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.