September 4, 2005

IS ANYONE LISTENING?

Luke 17:26-33

 

   Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on the northern Gulf of Mexico coast with a severity rating of 5. We could see it coming. Warnings were sounded. The storm's path was pointed out. Many heeded the warnings and fled to safety. Others chose to ride out the storm.

   The death toll still climbing it is hard to grasp the extent of the devastation and misery. Many who survived the storm are dying in the aftermath. The total lack of water, food, shelter, and every other life support adds another dimension to the misery. Utilities are non-functional. What to do? And where to begin? are questions that defy answering. There is no doubt but that someone else is to blame. “How could the government be so negligent to let all this happen?” and “Why are they so slow in rescuing me?” are the “hue and cry”!

   Pitiable beyond words is the destitution of the poor and those who could not flee to safety. Yet should they blame those who did escape Katrina's ravages as selfish or racist? Much blame is aimed at government leaders. Yet those who ignored the warnings have no one to blame but themselves. In a world abounding with known hazards how can anyone blame others for personal harm when warnings go unheeded?

   The Lord reminded His audience that, “as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-27). With many years of warning “while the ark was a preparing” we can well imagine the ridicule and rejection of Noah. His preaching of righteousness and warning went unheeded, until it was too late. “The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men...be not ignorant of this one thing...” (2 Peter 3:6-8). How remarkable that hundreds of primitive cultures have stories of a world wide flood, just like the Bible! But who is listening now?

 

Ivan L. Burgener