Over the years, Lebanon’s director of customs sent letters of concern to his superiors and warned that the cargo was the equivalent of “a bomb,” but the warnings went unheeded.  On Tuesday, August 04, 2020, without warning, all 2,750 tons suddenly exploded!  There was a blast and a mushrooming cloud, which looked like a nuclear blast; and some thought it was a terrorist attack.  The blast was felt up to 10 km (6.2 mi.) away.  The news said 207 people died, 6, 500 were wounded, up to 300,000 people left homeless, and up to $15 billion in damage.  Conspiracy theories abound, but experts agree that it was just an accident.

Sometimes people do things that end up being disasters… just waiting to happen.  A toy left at the top of the stairs, waiting for someone to trip on it.  Or a hot stove element and a young child left to wander alone in the kitchen.  In this case, 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate left to sit for years in a ship.

It’s like that with sin.  Sometimes people flirt with sin and play with sin for months or years, never dreaming that anything really bad will ever happen.  God, in His mercy, warns them repeatedly to break off the sin, and then one day, without warning, disaster strikes!  ‘Boom!’ their world suddenly falls apart!

Proverbs 29:1, He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

It happened to King Nebuchadnezzar and it happened to his grandson Belshazzar.  It happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, and it happened to the whole world in Noah’s day, even after God gave them 120 years to repent.

The explosion in Beirut was a disaster just waiting to happen!  Beloved, when it comes to sin, let’s not allow a horrible disaster to happen in our lives.