House on Fire (Luke 17:22-37)

I think most have imagined it—the scenario where the house is on fire and there are only seconds, if that much, to grab what’s most important and escape to live. Okay, maybe we haven’t all imagined that scenario and it’s just my overactive imagination at work (the one that stops working every single time I try to employ it in writing the great American novel . . . ). I decided in my early teen years that my one thing would be my Bible, and I made sure I knew where I put it down each night when I went to bed. Right now, you’re probably scratching your head or shaking it and asking where in the world I could possibly be going with this train of thought, or maybe not if you’ve read Gen. 19, Ezekiel 12, or Luke 17:22-37 among other scriptures. 

In Gen. 19, God in His mercy spares Lot from the destruction He has planned for Sodom. However, when he delays leaving in trying to gather his family members and convince them to go, the angels grab his hand and drag him out telling him, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed” (v. 14-17). We all know what happened to Lot’s wife. Initially she agreed to go, but she looked back at all the things and people she was leaving behind, at her way of living, at her comforts, and she was turned into a pillar of salt (v. 26). She wanted to gather one more glimpse before she left. It was what was most important to her.

In Ezekiel 12, God has the prophet bring out the belongings he would need if he were to be carried into captivity and then has him dig through a wall as if he were going out bearing those most important belongings. It was a picture of the terror that would soon come on the people of Jerusalem, conquered by the Babylonians and carried off into captivity only able to bring the belongings they could carry, if allowed that much at all.

Then there’s Luke 17. Jesus made it clear that His was a spiritual kingdom, not a political one based on revolutions and human power and rule. But His disciples wanted to know when the kingdom of God would come, what it would look like. Jesus told them that it wouldn’t look like they thought it would look. First He would suffer and be rejected by that generation (v. 25). Then, many would claim to be the Messiah that Jesus in truth was (and is and always will be, v. 23), and His disciples would long for one of their days spent with Him (v. 22). The Jewish nation that the disciples’ generation wanted propping up, wanted Jesus to rule and reign over, would entirely reject Him before its own destruction at the the hands of the Romans in AD 70. 

Just as Noah’s generation had fair warning through Noah’s preaching of the judgment of come, yet continued in sin (v. 27), so did the generation of Jews have fair warning through Jesus’ preaching and words about the judgment to come. Both generations rejected the warnings given and continued eating, drinking, marrying, and going about the business of living (v. 27-28), never thinking judgment would truly come or a price would be paid. Humans never do until it's too late.

The Jews would all go into Jerusalem for the time of Passover not realizing that Titus was planning to besiege Jerusalem and not let them leave for more than five months, thus depleting their food and water supplies within leading to the deaths of 1.1 million people in the city (according to Josephus). There would be no chance to escape for the ones caught unaware. No chance to flee to an ark of salvation like Noah, no chance to escape to a city of refuge like Lot. No time for any on the rooftops just happening to see the army approaching the city during that Passover to grab anything before fleeing for their lives. 

There is no time like now for accepting Jesus, for seeking the salvation He freely offers. Some day He will return, and there won’t be time to repent. By the time the skies split open and one sees the Son of Man revealed (v. 30), it will be too late to decide what’s most important. Seek Him now while He may be found (Is. 55:6-7) before the house is on fire.