God usually warns before He judges. So infinite is His mercy and grace that perhaps even one might not go beyond the truth in saying that He always does. Scripture abounds with instances. Sodom was visited by two heavenly messengers the day before the fire of God consumed it. Pharaoh had warnings in abundance long before his final doom. Judas got his warning when the Lord said, "One of you shall betray Me." He heeded it not, and went "to his own place.”
Pilate was well and wisely warned when, even on the judgment seat, he got the message from his wife, "Have thou nothing to do with that just man." Disregarding it, he signed the Lord's death warrant—and who shall say not his own at the same time?
Far different might have been the end, for time and eternity, of all these men, had God's warning been heeded, His message believed, and His mercy besought; had repentance and self-judgment taken the place of unbelief and indifference.
The five words we have quoted were God's warning 'message to another man. Hananiah was a false prophet. Unsent of God, he prophesied lies in His name. To him came the word of God, "Hear now, Hananiah; the LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie. Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: This year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD. So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month." Jer. 28:15-17.
It was in the fifth month of the year (see verse 1) that Hananiah uttered his false prophecy and got his warning "this year thou shalt die" and "Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month,” is God's record of what took place. His word ever comes true.
Reader, have you ever thought that God may have spoken as to you, "This year thou shalt die"? May I ask, Are you ready to die`? Are you prepared to meet God? Are your sins all washed away? If not, you have not much time left. A year goes by quickly, and if "This year thou shalt die" applies to you, it surely behooves you to be on the alert.
Very likely you will say, "How do you know I shall die this year?" I do not know it, or affirm it; but God knows, and if your days on earth are numbered, where will you go when you die? Will you spend eternity in heaven or hell? There is no third place.
Annihilation is a lure of the devil to get careless sinners to go on in sin till it be too late. Believe it not, my friend. Death is before you—two deaths.
"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." What is that? The second death, which Revelation describes as "the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." Surely, to die once is enough. Then you pass out of man's sight, but do not cease to exist. In the second death you pass out of God's sight, but—appalling thought!—exist as long as He does. He is the eternal God, and yours will be eternal judgment.
Really, my friend, it is time you were alive to your future. You need not be a gross, scandalous sinner to ensure these two deaths. You have only to go on quietly as you are, in unbelief and disregard of God's
Word to seal your eternal doom—and He may be giving you your warning by this paper!
Quite possibly you may argue, "The chances are greatly against my dying this year I am young and strong.”
So may have answered three young men, in the full possession of health and strength, as they one evening listened to a friend of mine preach from the words, "This year thou shalt die." The next evening the mangled bodies of all three were found in a railway cutting. Crossing: this, as a short way home from work, an express train overtook them and slew them. As to their souls and eternity, nothing was known. They had never confessed Christ, but God had coupled the gospel with the warning they heard the night before.
Death has indeed been busy this past year, and my unsaved reader may well heed the poet's words: "Both old and young the dart of death Lays level with the dust; So, reader, whilst you still have breath Make Christ alone your trust.”
Your heart, sinner, is the target at which death relentlessly shoots his arrows, and possibly even as you read this the shaft is being put to the bow which shall fulfill the solemn words, "This year THOU shalt die.” This may be God's warning to you.
Depend upon it, my reader, you are getting your warning. These solemn facts are true and, if you are inclined to pass them off as mere coincidences which preachers and writers are wont to cite, let me urge you to carefully read—yes, to memorize—the words of one gone to his rest. Truly wrote Young:
"Be wise today; 'tis madness to defer—Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled, And to the mercies of a moment leaves The vast concerns of an eternal scene. If not so frequent, would not this be strange? That 'tis so frequent, this is stranger still!”
Such words should be graven on the heart of every procrastinator. Are you such? Let me urge you to come to Jesus at once. You may well trust Him. Trusting Him, pardon, peace, and eternal life are yours. For the Christian there is nothing but glory with Christ ahead of him. He has a title without a flaw to that glory. It is his Savior's blood. He has a prospect without a cloud. Every cloud is gone. The sin that was his has been borne by Jesus. The death and judgment that sin demand have been endured by Jesus. Thus he has "peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Come now, will you not turn to Jesus and believe on Him? Let me entreat you. All the work has been done by Jesus. "It is finished,” is the legacy of the dying Savior to the needy sinner. Receive this priceless heirloom and then, should God's will be that "this year thou shalt die," your happy portion will be to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”
May God, in His infinite goodness, lead you this moment to decide for Him, for again I repeat: concerning you the word may have gone out of His lips a word of warning, which though unheeded will not be unremembered—"This year thou shalt die.”