Remember Nineveh!

God, the God of the Bible, hence the one and only God of all, spoke many words of warning to those who were his ancient people. Judgment would come, disaster and devastation would crash the land and the people, death, loss of home and possessions, and relocation and slavery would be there a lot. All this because of their sins turning from and dishonoring their God.

In one of the prophet Ezekiel’s messages from God to the people, God told Ezekiel to tell them to set a watchman. The watchman would blow the warning trumpet, and then the people could react. Here are what two reactions to the warning could do according to Ezekiel 33:5. If a man heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.

There are times when a nation cannot be delivered from the tragedy of judgment for sin, but if a person hears the warning signal, and takes personal action, he/she may deliver themselves even though the nation may fall.

Let us imagine a great 20^th-century nation. Modern in thought, forward-looking in technology, blessed with plenty, living in prosperity, in a time of relative peace. Now let us imagine that along with her blessings this nation has empty churches, and full bars. That men and women defile themselves before God with sexual behavior he doesn’t approve of, and that human trafficking is somehow allowed to cross the border. The streets of this nation run with the blood of children, and other innocent bystanders. Pregnant women have their babies ripped from their wombs. Theft and other crimes are rampant, and individual people, and groups, across the nation, hidden in bedrooms, basements, locked offices or other locations have the power to speak out falsehoods or harm without many restraints of honesty or decency on a communication grid that links to millions of others in the nation.

And, let us suppose that all or most people in the land are in some way or other, wittingly, willingly, or not, a part of this whole affair. Not one group, or one profession, or one political party, or one generation, but all or most.

I would suggest that the principal Ezekiel expounded in the old days is still something we need to know about. That nation we are imagining needs a watchman to blow the warning trumpet.

It may be too late for the land itself to reverse the course it has taken, and stave off tragic judgment; it could, perhaps, remember Nineveh!, but it’s probably unlikely. Still, according to Ezekiel’s scripture, it is not too late for the individual to heed the trumpet (warning) and deliver himself and his family.

Consider this the trumpet: turn from your sinful ways and live.