THE WAY OF ESCAPE by E. G. Rust

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 3, 1867

THE WAY OF ESCAPE.

By E. G. Rust

The only safe condition for us is to have our eyes anointed with the eye-salve, and to understand and know the time of our visitation. This we may do by daily searching the Scriptures with humble hearts, and taking heed to the sure word of prophecy, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place. God will provide a way of escape for those who humbly trust in his word, even though they do not know just how it is to be done.

For example, behold the mercy and goodness of God to his children and disciples in the city of Jerusalem at the time of its destruction. As our Lord and Saviour was approaching Jerusalem, followed by the joyous multitude of his disciples, he beheld the city and wept over it; for he came unto his own and his own received him not. And as he wept, he said: “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.” Luke xix, 41, 42. They had rejected and spurned the Messiah until they had become so blinded and prejudiced that the time of their visitation was now hid from their eyes. He immediately proceeds to inform them of the time of their visitation, the destruction of Jerusalem, but they believed him not. He says of Jerusalem, “For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.”

His disciples drank in these warnings and retained them in their hearts, and we have no doubt that some who heard these words fall from the Master's lips, saw the fulfillment of his predictions, and were among those who fled to the mountains at the destruction of Jerusalem.

In Mark xiii, 14, 15, our Saviour, warning his disciples of the same event, on another occasion, says: “But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation [the Roman armies], spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not [compassing the holy city round about] (let him that readeth understand), then let them that be in Judea flee to the mountains; and let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein to take any thing out of his house.”

But the query at once arises, How could the disciples in Jerusalem flee to the mountains when that city was surrounded by the Roman armies? The disciples, believing their Saviour's words, now saw them fulfilled in part, and calmly waited for him to make a way of escape. I suppose they watched the Roman army and prayed for deliverance, according to his word. Suddenly they behold Cestius, who had encompassed the city with his armies, withdraw them, as Josephus says, “without any reason in the world.” Now the blinded Jews, not knowing the time of their visitation, rashly pursue the retreating Roman armies, thus leaving the way perfectly clear for the disciples to flee to the mountains, which they did, thereby saving themselves from utter destruction together with the Jews and Jerusalem. Here we see the great goodness and mercy of God in providing a way of escape for those who humbly trust in him.

So will he provide a way of escape for us in every temptation and trial during the perils of these last days, if we only confide in him, watch and pray, and patiently wait for his salvation. He is a present help in every time of need. Amidst the darkness which surrounds us on every hand, our dear Saviour promises to be with us and lighten our pathway. “It is I, be not afraid.” Are we almost discouraged because our minds are so unfruitful, and we so prone to lose the blessing of God? Let us remember that we have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. Surely, for the great prize of eternal life, with the comforting assurances that our Saviour is ever with us, and that like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that love and fear him, we ever ought to have the same striving mind that our Saviour had. He requires us to watch and pray. “And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch!”

E. G. RUST.

Battle Creek, Mich.