The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come.” (Isa 21:11 –12)
This first edition is an introduction to this new series of messages. In this series, Dear Saint of God Almighty, we will meditate on this message recorded in the 21st chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah. This series is on a prophetic message from Isaiah on the burden of the watchman on the watchtower. We will, by the grace of God, discover some encouraging and edifying prophetic word for all who have been called by our Father to be watchmen for the house of God this end-time, and for all who have been watching and waiting for a personal visitation of the Lord in their situation. This message is for you, urging you to hold the fort! To remain standing on your watch for “the morning is at hand”.
The night season may look really dark, it may even seem to be getting darker. Remember: “the darkest hour of the night is just before dawn” Be encouraged, therefore, and keep looking, waiting, and watching for the signs of the appearance of the “Morning Star and the Sun of Righteousness” in this last watch before dawn. For“..unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation” and
“unto you, that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings” (Heb 9:28, Mal 4:2)
The Isaiah passage above is easier to understand from the New Century translation, where it is rendered thus:
“This is a message about Dumah: Someone calls to me from Edom,
Watchman, how much of the night is left? Watchman, how much longer will it be night? The watchman answer: ‘Morning is coming, but then the night will come again, If you have something to ask, then come back and ask.’ ”
“This is a message about Dumah: Someone calls to me from Edom,
Watchman, how much of the night is left? Watchman, how much longer will it be night? The watchman answer: ‘Morning is coming, but then the night will come again, If you have something to ask, then come back and ask.’ ”
In the book of Genesis, the Scripture tells us that God spoke light into existence and He saw that it was good. And that God divided between the light and the darkness; called the light, day, and the darkness, He called night. “The evening and the morning were the first day.”
He created the sun (the greater light) to be the ruler of the day and the moon (the lesser light) to rule the night. The light during the day guides every man that walks in the day so that he does not stumble. The evil-doers are exposed by the light of day so they defer their wicked activity for the night under the cover of darkness.
The most critical aspect of a watchman’s assignment is the night watch, especially when everybody else is weary or sleeping. It is clear from the prophecy above that this watchman call was during the night hours. The time at which this prophecy of Isaiah was given is also in God’s order as we’ll see.
At this, the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Dayspring, and the Light of the world was still more than 500yrs to come. The prophet, therefore, knew by the word of the Lord that the morning was still ahead of them. Hence the one watchman shouted…
“Watchman, how much of the night is left, Watchman, how much longer will it be night? And the reply is quite a revelation.
The other watchman prophetically replied:
The Morning is coming ? .. but then after the morning; The night will come again…
The night signifies the absence of the greater Light, for the greater Light is the ruler of the Day, and the Ruler of the Kingdom of Light, while the lesser lights rule the night.
I am sure the Spirit is beginning to quicken your heart to understand this introductory message. For in the natural world, the sun, that big fiery ball in the center of our solar system, is the light source of the day and as such was ordained by God to rule the day. The moon (and the stars), the lesser light rules the night. However, the real ruler of the Day is not the physical sun, but the SUN of Righteousness. He is the Ruler of the Day. The night signifies His absence on earth, but in His absence, His moon and stars reflect His light on the earth, and even in the age to come His righteous ones shall shine forth as the stars in the Kingdom of their Father.
The prophetic word above was given by Isaiah several hundred years before the arrival of the “Bright and Morning Star” and the dialog is highly informative and full of spiritual insight. This gives us a vision of watchmen on the tower, and one shouting from Seir asking for the time, shouting aloud to his fellow watchman saying: Watchman, what of the night? Perhaps, he was getting tiresome or weary of the night. He wanted to know when the long watching and waiting and persevering will come to a sweet end. The other watchman is a son of encouragement, and with the spirit akin to Barnabas the prophet, replied of his comrade: “The morning is coming”; What a prophecy?
And indeed! The morning came. For, some 500+ years after this prophecy, the “Bright Morning Star” came to earth. The Dayspring from on high visited us.
Remember the prophetic song that Zachariah sang at the birth of John the Baptist. The Bible said that on the day that John was born, Zacharias’s ears and mouth were miraculously opened and was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied saying:
“ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, ….Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the Dayspring(or sunrising or rising of light) from on high hath visited us; To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace”
Yes, the morning came just as the watchman said it would.
However, the watchman also said “that after the morning; that the night will come again” For “the watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night:” That morning came at the first appearing of the Lord Jesus on earth when He came and brought light to all that sit in darkness. However, after completing the work that God ordained for Him from the foundation of the earth, He ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of Majesty on High. He left the lesser lights here on the earth to rule the earth. The Church is the light of the world, reflecting the light that she obtains from the source, the Sun of Righteousness.
Beloved, it has been a long night for the watchmen on this side of heaven and we can see many getting weary. Some are a little tired of holding on. Some getting droopy and sleepy why but still holding on to the candle that is yet burning in the thick darkness of the cold lonely night. But we can Him whisper from inside saying “do not be weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if you faint not”. And from without the watchman-prophet replied, with a voice rending the night silence, this most encouraging word, hold the fort for “The Morning Cometh”
Dear watchman, dear Saint, we must keep echoing those encouraging prophecies from that watchman-prophet on the tower in our hearts and mind. This will give us the push to keep awake for the next hour, and the next, and the next, one hour at a time until dawn.
The night may be harsh, dark, cold, and lonely, but Dear Watchman, I admonish you to encourage yourself for “The Morning Cometh”.
The Morning Cometh
In my opinion and from my limited experience and understanding, I believe the work of a watchman, though of vital importance, is probably one of the most tedious tasks ever given to man. Watching and waiting for anything or anyone is a tough job for any mortal. I remember a time in my life on a temporary engineering assignment in a small town in a part of the world where thieves frequently raid at night. The raids were usually random and the inhabitants could never plan a defense because no one knew when or where the thieves would strike. The housing complex had blocks of houses with several apartments per unit and with one or more young men living in each apartment. So the inhabitants agreed to schedule a night watch in which the young men in each apartment will take turns watching over the neighborhood between the hours of 10:00 pm and 6:00 am.
I was a guest of a beloved brother who was also working as an engineer at the time and we both committed to taking our turn to participate in the watch. I had been involved in organizing and leading several all-night prayers before this time and was familiar with night vigils since I started my Christian assignments as a prayer band leader, so I thought the night watch should be a piece of cake, but as I found out later, I was wrong; this one was different.
The duty specified for the night watch in this apartment complex was “simple”
- Stay upstairs on the balcony where you can see far and clearly.. and Watch
- Do all you can to keep awake..and WATCH
- If you see any bandits coming toward the neighborhood. RAISE AN ALARM
It was not the job of the watchman to defend the neighborhood, his job was “simple”; to stay upon his watch, and raise an alarm at the sight of an intruder. He was a trumpet blower.
God our Father was trying to give me an object lesson at the time, though I did not understand the message until much later even though we had been studying the ministry of watchmen in many of our prayer band meetings and night vigils. We will discuss each of the above in greater detail in a later edition. However for now we will limit ourselves to the general overview of the tedious “hours of waiting for the morning” of a watchman upon the wall.
Did I say “hours of waiting for the morning”?… In the night-watch experience mentioned above, those 7 hours looked much like “days of waiting” upon some rugged balcony, on cold, dark, and lonely nights. I wished I had no wristwatch on those nights for it added to the weariness, for it looked like only the second-hand of the watch was moving, the minute hand looked stagnant while the hour hand took a day to move a unit; for so it looked to me. I learned from that experience what it meant to look for the “morning”.
We do not know when our Lord Jesus will return to set up His Kingdom on this earth, which the Bible calls the Day of the Lord, but we do know that the dawning of the Day is upon us. The “night is far spent the day is at hand” (Rom 13:12). The hour is past midnight and the morning is drawing nigh.
The end-time Watchmen set upon the walls by God need to keep watching and seeking for any sign of the appearance of the Son of Man, Who is also the Morning Star and the Sun of Righteousness arising with healing in His wings.
And to you dear ones that are waiting for Him to appear and manifest Himself to you in your situation, believe the word of the prophet, do not be weary; don’t faint; He knows the night watch has been long, frustrating, and wearisome; Take heart, “The morning cometh”.
Speak the words of this prophecy to your situation until faith arises in your heart and until the Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in His wings.