The appalling scenes from Nepal have rightly shocked us. Villages, schools and homes, were quietly getting on with their day, until a sudden torrent swept many away. The screams of terror were soon swallowed up by the boiling avalanche of mud and debris.
The catastrophic power unleashed was greater than anyone could withstand. Some, however, heard a warning and took immediate action.
The Times reported that the warning was given on August 26, when about 900 pupils were already inside Tribhuvan Trishuli Secondary School, and another 743 students were still arriving on foot or by bus. Thanks to the head teacher's prompt decision to sound the alarm, halt classes, and direct everyone - including inbound buses - to higher ground, all 1,643 children survived before the three-storey school building was completely destroyed by the floodwaters.
Was it a miracle? Or was it the wise and urgent instruction of a man who may well have prepared his mind for just such an event? Probably both.
It was also an enacted parable, like the disaster Jesus referred to in Luke 13:4-5: "... those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."
Jesus was not being callous about this Health and Safety building failure and loss of life. He was simply stating that the falling tower led to death. The victims were not total moral innocents, but neither were they marked out for particular wickedness. Jesus said that they were ordinary, but sinful, guilty people.
The point Jesus was making was that disaster will inevitably come to sinners, who ignore the gospel invitation and warnings. When they face God in the full splendour of His holiness, they will perish. The humanitarian impact of the crumbling 1stC tower and the Nepalese torrent of destruction are dreadful ... but not half as devastating as the wrath of God upon unrepentant sinners on the Final Day.
The watchmen are vitally important, but only if they sound the warning with urgency and in time. In Ezekiel 3:17-19, God makes the prophet accountable to relay God's warning. If he does, the deaf people are responsible for their own doom. But if he does not warn the people, he is held responsible for their death.
It may not be nice 21stC sermon material, but the 'enemy' of Ezekiel's sinful compatriots is God Himself. It is His wrath that will consume all unrighteousness, and His judgement that will exclude all, who refuse to repent, from eternal life. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them (John 3:36)".
Therefore God sends His servants to command sinners to repent (Acts 17:30). The task is urgent and specific. But most preachers will not do it. Why not? Do they not believe the Scripture? Are they indifferent to the fate of the lost? Do they neither care for the souls around them nor fear the God above them?
Such is the task of the evangelist, the Bible teacher and the pastor - to take the message and urgently proclaim the good news of how to escape the wrath to come. That is BeaconLight's task ... to provide God's front-line workers with potent gospel instruments to announce forgiveness of sins and eternal security in Christ as guilty people run to Him, repenting of their sins.
The parable in the Nepali floods is a message for our time.