It has happened again.
Again?
Yes, again—and again—and again. It is a constant refrain (or dirge) through all the history of humanity: “Why didn’t I listen? Why did I go on? Why?”
It began with Adam and Eve. Warned (by God Himself) of the dire consequences of eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they yielded to Satan’s tempting, and what a bitter harvest of evil the whole world has reaped from that disobedience!
From those days until now, human nature has not changed. In the days of Noah “the earth was filled with violence.” (Our time is little different!) God saw that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth,” and the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.”
That could almost have been today’s newspaper! Recently there were floods in India-floods that were also predicted. There were warnings, plenty of them, and on the night before the storm broke the police went out with megaphones. They walked among the little thatch-built houses and warned people to take shelter from the coming storm in the sturdy school buildings.
Amor Maharana was one who admitted that he spurned the advice. There had been other warnings that had come to nothing; it was hard to believe that anything would happen this time. But “the water hit us with such a rush and swept us all away. I grabbed on to a chunk of road, and my two oldest children grabbed on to me.” But his wife and four youngest children? “I saw with my own eyes how they were taken away by the water. I searched for three days-they are gone forever.”
He is not alone. Many, many other hearts are very heavy there; many, many cannot stop thinking: “If we had only listened to the warnings!” The death toll is unknown.
Of course, it is tempting to think that is way over there in India, halfway around the world. We would not be so foolish. We have all the latest technology, the very best warning systems. But one thing has not changed: human nature. The most accurate forecast is worthless in the face of unbelief. The best technology cannot save the person who says: “We’ve heard all that before-they’re just crying, ‘Wolf, wolf!’ again, and we know better.”
Witness the Florida Panhandle last summer. With red flags flying, even (as in India) policemen with megaphones walking the beach, even a helicopter hovering overhead and broadcasting warnings about dangerous riptides, it was not enough.
The combination of white sand, blue sky and water was too tempting. How could anything go wrong on a day like this? It could, and did, go wrong. Tragically wrong. Swimmers and non-swimmers continued to play in the water. The beach patrol was further frustrated by those who would leave the water when warned, but go right back in when the patrol went to another area.
One woman, swimming with her four children, said, “We saw the flags, but we just ignored them.” She added, “And I’m sad to say that!”
The death toll: 24—and counting. They just wouldn’t believe.
If they could only realize that it is only the patience and mercy of God that has permitted this sinful old world to go on so long. He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
This “day of grace” in which we live will certainly come to an end. Judging by the many warning signs in the world around us, it could be very, very soon—perhaps today!