God has ways of teaching men to respect His Law

The local media in Northern Ireland are reporting that the West Stand at Windsor Park has been sealed off today due to subsidence issues at the Stadium. Cracks have appeared in the structure of the Stand resulting in the area being sealed off. Work on redeveloping the West Stand, with a new structure being constructed behind the existing Stand, has been ongoing for weeks. It has not been confirmed whether the two issues are directly linked. The I.F.A. have called in structural engineers and are awaiting their report. See BBC news report here and the Belfast Telegraph report with pictures here.

It is being reported that local club matches and also further international matches could be in doubt. It may yet cost the I.F.A. a great deal more to repair, than they made from playing a football match on the Lord's day!

It remains to be seen what the real cause is but there is one thing that is true from the Word of God and from history. The God of heaven has ways of teaching men to respect His day and His moral law. Christians believe in a God who can, and who does, intervene in the affairs of men, both for their help in times of need, and to rebuke them in their times of disobedience and folly. 

An obvious example from history of God intervening, for the help of those who seek Him, is the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The Spanish fleet was destroyed, not so much by the expertise of the English fleet but by what became known as the "Protestant Wind".  The wind drove the Spanish vessels around the shores of the British Isles to their destruction. After the Spanish Armada had been defeated, medals were struck to celebrate the great deliverance. These medals were inscribed with words which when translated read: "Jehovah blew with His wind and they were scattered".

There were also days of prayer and humiliation across the nation during World War I, when God was intreated to intervene for deliverance from tyranny and He did.

God can do the same to teach a nation to remember His law. Israel in Old Testament times is an obvious example of this. They declined as a nation and eventually went into captivity because of their particular sin of neglecting the Sabbath. God told the nation through the prophet Jeremiah that the land would then observe her Sabbaths during the 70 years of captivity. 

Ungodly men think today that God is like them and that He doesn't care about such things. After all, are they not mere trifles? It is no light thing to transgress God's law. 

Whatever the reasons given in the future for these cracks at Windsor Park, they are a present day reminder of what God can do to rebuke sinners for their folly and disobedience.