In all honesty I had never heard of the “watchmen” until I listened to (Right)WingNut Glenn Beck this morning. They’re a biblical thing out of the book of Ezekiel, and he thinks he might be one, which is why he’s hammering the “expose the extremist Muslim agenda” gig so hard these days.

Here’s what it says

“And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, speak to the sons of your people and say to them,

‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning; his blood will be on himself. But had he taken warning, he would have delivered his life.

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

“Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth and give them warning from Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your life. ” Ezekiel 33:1-9

(emphasis mine)

It’s one of those things that if you tried to make it up people wouldn’t believe ya, but Beck seems to sincerely believe that he may well be one of the biblical watchmen noted in the book of Ezekiel. His rational is that he sees the threat that others do not, and then there is, of course, being called a friend of Israel by former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a result of his “Exposed: The Extremist Agenda” [unbalanced] special that aired (and continues to air) on CNN - both of which contribute to his responsibility to spread the word.

Given his sincerity I fully expect, as a regular listener of the program, a very [very] long stream of “the end is near, the Muslims are coming, the end is neigh, the Muslims are coming”, with a couple of “repent oh yea of little faith” tossed in for good measure; at least until either the end doesn’t come, Beck comes to the conclusion that he’s not a messenger from God, or the realization hits him that he’s been taking himself too….. any one of which could take a very [very] long time.