1. Realize your danger—"lest thou be consumed"
Escape for Your Life Joel R. Beeke
God speaks. Sometimes He whispers by the still small voice of the gospel to us in tender overtures of mercy through the preached Word. Sometimes He speaks through His Word with power, warning us to turn from our iniquity. And sometimes He thunders through His divine, providential judgments of famine, war, fire, or some other tragedy.
On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, God spoke to us in thunder. He did so because we as a nation have not been bowing under His Word, have not been repenting under His stream of mercies showered upon us for decades, and have not repented under the smaller judgments He has sent our way. God sent a just, dreadful wake-up call to America—yes, to every one of us.
The staggering destruction of lives at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the subsequent tales of horror, have left us stunned, speechless, and humbled.
Some heroically tried to save those in the buildings, and in the process, lost their own lives.
Countless stories have been told of heroic deeds. One, little noticed, contains much spiritual instruction. A policeman, situated just outside the entrance of the buildings, shouted to the people as they streamed out, "Don't look up; don't look back; run for your life!"
Those words remind us of Genesis 19:17b, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed."
Let's examine heaven's message to us in this time of divine judgment by considering the theme, Escape for Your Life, in three thoughts:
1. Realize your danger—"lest thou be consumed"
2. Forsake all—"look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain"
3. Run for your life—"escape for thy life"
I. Realize your danger When the cry of "Fire! Fire!" ran up and down the floors of the World Trade Center and filled the streets of New York City, people knew in a moment that danger was imminent. Flames are cruel tyrants and devour remorselessly. The very word fire can send chills down our spines.
But that word uttered by thousands of New Yorkers on September 11 is only a shadow of what Jesus called "hell fire" in Matthew 5:22. The eternal cry of "hell fire" that shall ascend from millions of lips in the eternal abyss on the Day of Judgment, comprehends weighty matters that only eternity can reveal. As dreadful as the events of the recent weeks were, they are all but child's play compared with the wrath of God that will one day be poured out without mixture upon all those who do not repent and believe in God's Son. God's wrath against unbelievers has eternity and infinity and deity in it—and where these three oppose a person, woe be to that person! Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire of God's wrath and with everlasting burning?
We deserve far worse than we have received, for North America has been unfruitful spiritually. We have slighted God's gospel, despised God's law, and served the Lord lukewarmly at best. We have neglected personal conversion and reformation. We have grown idolatrous, covetous, worldly, sensual, proud, and self-indulgent, addicting ourselves to a host of evils. We have become a nation of liars, backbiters, and murmurers. The blood of unborn millions is on our hands. Every three days we murder more babies in their mothers' wombs in America than were killed in the New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania tragedies combined. We have called evil good, and good evil.