Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Clouded Vision
There was a man who had married his High School sweetheart. They moved into a home in one of the suburbs of a major metropolitan district. They loved the home that the Lord had provided for them and together made the home everything they could have dreamed of. One night the Lord spoke to the husband in a dream. Telling him that one day he and his wife would need to leave their dream home and not look back. Once he left the home, he was commanded not to return to the house. The husband remembered his dream and told his wife of it and they agreed when the Lord told them to leave they would go and not look back. They even remembered the scripture from Matthew 24:17-18 “Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak.”
Over the course of time, the mother of his wife, who had recently lost her husband to cancer, had moved into the downstairs guest bedroom. She was to stay as long as she liked to mourn the death of her husband as well as be comforted by family. She had planned to stay for a while and then move back to her home she lived in with her husband for the last 40 years. After a week with this arrangement, the man and his wife were sleeping in the upstairs bedroom. About midnight while sleeping, the man heard the Lord speak. “Go! Go! Now is the time.” He quickly awoke to find that the room where they were sleeping clouded in smoke with the fire alarm blaring in their ears and the white flash of light on the alarm barely visible through the smoke. Grabbing the bedsheet; he quickly tied it to the bed and both he and his wife climbed out the window to safety. After leaving the house and walking away from the home they realized that his wife’s mother was still downstairs. He then remembered the words of the Lord spoken from the dream long before. He told his wife that they needed to keep going, speaking to her of the voice he heard just before he woke up. His wife pleaded with him to go back and get her mother, even saying, “If you won’t go, I will.” Not thinking he told his wife to keep moving away from the house and he would go back to get his mother in law. The wife quickly turned away, moving away from the house as the husband turned back towards their home. Since the doors were locked from the inside, he climbed back up the sheet to get back in the house. As soon as he entered the window, the house exploded; for they were storing some old propane tanks in the garage near the kitchen, that came from their mother in law’s house. They had planned on disposing them this coming weekend. The husband was killed instantly and the wife had barely gotten far enough from the house to escape serious injury from the blast; for she was moving away as her husband told her. Shortly afterward the mother and her daughter found each other. The mother had escaped after starting the fire accidentally while cooking something to eat; since she could not sleep that night. Once the blaze started and the alarm went off she quickly exited the house, for she heard someone say “Go! Go!” And assumed it was the husband telling her to get out of the house, so she went to the neighbor’s to call the fire department. After the explosion she saw her daughter and went to see her, not realizing the husband had gone back to get her. Two weeks later it was discovered that wife was pregnant with their first child.
Does this seem too harsh of a story? Something the Lord would never allow to happen? Does the story of Lot’s wife still ring in our ears? So often we get clouded vision of the Lord’s commands because we are never told of the circumstances in which we will need to obey. The Lord told Adam not to eat from the fruit of the tree in the center of the garden or he would die. He never bargained on his wife and the serpent being part of the plan. His vision was clouded with the circumstances. What about the man and his fiancé who end up together in a way the Lord reserved for marriage, the romantic evening seemed so right at the time, the wine, the fire, how good it felt to be on one another’s arms, they were to be married soon… The baby is born, the relationship falls apart and who suffers the most? Or look at the story in 1 Kings Chapter 13. Could the prophet had known the old prophet was lying to him about what the Lord told him? Did he stop to inquire? His vision was clouded with deception and the circumstances and it cost him his life.
We are commanded to pray and watch for we do not know the hour that our Lord will come, are we listening… Matthew 24:42
Over the course of time, the mother of his wife, who had recently lost her husband to cancer, had moved into the downstairs guest bedroom. She was to stay as long as she liked to mourn the death of her husband as well as be comforted by family. She had planned to stay for a while and then move back to her home she lived in with her husband for the last 40 years. After a week with this arrangement, the man and his wife were sleeping in the upstairs bedroom. About midnight while sleeping, the man heard the Lord speak. “Go! Go! Now is the time.” He quickly awoke to find that the room where they were sleeping clouded in smoke with the fire alarm blaring in their ears and the white flash of light on the alarm barely visible through the smoke. Grabbing the bedsheet; he quickly tied it to the bed and both he and his wife climbed out the window to safety. After leaving the house and walking away from the home they realized that his wife’s mother was still downstairs. He then remembered the words of the Lord spoken from the dream long before. He told his wife that they needed to keep going, speaking to her of the voice he heard just before he woke up. His wife pleaded with him to go back and get her mother, even saying, “If you won’t go, I will.” Not thinking he told his wife to keep moving away from the house and he would go back to get his mother in law. The wife quickly turned away, moving away from the house as the husband turned back towards their home. Since the doors were locked from the inside, he climbed back up the sheet to get back in the house. As soon as he entered the window, the house exploded; for they were storing some old propane tanks in the garage near the kitchen, that came from their mother in law’s house. They had planned on disposing them this coming weekend. The husband was killed instantly and the wife had barely gotten far enough from the house to escape serious injury from the blast; for she was moving away as her husband told her. Shortly afterward the mother and her daughter found each other. The mother had escaped after starting the fire accidentally while cooking something to eat; since she could not sleep that night. Once the blaze started and the alarm went off she quickly exited the house, for she heard someone say “Go! Go!” And assumed it was the husband telling her to get out of the house, so she went to the neighbor’s to call the fire department. After the explosion she saw her daughter and went to see her, not realizing the husband had gone back to get her. Two weeks later it was discovered that wife was pregnant with their first child.
Does this seem too harsh of a story? Something the Lord would never allow to happen? Does the story of Lot’s wife still ring in our ears? So often we get clouded vision of the Lord’s commands because we are never told of the circumstances in which we will need to obey. The Lord told Adam not to eat from the fruit of the tree in the center of the garden or he would die. He never bargained on his wife and the serpent being part of the plan. His vision was clouded with the circumstances. What about the man and his fiancé who end up together in a way the Lord reserved for marriage, the romantic evening seemed so right at the time, the wine, the fire, how good it felt to be on one another’s arms, they were to be married soon… The baby is born, the relationship falls apart and who suffers the most? Or look at the story in 1 Kings Chapter 13. Could the prophet had known the old prophet was lying to him about what the Lord told him? Did he stop to inquire? His vision was clouded with deception and the circumstances and it cost him his life.
We are commanded to pray and watch for we do not know the hour that our Lord will come, are we listening… Matthew 24:42
