The weather forecast said, “Fair and warm,” but a cold rain is falling and the picnic must be called off. Or perhaps the drought has dragged on and on and everything is dry and dusty. What is the forecast this time? “Up to an inch of rain” is predicted, but not a drop falls on the wilting garden.
The weather forecast was wrong-again! Even with the best of modern technology-instant communications, radar and satellite pictures-the weather forecast too often is only an “educated guess.”
God’s forecasts are not like that. When He said it would not rain on the land of Israel, “it rained not.”
When He said, “I will send rain upon the earth,” the rains came. “The heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain” (1 Kings 18:1,451And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. (1 Kings 18:1)
45And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezreel. (1 Kings 18:45)). His forecasts never fail.
Now He predicts a different storm, the storm of His wrath falling on a wicked world. A terrible, terrible storm it will be-a “fire storm” such as the world has never seen-when “the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:1010But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10)).
In that storm, an umbrella will be worthless. The strongest of buildings will be no better, and even the “dens and...rocks of the mountains” will offer no protection in that day. It will be too late then to seek shelter-too late to escape the judgment of God. NOW is the time “to flee from the wrath to come.” NOW is the time to accept the “great salvation” which God offers you through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Should not perish”! That promise is sure and certain. Everyone who has turned to God for refuge in this our “day of grace” and who has accepted in simple faith the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ is safe from that coming storm of judgment. More than that, we have the promise of His love and care for us and His presence with us in all the storms and trials of life.
“O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy name; for Thou hast done wonderful things; Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth....For Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm” (Isa. 25:1-41O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. 2For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built. 3Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee. 4For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. (Isaiah 25:1‑4)).