Sunday night was a first for most as an Amber Alert was broadcast over the television. It definitley catches your attention but did we take it seriously enough. After this took place CBC news said, “Some Ontarians were a little peeved after an Amber Alert interrupted their Sunday night TV but the Ontario Provincial Police say: too bad. The OPP used the enhanced Amber Alert program for the first time Sunday night, which alerted TV viewers to a missing boy through a red pop-up on the screen. There was also a sharp, repeated alarm sound that interrupted the audio of the TV programs. The alert also broadcast over radio. Insp. Patrick Morris, the Orillia OPP detachment commander, said he is "disappointed" with the calls and tweets of viewers annoyed by the alert. "While I will apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, we won't apologize for using all of the tools available to us to find a missing child." Many Ontarians were equally disappointed that others prioritized TV over a potentially abducted child and applauded the OPP for issuing the alert.”
As I was thinking about this so-called interruption to people’s television schedules and favourite shows, I could not help but think that is what the word of God has been doing, interrupting our lives so that our lives will become His. God has been issuing warnings but is anyone listening or are we too busy with our own lives? We too should be on high alert (fully aware and attentive to the warning) as God has issued us warnings because there is no fear in the land as people have followed their own ways and ceased to follow God’s word wholeheartedly. Just as in this case people do no like to be warned by God’s word and many will not listen. Because Israel refused to listen they went into exile. 2 Kings 17:7 “All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods 8 and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. 9 The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. 10 They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 11 At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that aroused the Lord’s anger. 12 They worshiped idols, though the Lord had said, “You shall not do this.” 13 The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.” 14 But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God. 15 They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”
Then the same is found in Jeremiah 7:21 “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! 22 For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, 23 but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. 24 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. 25 From the time your ancestors left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. 26 But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their ancestors. 27 “When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. 28 Therefore say to them, ‘This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips.”
These two passages apply to us today. The warning has been issued but as Moses said, Deuteronomy 32:5 “They are corrupt and not his children; to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation. 6 Is this the way you repay the Lord, you foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you? 15 Jeshurun (Israel) grew fat and kicked; filled with food, they became heavy and sleek. They abandoned the God who made them and rejected the Rock their Savior. 16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. 17 They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your ancestors did not fear. (by the way this is false gospels also) 18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth. 19 The Lord saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters. 20 “I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful. 28 They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them. 29 If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be! 45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
We have been warned loud and clear. These are not just idle words. Like the amber alert, it could mean life or death but in this case it is eternal. Deuteronomy 6:24 “The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.” These warnings all apply to us today as we have become just like the Israel of the Old Testament and so just as Solomon was warned by God himself, this speaks to us also. 1 Kings 9:4 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, 5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.” This warning followed. 6 “But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 8 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 9 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them.”
Next time you read your bible or hear one of God’s servants proclaiming “repent for the kingdom of heaven is near, think about the Amber Alert that came across your TV. What will your response be? Will you move into action or will you be annoyed by it and continue going your own way?