Anyone Listening?

Years ago when I was in college, I took a Business Law class where my soft spoken professor uncovered a host of lawsuits that had resulted from a lack of warning. In one case a ladder company was sued for having too many warning labels. Another one was from some guys who sued a lawnmower company for not warning against using a push mower as a hedge trimmer; needless to say the two men who used it to shape the bushes can now only count to 4 on their hands between the two of them.

Even if we go beyond product lawsuits in the material world, we still would love to have warnings on life. What if we had been able to warn a loved one before they took that trip, went with those people, experimented with that drug, bungee jumped off that bridge, or any number of things. Warnings are lifesaving if we listen. If we fail to listen then they are a guilty reminder that we could have done something. God gives us tons of warnings about making choices. One in particular is the warning God gave Cain in Genesis 4:6-7, “Why are you so angry? Why do you look so dejected?” God said as Cain sulked over his rejected sacrifice to God. “You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” Cain failed to listen and it cost Abel his life, and it cost Cain his security and freedom.

Generation after generation God continued to give warnings to kings, to leaders, to the citizens of cities and countries. He even gave warnings to his own children. Sometimes they listened, many times they didn’t.

Looking at our own slice of existence causes me to think about how responsive are we to the warnings of God? Violent crimes are typically in direct correlation to state of the economy; hard times equal higher crimes. Regardless of the countless mall, movie theater, and school shootings there seems to be little consideration as to what’s at the root. Although guns are often targeted as the problem for violent crimes, there’s something deeper that is too often overlooked or deliberately ignored. Just like Cain, many people across our globe have rejected the humble, selfless, and holy way of living prescribed by God; and thus we are all paying the penalty of social chaos and constant reminders that the American dream can become a nightmare when we too fail to listen to God’s warnings or instructions for life.

He still warns us of a day coming, and it’s not too late to listen. It’s a day “when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).

Paul also described what the world will look like once more and more people reject God’s plan for mankind. He said in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”

How will those people in the “last days” get to that point in life? Overnight? No, instead little by little they’ll reject one of God’s warnings until one day they realize they don’t even know who God is.

We can read literally hundreds of verses that warn us against letting lust, hate, envy, apathy, and bitterness from becoming part of our lifestyle. Christians are equally guilty of failing to “submit to God” or “resisting the devil [so that] he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” (James 4:7-10).

However, many people have listened to God’s warnings and saved themselves “from many griefs.” Even the warning that Jesus gave his followers in Matthew 24 about the upcoming destruction of their holy city, Jerusalem. He told them how they should respond when they see the “signs of the times.” They didn’t try to hang on to everything they had but realized the need to go. Delay was not an option.

Interestingly, some historians claim that a rather small number of Christians were actually killed in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Why? Because they listened to the warnings Jesus gave them. What about us? Will we be spared from a life of guilt and shame by listening to God? Or will we do as too many have done before us, and refuse to listen to him? Remember it’s in the daily decisions we make that demonstrate our listening hearts.