“Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.”
- Harry Potter: and the Sorcerer’s Stone
In the Harry Potter saga, the above warning appears outside of Gringott’s Bank, the only bank of the wizarding world. According to Harry’s oversized friend, Hagrid, Gringott’s is the safest place outside of Hogwart’s itself.
Warnings are a good thing as we encounter them every day. If you’re a parent this is the world that you live in. You’re constantly giving your kids warnings.
I have three kids ages 18, 12, 10 and the most recent warning that I have given to my two younger ones is regarding the “Tide Pod Challenge”. Kids have been posting video on social media of them eating these Tide Pods. I’m not the smartest guy in the world but I know that’s probably not a bright thing to do. So, I told my kids, “when you’re around your buddy’s and you guys start to dare one another to do different thing, if the Tide Pod Challenge comes up, don’t do it”. I gave them a warning.
The thing about warnings of any kind is that they are ultimately meant to help us. My friend Pastor Dick Foth says that, “Warnings are a call to remember and are given by people who care.” God, over a period of time, has given His chosen people warnings. The first warning that we read about in Scripture is found in Genesis:
“The Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’” Genesis 2:16
That’s a pretty clear warning, right? If I eat of that tree I’ll be ok, but if I eat of that tree I will die…pretty clear, pretty simple warning. Warnings permeate the story of God. They are found all throughout the Scriptures. The reason for this we read about in the book of Lamentations:
“Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.”
Lamentations 3:22
Because of God’s great love for us He warns us as a way of helping us stay on the right track. The problem with warnings is that they can come across as such a negative thing, can’t they? As if they are keeping us from something. The truth is there is a sort of permissiveness to warnings. You and I can choose to disregard warnings and suffer the consequences.
The other thing about warnings is that it’s easy to associate them with rules. How many times have you heard someone say that the Bible and Christianity is full of rules? I once had a morning coffee with an atheist friend of mine and he told me that he didn’t want to follow the “rules” found in Scripture. I asked him if he had a dog? He answered yes. Does your dog have a fenced backyard? Again, he answered yes. I went on to ask him why do you have a fenced backyard for your dog? He said, “Because you know that there are dangers outside of my fenced backyard.” I went on to state the obvious; that he had a fence there to provide parameters for his dog. He had that fence because he loved and cared for his dog. I know this is elementary, but I think sometimes we forget about this stuff.
So, what does all of this mean for us today? What do we do with the warnings of God today? The warnings that are found in this ancient Scriptures? Do we believe that they are still relevant today as they were 2,000, 3,000 years ago? If so, what warnings are you hearing in your life today? Is there something that you know you should be doing and you’re not? Is there something that you should stop doing and you’re not? Its good to pay attention to the warnings in our lives.
Remember, “Warnings are a call to remember and are given by people who care.”