Blood On Our Hands

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic, commanded by Captain Edward J. Smith, set sail. On April 11, 1912, there were seven warning messages sent about icebergs on the Titanic’s course. These messages were noted but not heeded. The Titanic then hit an iceberg, and by 2:18 a.m. on April 15, 1912, the Titanic submerged into the murky water and sank to her final resting-place.(1)

Many people died that night that shouldn’t have. The ship builders boasted that the Titanic was unsinkable. They said that not even God Himself could sink the ship, so there were not enough lifeboats placed on board, and as a result many lives were lost. The shipbuilders were responsible for the deaths of numerous people. We might say they failed to provide people with a “lifesaver.”

Similar to how the shipbuilders failed to take seriously the possibility of the Titanic sinking, Christians sometimes fail to take seriously the fact that the lost may not live another day, and therefore they neglect to tell people about the “lifesaver” Jesus Christ.

The captain was also responsible for the ship sinking because he failed to heed the warning calls sent out to him. He was not only responsible for the deaths of the passengers, but for his own death as well. Non-Christians, similar to this captain, are responsible for their own death when they fail to heed the warning call sent out by believers.

This evening we are going to learn about responsibility in both receiving and sharing the gospel message of salvation in Jesus Christ. Non-Christians who hear the gospel, but fail to obey will be responsible for their own deaths; and Christians who actually know the gospel and do not share it with the lost will be responsible for causing many people to die a spiritual death.

We Are Responsible for Our Actions (vv. 1-5)

1 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, 3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life’.”

In this passage Ezekiel had been taken captive by the Babylonians, and he was reflecting back on how he had warned the inhabitants of Jerusalem that their destruction was eminent if they failed to follow the ways of God.

This passage was based on the strategic defense of that day. The defense system consisted of a large wall, sometimes a double wall, several feet thick. The wall was made with very large stones, and tall towers were built at the corners. Watchmen were stationed high in the towers to watch for the approach of enemy forces. Other watchmen walked on top of the wall or were posted at the gates. If an enemy was approaching they were to blow the trumpet to alert the armed troops and call out a warning to the people. If they somehow failed in their responsibility, the city would be overrun and the people would lose their lives. The watchman would pay for his failure with his life.(2)

Ezekiel was reminiscing on his former attempts of warning the people of Jerusalem, and he did so in order to clear his own conscience. He knew that he had been a faithful watchman, and that he had blown the horn of warning. When the Babylonians ransacked Jerusalem, it was because the people had not heeded Ezekiel’s warnings to turn to the Lord. Their blood was on their own hands.

There are some important lessons that we shouldn’t miss in this passage. The first lesson we learn is that we are accountable for our own actions. For example, if we hear the warning that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), then we had better heed that warning and accept the gift of eternal life found in Jesus Christ. If we do not acknowledge the warning then we are going to die for our sins.

Romans 14:11-12 tells us, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.” Each of us will have to answer for the sins we have committed in this life. If we don’t know Jesus Christ as our Savior, who’s going to pay the penalty for our sins? The answer is that we will pay the penalty for sin with our own life. But for those who know Jesus, He paid that penalty for us when He died on the cross, so that we would have eternal life. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, then our blood is no longer on our own hands, but on Jesus’ hands that were nailed to the cross.