It shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord God.
Critical moments
Do not enter a fool’s paradise; do not enter upon vain imaginations, saying, As it was yesterday, so it will be tomorrow,--for there is a moment which changes all things. Study the action of time, and you will see how many critical moments there are. It is only a moment that separates the night from the day, the day from the not-day, the positive from the negative--an almost incalculable line, so minute, so infinitesimal. God can work wonders in a moment. He may take eternity for some works, but in many a moment He strikes men blind, and turns men into perdition. There is but a step between thee and death. Thy breath is in thy nostrils: a puncture in the right place, and life is gone. One touch, and the balance is lost, and he who was strong an hour since will be buried next week. Seizing these realities, grasping them with the whole mind and heart, the Church ought not to be other than in dead earnest. (J. Parker, D. D.)
God’s warnings to be heeded
“You see that buoy, sir, moored in the bay?” said the captain of the steamship in which we visited the Orlmeys. “Yes,” I replied, after carefully picking out in the twilight the well-known danger signal. “Well, there is a reef of rocks, that, starting from the shore, runs to a point within ten yards of the buoy. The worst tiring about it is that there is no indication of the reef; even at low water it is covered with water, and woe be to the ship that should strike on that dangerous reef. In the dark nights that buoy is an object of deep interest to me. Anxiously do I look out for it, and we steer with care until it is found.” The reef was never seen by the captain, but marked on his chart. He believed his chart to be true. So must we, as believers and Christians, trust in the testimony of the Word of God, and heed its warnings. (J. Ellis.)
God’s reckonings sometimes long delayed
An ungodly farmer one day met his Christian neighbour, also a farmer, and began to taunt him. “Why, my corn grows as well as yours. What difference does it make, all your prayers and talking about God’s blessing? I don’t see any good you’ll get by it.” The Christian neighbour looked the man full in the face, and replied, “Friend, God does not pay every week, but He does pay in the end.”