We live fairly close to a nuclear power plant. On the first Monday of each month they test the alarm system at the power plant. The alarms sound at two o’clock in the afternoon on the first Monday of the month. After having lived in the area for over twenty-five years, we get used to the sounding of the alarm. For folks who are new to the area, the alarm is … well … alarming! We have alarms for a reason. The purpose for an alarm is to wake us up, or to alert us to some danger, or even to remind us that we have an appointment that me must get to soon.
We human beings need alarms. I have an uncle who got a digital watch many years ago. For those of us who were used to a watch with two arms on them (three if you had a fancy watch with a “second” hand), these new digital watches were amazing, but somewhat of a mystery. A funny thing happened to my uncle, which he did not find any humor in. Somehow his digital watch had an alarm set for noon. My uncle had no idea how to turn it off, and he had no idea how it got turned on. One other thing … my uncle could not hear the alarm. I don’t know if he physically could not hear it, or if he just learned to ignore it, but either way, he did not recognize it going off.
A problem arose when he went to church on Sunday. Right at noon his alarm went off, and all those around him were staring at him. He couldn’t figure out why everyone was staring. Finally after a minute of beeping, it cut off. Problem solved … until one day he sat closer to the preacher than normal. At noon on this Sunday (just like every other day), his alarm sounded. The preacher grinned and looked my uncle’s way, and said, “Okay, I get the idea … it’s time to quit … you can turn your alarm off now.” My uncle, not hearing it, began to look around to see who the preacher was talking to, only to realize that everyone else was looking at him! He still did not know how to turn it off!
Today I read, “It is time for thee, LORD, to work for they have made void thy law” (Psalm 119:126). The alarm for this world is going off. We need the Word of God to do its work in our world today; however, much of our world is ignoring the alarm of the Word of God. God is sounding the warning for the judgment that is coming on the pages of our Bible, but, like my uncle, there are many who are simply ignoring the alarm being sounded. They either have not heard the warnings in the Bible, or they have become “used to” the sounding and have chosen to ignore it. We Christians should not be guilty of missing the alarms God has given us in His Word!