We rarely give children credit for existential reflection.   But nothing in my childhood provoked existential reflection like “nuclear preparedness drills.”   Even the simplest child knew that in the event of nuclear war facing the interior wall of the hall at school with our heads tucked between knees was an unlikely survival strategy. 

And so, our minds moved quickly to more practical matters.  More likely outcomes.  Would we be crushed by debris? Incinerated in an instant?  Blown to kingdom come by shock waves?   We were not even sure ‘the posture of protection’ would help us survive a tornado. How would it save us if the Iron Curtain targeted metro Atlanta?

And even if we survived the initial blast, there was the fallout — the insidious radioactive residue that lingers like slow death.  How could our head pressed between our knees possibly protect us from this?  We had no masks.  No protective gear.   We knew! We understood!  “Nuclear preparedness drills” were just busy work.   And we knew all about ‘busy work.”  Assignments given to keep us quiet.   These drills were meant to keep us quiet.  To keep us from despair.   But we knew.  If the “red menace” targeted us there would be no ‘day after.’

The word ‘fallout’ has become an idiom for all the downstream consequences of a catastrophe.   If the catastrophe does not strike us down, the fallout will.  The plagues of Egypt were catastrophic.   They destroyed everything that made Egypt great among the nations of the ancient world — its agriculture, its natural resources, its culture, its people, its king, its elaborate religion along with its profound wickedness and sin.  God spoke to Egypt in grace.  But Egypt responded in stunning unbelief.   Plague after plague brought wrack and ruin.   Yet they persisted in unbelief.

And then God himself brought the final stroke – the death of the firstborn.   The plague God warned of from the beginning.   And with that plague came the fallout.   Egypt was destroyed.  Plundered.  Just as God had said.  And after centuries of ruthless and bitter oppression by the Egyptians, God’s people were delivered.  Just as God had said. 

God’s word never fails.  What he promises, he performs.  Both in the way of judgement and in the way of deliverance.   The Egyptians refused to trust God’s Word and they experienced catastrophe and its fallout.   But the people of Israel trusted God’s Word and found promised deliverance.   Nothing is more certain that the word of God. 

What about you?  What certainty is ahead for you?  The certainty of judgement because of unbelief, along with all the fallout?  Or the certainty of salvation?  God always keeps his word.   Believe his word of grace that you may never know his word of judgement. Join us as we examine Exodus 12:29-42 and consider the catastrophe of God’s righteous judgement and the fallout that brings death to unbelievers and life to believers.

We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.