Ten Years' Warning - Ignored!

Narrator: Chris Genthree
Duration: 4min
 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 7
Listen from:
• BibleTruthPublishers.com
This was the headline of a London newspaper after a disaster at a suburban railway station.
When a large holiday crowd of people rushed for shelter from a coming storm, they ran down the stairs leading to the station. They found a barrier at the bottom locked against them.
The weight of the crowd pressed the foremost of them against this barrier, and crushed to death eight women and children besides seriously injuring several others.
As we read this short account of the tragedy, we cannot avoid the thought that the headline writer was bitterly regretful that no responsible person had listened to a warning, given off and on, for ten years. All of this suffering and loss of life could have been avoided.
How unpardonable it all seemed in the case of such prolonged warning. The predicted had happened, and the consequences had fully justified the persistent warning given, but no one had listened. Broken hearts and death-stricken homes were the result. How bitterly such neglect is felt by those who have been made to suffer because of it!
“Why didn’t someone call out?” was the cry of a dying young railroad worker. He had been fatally injured when someone moved his engine without giving him warning. “If I had only been warned, I could have escaped this!”
Poor fellow! Who would not pity him and condemn the carelessness that failed to warn him?
It has always been part of the goodness of God to sound an alarm in approaching danger. Even if the danger is the stroke of His own righteous judgment, that blow was never delivered until warning had been given and a way of escape made possible.
God was careful in His mercy to appoint watchmen in Israel, and their duties are clearly stated in His Word: Thou shalt hear the Word at My mouth, and warn them from Me. (Ezekiel 33:77So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. (Ezekiel 33:7).)
Not for ten years, but for 2000 years, God has been warning men and women of coming judgment, but, thank God, He who said, Warn them from Me, also says, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. (Job 33:2424Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. (Job 33:24).)
The type has given way to reality, and it is now no longer, Make thee an ark, or, Take you a lamb! The ark has been provided. The Lamb has been slain. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:11There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1).)
You have heard the warning; oh, take shelter in that only Refuge where every soul may hide and be assured, on the authority of God’s unchanging Word, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9).)
A prudent man forseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. (Proverbs 22:33A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. (Proverbs 22:3).)
“How shall we escape,
if we neglect
so great salvation?”
“ There is a way which seemeth right
unto a man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death.”