Surprises are not fun.
A number of years ago, a young mother was traveling with her children between Fort Worth and Dallas along what then was a toll road connecting the two cities. The speed limit was 70 and the traffic was steady at closer to 80.
Keeping pace with the other cars around her, a loud noise startled her, and then the steering wheel jerked sideways. Grabbing it with both hands, she manhandled her large station wagon to the shoulder of the road.
She’d had a blowout at nearly 80 mph. She breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God for keeping his hand on her and her children.
Surprises are not fun, not ones that bring about calamities. We appreciate warnings of ill things to come, like that label on the side of the cigarette package: You smoke, and you die. That is a very loose paraphrase, but the point is made. A speed limit sign is there for a purpose. Bad dog? We know better than to cross the fence. Bridge out? Ho, ho! We all turn and go the other way.
Why, then, do we have such a hard time heeding God’s fair warnings?
Matthew 24:1-51 includes this passage on the Mount of Olives.
“See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray.”
Romans 3:23 raises a loud and clear alarm.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Then in 6:23, just to make sure we get the message, we read:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
How can we miss this? God is spelling out what will happen and how to avoid the calamity. He even tells us how to oil the cogs to keep our new life running smoothly. We read of it in John 13:34:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
Would that young mother have done things differently if a warning had been taped to her bathroom mirror that morning? One saying, perhaps, Your tire is bad, and you will have a blowout on the way to Dallas. Make other plans.
Certainly. Her first stop would have been the tire shop to get a new tire.
What do we do when we read the warnings in the Bible? Do we start up the engine and speed away heedless of the consequences? Or do we delay our plans for a bit to fix the very thing that God has pointed out to us?
He’s given us fair warning. It’s up to us to heed his words.
When we pay attention to God’s Word, we will arrive at our destination safe and sound.
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