Day 1620

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, August 23.

 

I enjoy traveling, especially to visit the American National Parks. Having lived from coast to coast, and having visited every state in the country, I can attest to you the importance of reading signs along your route. It is essential to have an up-to-date map, or trustworthy source for directions, but it’s also critical to pay attention to signs due to changing circumstances and ever-present road construction. If you don’t pay attention to the warning signs, your trip will go badly.

 

In 2 Kings 17:13-15, God described the many warning signs on Israel’s route to destruction at the hands of Assyria:

 

Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.” However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God. They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the LORD had commanded them not to do like them.

 

One of the clearest warning signs to Israel was the life and message of the prophet Hosea, who succinctly stated in Hosea 11:1-2, “When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. The more they [the prophets] called them, the more they went from them; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols.” Signs don’t help unless we pay attention to them!

 

Seize the moment and heed the warning signs God has put on your path. God is trying to get your attention. Are you listening?