Escape!

Escape!

“‘Up, Up! Flee from the land of the north,’ says the Lord; ‘for I have spread you abroad like the four winds of heaven,’ says the Lord. ‘Up, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’” Zech. 2:6-7.

In His love and goodness the Lord has proclaimed this warning to mankind throughout the ages by His prophets and true servants. Nevertheless, it has always been difficult for people to hear, and entire nations have perished and have had to suffer because their hearts became hardened. They did not want to listen in Noah’s days, and history has had to repeat itself.

“Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you; I am God, your God!” Ps. 50:7.

“Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you! O Israel, if you will listen to Me!” Ps. 81:8. “Listen to Me, My people; and give ear to Me, O My nation . . . .” Isa. 51:4. “Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good . . . . Incline your ear, and come to Me.” Isa. 55:2-3.

This is how the Lord spoke to them; just think if they had listened! If the Jews had taken this warning in Zechariah 2:6-7 to heart, they would have been spared Hitler’s cruelties, among other things.

Now it is vital for us to receive this warning so that we flee, for the sake of our lives, from everything over which God’s wrath is going to come. Jesus makes the following statement in connection with His return: “Remember Lot’s wife.” If we lived in a time of war and were warned that the house we lived in would be bombed, it would be foolish not to escape immediately.

There is no doubt that judgment will come over us if we live in conscious sin of any kind. In Ephesians 5:6 we read, “For because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” In the previous verses some very common sins are mentioned: fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, and coarse jesting.

“See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven . . . .” Heb. 12:25.

Flee from pride into humility! Escape from every kind of unrighteousness, and run on solid ground to the laws of righteousness! “Flee sexual immorality.” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:18. “For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” Eph. 5:5. Peter exhorts us to flee the corruption that is in the world through lust and to add virtue to our faith in every possible way.

We will not be spared if we conceal any sin or impurity in our hearts. “A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness. Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; the one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, him I will not endure. My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in a perfect way, he shall serve me. He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence. Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.” Ps. 101:4-8.

“Up, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.” It is vital that we, our families, and as many others as possible flee to escape God’s wrath. May nothing be tolerated in our homes with which God is not pleased. We need to be radically separated from all sin and impurity and from all religious appearances and hypocrisy. God loves truth in the deepest recesses of the heart. He has more than enough grace and power to save and transform us if only we will flee to Him and remain with Him.

How blessed it is to live in this world with a pure heart, a good conscience, and a living hope of an imperishable inheritance in the heavenly mansions.