Heed the Warning!
Be Strong, Be Well — Sunday, September 13
With this tropical storm moving our way, flood warnings have been popping up on my phone. Then our weather radio went off with warnings of flood stages expected to rise, possibly going back to record measurements of 1973.
The radio included warnings about flooded roadways. The computerized voice said, “Turn around. Don’t drown. Over half of all flood-related drownings are people in their cars.”
This made me think of the days of Noah. Not to compare the floods, but to think about the warning system then and now.
Technology is a great thing when it comes to predicting storms so we can take precautions and prepare for them. Before the world-wide flood came, the warning system was the voice of Noah, “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5).
The warnings didn’t last for just a few days. Noah preached for decades, warning the people to repent and turn to God and change their sinful ways (1 Peter 3:20). If they heard the warning once, they may have heard it a thousand times.
Noah warned the people and told them of the impending flood. But they refused to take the warning seriously. Jesus used this history and compared it to final judgment. He said, “And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-27).
We must heed the warnings. Judgment is coming. Every one of us will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to give an account of the things done in this body (Romans 14:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10).
“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (Matthew 25:13). —Chris