History’s Watchmen

 By Catherine Ulrich Brakefield

        Ezekiel 33:2 “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….”

“The British are coming…The British are coming!” Colorful examples of watchmen and women are found throughout American history. One is the ride of Paul Revere. Before his famous ride, he devised a way of signaling with two lanterns placed on the old North Church steeple in Boston to alert those on the harbor that the British troops had left Boston and were now crossing the Charles River.

Learning the British planned to move troops out of Boston and to arrest revolutionary leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington, Massachusetts, Revere felt it his patriotic duty to warn them. He waited for the lantern, one by land and two by sea. Seeing one lantern, Revere jumped on his horse.

It was after 10 p.m. On April 18, 1775, Revere set out in the pitch darkness from North Boston with William Dawes to reach Adams and Hancock. The riders met Adams and Hancock in Lexington and prevented their arrest.

Revere and Dawes's midnight ride still needed to be finished. They galloped to Concord, Massachusetts because British troops planned to attack the resistance. A third rider named Samuel Prescott joined them. Israel Bissell and the feisty Sybil Ludington also joined in the midnight ride; Sybil wanted to warn her father about the attack. Revere and Dawes were captured by the British in route.  

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poetic verse about the midnight ride of Paul Revere. Here are a few lines. “A cry of defiance and not of fear, A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door, and a word that shall echo forevermore!”

Revere’s words ring true to this day, “The fate of a nation was riding that night.”

“…when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people…” Ezekiel 33:3

Throughout America's history, watchmen sprung up to warn Americans when this nation’s core beliefs and values were in jeopardy.

This happened when America was forced to its knees in a little town called Gettysburg, PA. on November 19, 1863. In a dedication ceremony, Abraham Lincoln summarized the horrific aftermath of the three-day bloody battle, one of many occurring during the Civil War in one paragraph. “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

Lincoln said at his dedication ceremony that, they “who gave their lives that that nation might live,” dedicated far better than he, adding, “The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicate here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”

As I, through my characters, explain in Swept into Destiny and Destiny’s Whirlwind, there was so much hate between Yankees and Rebels—you could slice it with a knife! Neither side knew the outcome—could North and South unite beneath one flag and forgive their fellow man?

Lincoln may not have been riding a horse when he gave his speech, but he displayed that he and Paul Revere had much in common. Both had the foresight to be a watchman during a perilous time in American history.

Lincoln ended with these immortal words; “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

“…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. 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.” Ezekiel 33:4,5

Churchill was born on November 30, 1874, at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, his mother was an American. During his youth, he was a rebellious and staunchly independent student—and fondly became known as Brit’s British Bulldog. He was an ordinary everyday Paul Revere-type hero. He saw the impending doom of Hitler’s regime and didn’t hesitate to yell out!

"Germany is arming- she is rapidly arming - and no one will stop her." Churchill would bellow from his backbench seat in parliament.

No one took him seriously, but did that stop him? From his speeches, broadcasts, and articles he raised public support for Germany’s rearmament and Britain’s lack of preparedness.

World War 1, or the Great War as people then knew it had widespread social, economic, and political after-shocks for all countries. The victorious powers struggled; however, Germany suffered the most due to the Versailles Treaty. The United States and Great Britain helped stabilize the German economy with massive loans in 1924 and 1929. Then it came—the stock market collapse threw the world’s economies into the Great Depression and plummeted Germany into a spiraling downturn. (See Destiny of Heart or blog dtd. March 16, 2024 blog.)

Then a new leader emerged from the masses. Adolf Hitler established the Nazi Party in 1925. The Great Depression, and mass unemployment, caused Germans to lash out at capitalists, communism, and Jews—which made a perfect breeding ground for Hitler’s propaganda.

    Churchill called the 1934 and 1935 “The Locust Years.” Because time that should have been spent preparing for facing Hitler’s war was eaten up. Churchill saw his government's position as "...decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.”

    In July 1939, a Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed, and Germany was free to attack Poland with Russian cooperation. Then on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish Ambassador called Churchill (not the Prime Minister) with news of the attack.

    

Churchill alerted the war office and made this statement, "This is not a question of fighting for Danzig or fighting for Poland," Churchill declared, "We are fighting to save the whole world from the pestilence of Nazi tyranny and in defense of all that is most sacred to man."

    The rest is history. World War II swept our shoreline, and America’s Big Band Era was hushed by the deafening bombs and stench of death of Pearl Harbor and Europe (See Waltz with Destiny and blog dtd. Aug. 16, 2020).

  

God was and is guiding mankind today through our prayers and undying faith never losing hope! Churchill said it many a time, “If you’re going through hell—keep on going!”

    “But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand” Ezekiel 33:6.

    In 1949 a humble man came down from the mountains of North Carolina. As a youth, he spent the mornings milking cows before going to school. A youth minister in his local church, he walked forward due to a born-again experience. Billy Graham became the most known and celebrated evangelist throughout the world. Here is a paragraph from one of his sermons, entitled, “God’s Warning”.

    “Recently I have been studying the Book of Jeremiah. My heart has been stirred as I sense the burden of this devout, young, sensitive prophet, and read again his fearless warning to a faithless, idolatrous and wayward nation. My tears were mingled with the weeping prophet’s as he pleaded with an apathetic people. My heart ached because I saw a striking parallel between the erring nation of Judah and our own beloved country.”

    Throughout history, the Maker of this universe has provided us with watchmen to warn us of impending doom. Ordinary people with an extraordinary love for God and their fellow man.

    “Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.” Ezekiel 33:9

    As former watchmen and women knew, it’s not about this life, but for our life to come, we fight past egotism to altruism. Let all do their part for the kingdom of God and as watchmen and women to our families, friends, and countrymen, and never give up!

    “If we turn a deaf ear to Almighty God and shut our eyes to the truths of history, disaster is in store for us as it was for them. The only alternative to destruction is repentance.” Billy Graham

    

The Destiny Series; Swept into Destiny, Destiny's Whirlwind, Destiny of Heart, and Waltz with Destiny Get whisked into the lives of the McConnell women in this historical Christian fiction series. Follow these strong women from the days of the Civil War through the epic battle with Hitler. Discover what has inspired readers across the world as these four books are brought together as a set for the first time.

    "The message of the Destiny series is even more applicable to today than when it first released. Praying for America’s repentance and to embrace God like never before." Debra B.

    

Catherine is an award-winning author of the inspirational historical romance Wilted Dandelions, and Destiny Series, Swept into Destiny, Destiny’s Whirlwind, Destiny of Heart, and Waltz with Destiny. Her newest book is the inspirational Amish futuristic romance, Love's Final Sunrise.

https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/paul-revere

https://www.paulreverehouse.org/longfellows-poem/ https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/winston-churchill-and-the-gathering-storm.html

https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.24404500/?st=text https://www.billygraham.ca/stories/billy-graham-gods-warning/