When I was a teenager, my family owned some property on the lake, with plans to one day build a house on it. It was across the street and down a house or two from the house I grew up in, but we liked it because, “it was on the lake.” My father was trying to determine the best plan to dispose of a large amount of driftwood debris that had floated into our cove and was left stranded there as the water lowered. The idea was to just do a controlled burn. The wood pile was bordered by water on one side, was pretty far from the grass, and with some shovels and hoes, he reasoned that we should be able to handle any sparks that got upwind on the grass. East Tennessee winters are usually very moist, but for some reason not that year. Things were very dry on that sunny February day. We ignited the fire and things were going swimmingly until the wind changed and whipped the small fire into a very large fire, a fire larger than any of us had ever experienced. The embers were jumping several feet into the air and then falling onto the dry grass. Initially we were doing pretty well putting out the small fires with the shovel, but then there were just too many. As the fire began to get out of control, I jumped on my motorcycle and rode quickly across and up the street to my house, while Dad continued fighting the fire. I called the volunteer fire department (with a rotary dial phone that seemed to take forever). The dispatcher informed me that there were several out of control fires in the county that day, and they would try to get there when they could. I rode back to find that much of the field was now burning and my father was working feverishly to prevent the flames from getting to a fence row which would have involved another large adjacent field and no telling how much of the neighborhood. In the meantime, the flames were headed toward the street and whirlwinds of fire were leaping several feet at a time. Fortunately the wind was blowing away from the adjacent neighbor’s house. But unfortunately, the wind was blowing toward the historic “Harvey Farmhouse” directly across the street. “Rivermont” as it was also called, was built before 1900 and we knew it would ignite like a tender box. We were all praying a lot as we frantically tried to keep the conflagration in check. My mother, sister and neighbors had shown up trying to corral the flames. All I could do was try to put out a few small flames as the fire devil jumped the road and lurched toward the old wooden house. My sister had brought a fire extinguisher, but wasn’t sure how to operate it. A neighbor grabbed it and quickly put out the largest flames before they reached the crispy, dry, unraked leaves around the house. Mercifully, after a couple of hours, the wind and the flames died down enough and the old house was spared. God had answered and the fire was contained to only our property. Needless to say, we never tried a controlled burn again. We also, for some reason, never built on that property.
When the prophet Isaiah was telling God’s people to remember Who they belonged to, he also warned them with fiery imagery about what would happen to those who were against God. Isaiah 66:14-16 says, “When you see this (God’s restoration, protection, comfort, and blessing on His people), your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; the hand of the LORD will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes. See, the LORD is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with his sword the LORD will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the LORD.” I definitely don’t want to be on the wrong side of God’s angry, fiery rebuke. My experience that day on our lake property makes this picture very vivid to me. This is a good reminder to be sure we know we belong to God, because there is no neutral ground. Jesus tells us, ““He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.”(Luke 11:23) Believe and belong to Him and flourish like grass!
Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!
