The Great Escape
Members of a family had a narrow escape when their farmhouse was destroyed by fire in Essex, early one Friday morning in 1947. A local farmer in the Romford area, awoke about 2 am, with a suffocating feeling, and on walking downstairs he found the dining room was ablaze.
He was driven back by the flames and smoke, and in trying to reach the telephone his hair got singed. He awoke his wife and daughter, who had difficulty walking downstairs because of the thick smoke. They were all in their nightclothes and stockingless but walked to some nearby cottages down the road, where they spent the remainder of the night. They, unfortunately, lost everything they had in the fire. The fireman managed to save the outdoor buildings only, where twenty-one cattle were kept.
In the book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 and verses 18-20 Solomon observed and acknowledged that without God in a person’s life, and by trusting in their own strength and goodness, people are no better off than the beasts of the field:
I said in my heart, “Concerning the condition of the sons of men, God tests them, that they may see that they themselves are like animals. For’ what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.”
For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
(Psalm 50:10,11)
And if God knows the beasts of the field, He surely knows all about us. So the responsibility lies with us to become set apart from animals and the fate that is theirs and to take hold of the promise of God which says:
If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13)