also pray for the business decisions we face and the challenges that will occur in the course of normal operations. We can pray for ‘difficult’ employees and ‘challenging’ customers and when faced with machine breakdowns or supply problems we can pray about those things to. At the end of each day many people like to plan their agenda for the following and write up a ‘to do’ list. I have found that using this list as a prayer list ensures that God is invited to participate in all of the business for that day.

In Revelation 3:20 God declares that he stands at the door of the church knocking, waiting for someone to open the door and invite him in. This is another principle that can be extended to the places in which we work. Jesus wants to gain admission to your workplace, but he needs you to invite him in. If there are other believers in your business that you can join with, then you have the assurance that wherever two or more of you meet together, then Jesus is in your midst. You also know that whatever you ask will be accomplished for you by your father in heaven. Do you pray specifically for the business and workplace issues that you face? Do you expect God to be interested in your success at work? God is in fact interested and he wants you to succeed. He has even promised to assist you in your endeavours, why not invite him into partnership.

Across the world there is a growing network of businessmen and women who have formed a 51% club. This club is merely a loose association of Christians who have determined to make Jesus the managing partner in their business; they give evidence of this by giving 51% of their profits to him as the major shareholder. These funds are used to alleviate systemic poverty throughout their communities. In this way they not only seek the welfare of their company, but their city as well – and God is certainly adding his blessing! This is a conviction that these men and women have come to and is not a rule or obligation imposed on every believer, but there is an obligation for everybody to actively seek the welfare of their city and for most of us this will be best achieved by being successful and growing our businesses. 

Be Involved - Jeremiah 29

The people of Jeremiah’s day were told that they were going to be in exile for some time. Many of them did not want to believe this and there were prophets who were more than happy to tell them that it would not be long before they were returned to their rightful place in the sun. But God condemned those prophets and emphatically declared that the people would remain were they were, under the authority of a pagan ruler until he decided otherwise. There are those today that are so convinced of the nearness of the return of the lord Jesus Christ that they insist we should disengage from the world we are in and live in seclusion, uncontaminated by the world. God’s command to us is the same as it was for the people of Jeremiah’s day. Get involved in your world.

There are specific areas of life that we are to be involved in including society, commerce and community. God commanded the people to build houses and to live in them, they were to plant crops and to eat their produce and they were to marry, have children and even grandchildren. They were expected to get involved at every level of life. In this time in which we wait for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the coming of his kingdom we are to engage in everyday life and be part of the community in which we live.

While we are confident in the return of the Lord, and eagerly anticipate it, knowing that it could happen any time, we are to live as if we could be here for a while. We are to show our commitment to our community by building houses and living in them. Living is not just sleeping the night or having a holiday, it involves doing all those things that comprise normal life: conducting business, recreation, buying and selling and so on. A good member of the community takes responsibility for the place in which they live, they will probably be involved in Neighbourhood Watch, the school P&C, local sport, and will vote in local government elections. Building a house suggests permanency, we are not just passing through – we live here.

Anyone who plants a crop expecting to eat its produce knows that there is time involved. In order to succeed with our produce we will need to buy and sell with other producers. We will want to sell our excess, at a profit, in order to buy what we need and have a little left over. We will have to buy fertilizers, hire equipment and maybe employ labour. In short we will be involved in commerce. While we live in our communities, buying and selling with those that live there, we will also engage in raising families. The fact that we are to expect to be here some time is reflected in that not only should we seek a husband or a wife for ourselves, but also for our children and their children. We are not only to live as families but we are to expect to grow. God told the people of Jeremiah’s day that they were to multiply, right where they were. To grow and not to decrease.

God does not want us to withdraw from our world; he wants us to live in it engaging fully in all its aspects. That includes the places we work and the communities we live in. His expectation is that we will be salt and light and salt is of little value if it remains in the saltshaker. We must be sprinkled throughout our world, having an effect wherever we are and in whatever we do. In the time we are here before the return of the lord Jesus Christ let us commit ourselves to be being valuable members of our community, contributing to their benefit and being a blessing to all those that live there. Look for ways that you can be used by God to bring his peace to your workplace, society and the community of which you are a part, and then expect God to use you for his glory.