“See something, say something” is a program that was instituted after 9/11, and is currently used and encouraged by federal agencies, in which citizens, and residents of the United States are put under a moral obligation to report any activities that may lead to, or result in a terrorist attack. The program has indeed prevented many tragedies, which might not have otherwise been averted. A case in point is the incident where a resident of New York observed a suspicious looking pressure cooker located on the side walk in Manhattan.
The prompt action taken, by alerting the relevant authorities, prevented what may have been another tragic day in our nation’s history. And up to this day, citizens are urged to report any behavior, or violent tendencies of individuals, so as to save us from another Texas, or Vegas, if at all possible.
However, the idea of see something, say something did not originate with the department of homeland security, for it was God who first took the initiative, when He asked Cain about his brother Abel, who had recently been slain. In his response, Cain asked an important question, Am I my brother’s keeper? The answer to this question is a resounding yes, for we are bound under moral obligation to humanity, to look out for the well-being of each other.
This is clearly stated in the following passage, where the Paul urges us to reject the “Me first” philosophy by putting God first, others next, and self, last. The “Me first” philosophy is what got Lot into trouble, causing him to lose his dear wife, his two daughters, and much of his extended family. But Abraham who had adopted the “God first, others next” principles, did not respond in like manner to Lot, but instead pleaded for his deliverance, with the destroying Angel. Thus, the Bible enjoins us to take the welfare of others very seriously. Let’s read:
Philippians 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
But there are risks associated with “See something, say something”, and for this reason many who may know of what is coming upon the earth have either chosen to remain neutral, or silent. There is the risk that the message will not be well received, and, as a result, adverse consequences to the messengers of truth may ensue, for it will shake folks out of their comfort zone. And thus, rather than put life, and property on the line, some prefer to present fables that are more palatable to itching ears. The Bible explains that phenomenon this way. Let’s read:
Isaiah 56:10 His watchmen are blind, ignorant, they are dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that look to their own way, everyone for his gain, from his quarter.
John 10:12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.
13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
Matthew 12:30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
Note well that there are only two categories here mentioned, gatherers, and scatterers. There is no designation such as neutral, non-binding, sitting on the fence, or cheerleaders, for those of us who see something, and do not say something, are, by our silence or neglect, scattering folks away from Christ. Thus, in our day there may be selfserving Christians who choose to minimize personal risk to themselves by remaining silent, in order to protect life, money, reputation, property, jobs, and a plethora of other personal interests.
Not so with the early Christian church, after the day of Pentecost, where believers were willing to put everything on the line for the cause of truth, and its Author, Christ. Like many of us today, they could’ve reasoned that family comes first, or they could even have quoted Christ Himself, when He said, If they persecute you in this city, flee to a next one. Instead they deliberately chose to risk it all for the sake of Christ, and that’s how they cooperated with The Holy Ghost in winning thousands of souls to the cause of Christ. In other words, the believers saw something, and they said something. Let’s read:
Acts 5:17 Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, were filled with indignation,
18 And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison.
19 But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said,
20 Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.
24 Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow.
25 Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people.
26 Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.
27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them,
28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.
29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
40 And when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
In our day, there are solemn warnings to be given to the world, to our communities, to our co-workers, and there will be a temptation to minimize personal exposure to risk and ridicule. The message given us by God to proclaim, is by no means smooth, and will ultimately call for the relinquishing of our treasured possessions, if need be. And thus, the question is, will we be numbered with the gatherers, or will we be found with the scatterers. Let’s read:
Ezekiel 2:3 And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they have transgressed against me, even unto this very day.
4 For they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God.
6 And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks.
7 And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious.
2nd Timothy 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
This exhortation by Paul to the young Timothy leads us to the story of Jonah, and the people of Nineveh, to whom an inconvenient truth was to be preached. Amid the hustle, and bustle of daily life, amid all the investments, and money-making, the racketeering, fraud, fake news, sex scandals, mass shootings, and untold violence across the land, Jonah was sent to preach one short sermon, that would cause national panic, and would cause the rich, and the poor, the high and the low, and people from all walks of life to stop abruptly in their tracks to consider the grave import of that one brief sermon. Let’s read:
Jonah 3:1 And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, saying, 2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it The preaching that I bid thee.
There are many different types of sermons Jonah could have preached, soul-stirring truths that were bound to produce a positive response, with many resounding amens, hallelujahs, or praise The Lord. Jonah may have preferred to speak eloquently on the love of God for fallen humanity, or he may have preferred to preach on righteousness by faith, or he may have chosen instead to present the smooth prosperity gospel.
But “The preaching that I bid thee preach” was not of that order, for it would trigger panic, and for this reason it is needful for us to highlight two relevant, and important truths pertaining to the episode.
[1] Jonah’s sermon was specially designed to create a national crisis, to startle the citizenry out of their complacency, and to move them to instantaneous action, because of a looming deadline. This was not your run of the mill sermon, where people would go back home to a pot-luck fellowship lunch, complete with dinner roasts, and your favorite veggies. After Jonah’s sermon, the people wouldn’t feel like eating because his sermon would cause sleepless nights, very ominous news headlines, and would move the entire nation to fast, and pray like they had never done before. Let’s read:
Jonah 3:3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
[2] Jonah’s sermon was much more ominous than a mere ultimatum, which is a threat made, if certain conditions aren’t met. But we observe, that in the short, no frills message, the people are not told of any conditions, requirements, or ways by which the crisis could be averted. All they are told is that they have forty days to prepare for destruction. Strange enough though, they somehow knew exactly what needed to be done, and the specific sins they were to turn away from.
Likewise, when the third angel’s message is given, the people will know exactly what to do, and the specific sins which need to be relinquished. There are many who now know of God’s will, very many are convicted in their hearts that evolution is fake news, and many more, know that there is a day coming in which God will judge the world. But as the daily round of duty continues, many are prone to either put off, or avoid confronting sacred truth. Let’s read:
Jonah 3:5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water.
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
Now, let us get to the core of the Bible study, “See something, say something”. It was not long ago, on the 1st of October 2017, when Stephen Paddock off loaded thousands of bullets on the Route 91 harvest festival, a concert that had some 22,000 people in attendance. As bullets rained down upon the crowd many tried to flee and in the general pandemonium 58 people were slain, and over 500 injured. And the picture of the hotel room, with its two broken windows, remind us from where the carnage took place.
Now, let us just suppose that some person had seen something suspicious, like the many suitcases going to the room, or maybe had seen the windows being broken; it would now be incumbent upon that person to say something, from a moral obligation to one’s fellow citizens. Thus, the message of warning, regardless of how it is given will be sure to trigger a stampede and general panic, as concert-goers rush for the exits.
On an infinitely larger and international scale is the warning of impending doom, given to the world and its inhabitants, because the ominous events that are unfolding across our nation, and the world in general, portend a crisis of cataclysmic proportions, and thus, those of us who see something, are under moral obligation to say something. Like Jonah, the three angel’s messages, especially the third, given to us in Revelation 14, is “The preaching that God bids us preach”, for like the people of Nineveh, an invisible deadline is looming over our heads. Let’s read very solemnly:
Revelation 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.
11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
The next obvious question is “What is the mark of the beast?”
Answer: The mark of the beast occurs when church and the state unite to enforce Sunday worship, in a concerted effort to deliberately annul the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and with penalties for violators, ranging from to economic persecution, to incarceration, and death in some instances. This is that short sermon that modern day Jonahs must preach, for destructive judgments are just on the horizon. Let’s read from several passages in the Bible which confirm this.
Revelation 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.
Revelation 7:1 And I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Psalms 119:126 It is time for thee, Lord, to work: for they have made void thy law.
Isaiah 8:16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
Isaiah 24:5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
The moral conscience of a nation are its laws, thus, when Sunday legislation is enforced, we will by so doing fully disconnect ourselves from God, for there were only two institutions given in Eden for the well -being of the human family. God-ordained marriage has essentially been upended by the judiciary, and thus, the next, and the last shoe to drop will be the annulling of the Sabbath, which points unmistakably to The Creator. When this occurs, the probation of earth’s inhabitants will be permanently closed, and the time of trouble spoken of by Daniel will begin. Let’s read:
Daniel 12:1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Thus, in association with the brief sermon given to modern-day Nineveh, is a corresponding call to all who are sincere in heart, and who love Christ, and His truth. God will never leave anyone to perish, if there is an earnest desire to be saved, and because of this, His last roll call is specifically addressed to our Sunday-keeping brethren, who may not have previously known, or acted upon God’s will. Let’s read:
Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
We end with a quote from the pen of inspiration:
[G.C pp 589] The Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah; and the Lord will do just what he has declared that he would, he will withdraw his blessings from the earth, and remove his protecting care from those who are rebelling against his law, and teaching and forcing others to do the same.
He who has ears to hear, let him hear what The Spirit says to the churches.
God bless!