How would you handle the news that you had only a short time, a very short time, before you would die? How would handle your remaining days? There is a saying, "Watch those who are dying-they will teach you how to live."

Last month in Israel, members of a wedding party were dancing the night away not knowing it would be their last. Many had no time to consider what happened as they plunged several stories to their deaths. Perhaps you saw the stunning video that captured that horrendous moment at the wedding of Assi and Keren Sror in the Versailles Hall in the southern section of Jerusalem. But perhaps we have already gone our way in the rush of life and forgotten that each of us is potentially dancing with death each and every day. Additionally, what befell them truly makes the Word of God come powerfully alive.

Let's pick up the story through the words of a series of articles that appeared in The Los Angeles Times. Over a matter of days, articles titled "Party Hall Collapse" (May 25, 2001, by Times staff writers), "Serene Wedding Feast, Then a Pit of Death" (May 26, 2001, by Tracy Wilkinson) and "Rescue Called Off at Collapsed Party Hall" (May 27, 2001, by Associated Press) clearly outlined the powerful parameters of this collective, yet personal, tragedy. Beyond the pain came the sobering reality of a stunning lack of responsibility.

Assi and Keren Sror were celebrating their wedding with nearly 700 guests. Little could they imagine what was about to occur. The guests were dancing to a very popular, bouncy Mizrahi tune. Pretty women in sleek dresses, a boy on his father's shoulders-how could anything be better! They could be heard singing in unison the refrain of a well-known Mizrahi (Middle Eastern Jewish) song, which goes, "I have no money, I have no future." And then, they were gone! For many those would be their last words.

Suddenly, seemingly in unison, they plunged, disappearing into a dark pit of death that filled with dust and screams. There simply was no warning, no time for the vanishing faces to grasp that they were being swallowed. An amateur photographer who captured the scene on video said the people on the dance floor had sunk two feet before he realized what was happening. Then they disappeared and the screams began.

Children cried out, "Imma, Abba!" (Mom! Dad!) Adults cried out names and begged for help. The photographer later said, "My camera was filming without me. I remember it all too well. I don't think I can forget it any time soon." Amazingly, Israeli Radio reported that several guests had noticed the dance floor shaking unsteadily, but that their complaints had gone unheeded.

Eyewitness accounts of horror

Unfortunately, nearly 700 guests were on the scene to witness 24 people lose their lives and hundreds more end up in the hospital. There are telling eyewitness accounts as to the suddenness of the disaster and its aftermath. Rami Mordechai said, "I was sitting two tables away from the dance floor. All of a sudden, I saw a cloud of dust, and the floor simply sank in.

There were about 150 people dancing, and it just sank."

Ephraim Miro recalled the same picture: "Suddenly, everyone was gone. I saw people falling, flying in midair. The tables, the band, with their sound system, all suddenly disappeared."

Perhaps the most telling account was by the mother of the groom, who is seen in the videotape wearing a black evening gown being carried in the traditional way in a chair above the wedding crowd.

She said, "I remember the whole fall-first the first floor, then the second, then the third. I was conscious and it seemed an eternity before the teams reached me. I saw people die. They didn't even know where to start."

Why? As the third floor collapsed on each lower floor, they stacked up like concrete pancakes; and then the two sidewalls fell into the crater atop the struggling, gasping people.

In a country tragically accustomed to death from wars and terrorism, numerous rescue workers said they had never seen such destruction. A people who are surrounded by immense political, cultural and emotional pressures every day were seemingly trying to emotionally escape for the moment. One television anchor choked up as she read the names of the dead who had been identified, their ages ranging from 3 to 76. Perhaps the most touching discovery was a couple still found locked in an embrace.

As in the days of Noah

Christ's message to His followers in Matthew 24: 36-42 has new meaning to me as I remember the dramatic videotape on the evening news as people's lives changed instantly and irreversibly.

Christ said, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be" (Matthew 24:36-39).

And then I thought of the scene on the video where people vanished, and other people remained literally inches away.

Christ continued in verses 40 through 42, "Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming."

The floor of human society will be buckling under the pressure of humanity left to its own devices.

Christ states that the fall of human society is potentially so great that "unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened" (Matthew 24:22).

Christ is giving people a warning that at His coming simply being knowledgeable about Him or the Bible will not be enough. Proximity to Christ will not be enough. Only an intimate, loving and personally dynamic relationship will save people in that day.

Speaking of this very time, the prophet Ezekiel said under God's inspiration in Ezekiel 14:20: "'Even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live,' says the Lord GOD, 'they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.'"

Teach us to number our days

Structural accidents and human tragedies like the one in Israel are of no value unless we recognize some critical lessons at the personal level. Long ago in Jesus' time a tower had collapsed and killed many people. Jesus declared in Luke 13:4-5, "Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish."

Christ asks us to learn from tragedy and to be a different kind of person than we were before, recognizing how temporary our lives really are. The biblical term repentance means to literally "turn around" or change directions, signifying a real change in our life's pattern. All of us in one sense are "dancing with death," some to slow music and others to a faster beat.

The great reality of life is that death is a part of it, and we ultimately have no control over it. The ultimate timing is not in our hands, but the ability to live meaningfully day-by-day while the music plays is well within our control.

Nearly 3,500 years ago, Moses shared some wisdom when he stated in Psalm 90:10 and 12: "The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away…. So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

How can we profit from this unfortunate incident at a wedding feast in Israel? What might we learn that we might gain a heart of wisdom?

After the wedding disaster in Israel, a number of individuals were arrested, including the owners of the building, the contractor for renovation and the designing engineer. The structural foundations of the floors were substandard and had been outlawed for some time. Instead of strong reinforced bars, apparently there were only thin rods. Other support beams on the lower floors had been taken down and not replaced. Apparently there were also some water leaks that may have weakened the floors and walls, which were made of thin concrete laid over corrugated metal plating. Not only that, the building was designed initially as an industrial facility, not a banquet hall with the weight of hundreds of people on it. There simply is no such thing as a causeless curse (Proverbs 26:2).

No shortcuts

This tragic accident reminds all of us that there simply can be no shortcuts when it comes to building-whether you are building a house, an office building, a family or any relationship.

Right now, we are either sowing seeds of growth or destruction for future events that may affect the lives of other people. Being penny-wise and pound-foolish will set up ourselves and others for a very big fall. Who or what are you shortchanging, right now, thinking you may never have "to pay the piper"? Wisdom dictates that what you sow is what you reap.

James 4:13-17 captures the essence of Isaiah 30:21-the millennial refrain, "This is the way, walk in it." James simply asks us to take note of the moment-to realize who we are and who God is-and to recognize our responsibility: "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit'; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.' But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin."

If you think you are the exception to life's rules and sudden changes of circumstances, you might want to give the Srors a call (yes, they are still alive).

And while you are at it, you may want to give the building owner, the contractor and the engineer a call. But don't expect any return calls from them right now, because they might be spending time in jail.