Defense Systems

Interstate 40 bisects the state of Oklahoma as well as the capitol, Oklahoma City. It also pretty much bisects the United States, beginning in North Carolina and ending in southern California. It is one of the most successful defense programs of the US, the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways

Following World War I, Captain Dwight David Eisenhower stayed in the Army. One of the projects assigned to him in 1919 was to traverse the United States on the current highway system. The result was confirmation that troop movement would be difficult during an emergency. By the time World War II was over, troop movement from coast to coast had proven effective using trains, but the then General Eisenhower could see the advantage of a national highway system as part of this country’s defense. By 1952, then President Eisenhower was in a position to start what changed the face, and lifestyles, of America.

The Interstate System was designed to have straight stretches ever so many miles to be used as a landing strip for aircraft. It is a controlled access system. And, it has grown much larger than the original plans. Never used as a defensive mechanism, the system has been used to pump the growth of American goods – and international goods – across as well as down the US.

Until something goes wrong.

It did in 2002 along I-40 near Webbers Falls when a barge on the Arkansas River hit a bridge support and a portion of the roadway fell. There was no warning to traffic on the highway and several vehicles plunged into the river with deadly consequences. Once the danger became apparent, cars stopped, warning those behind them. Giving them the knowledge and opportunity to stop, and save their lives.

That’s what God requires of those who know Him.

Once the danger was made apparent, if the cars did not stop, it was out of the hands of those who warned. Ezekiel describes a similar situation:

Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. (Ezekiel 3:17-19)

Consider carefully the warnings given by God. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12)

Be a Berean: And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. (Acts 17:10-11)