Down in the sunny southland, my swallow was flying about last winter, enjoying as much food and sunshine as any little bird could wish. But somehow, it had a feeling that all this warmth and plenty wasn’t home. Home was in my garden, in the northern land of leafless trees and gusts of snow. My swallow was just waiting for the right time to fly north again.
When the tulips bloomed and the spring buds began to swell on our maple trees, that faraway swallow knew. I don’t know how he knew. It is instinct, I suppose. But he came north, hundreds of miles, flying on tired wings straight to the birdhouse in my garden, and there he is at home. There he and his mate are building their nest where they can hatch and feed their hungry babies. See, there he goes, to find some straw for the nest.
The swallows, says the Word of God, “observe the time of their coming, but My people know not the judgment of the LORD.” Jer. 8:77Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord. (Jeremiah 8:7). Reader, do you know? The swallows come back in thousands, every spring, heeding the call of instinct, to build their homes. Have you heeded the voice of conscience and the Word of God and made ready before the day of the judgment of the Lord?
Let me tell you then, that there is a past judgment day, and a future judgment. One took place two thousand years ago, on Mount Calvary, when the sun was darkened, and all the awful judgment of a sin-hating God was poured out upon His beloved Son, who bore our sins. That is past forever and the Lord Jesus is alive forevermore. If your sins were there, your judgment is past forever too!
But there is a judgment yet to come. God, the same sin-hating God, has “appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness,” Acts 17:3131Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:31), by His Son, Jesus Christ. Why should you wait, unsheltered and unforgiven, until that awful day? The world may be fair around you, but we know that the judgment is soon to fall, and there will be no escape then. The judgment will be eternal too, just as God says, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment.” Matthew 25:4646And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25:46).
See how the swallow instinctively flies home. May you, dear reader, “flee from the wrath to come.” Matthew 3: 7. Before judgment falls, claim that Saviour who died for you on Calvary, and find your home in Himself.
ML 04/18/1954