Don’t Look Back!
By Carolyn Hulliberger
“…Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop…”
Genesis 19:17
By Carolyn Hulliberger
“…Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop…”
Genesis 19:17
Lot’s wife is a little-known but tragic figure in the Bible. One dark night she found herself caught in the crossfire of sin and redemption. The wife of Abraham’s nephew, she and her family lived in the wicked city of Sodom. God was angry with the city’s depravity and had vowed to destroy it. That was the bad news. The good news was that her family received a warning of the destruction to come by God’s representative. His specific instructions were: “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere…or you will be swept away!”
Can you imagine the fear? She is told to uproot her whole family with no time and no planning. Sodom was home…she had lived there many years; her daughters were engaged to men from this city…there were weddings to plan! But Sodom was the original “sin city” and God had had enough. How blessed Lot’s wife was to receive a reprieve from the judgment that God was handing down.
Lot’s wife did as instructed…to a point. She fled with her husband and two daughters, leaving before dawn and reaching a small town just as sulfur rained down on Sodom. She was safe! Then she did what she had been told NOT to do. Clinging to the past, she looked back at the city. And she became a pillar of salt.
It would be easy to point to Lot’s wife and judge her. But haven’t we all been stuck in a desperate place between needing to focus only on moving forward to where God wants to take us, and the overwhelming desire to go back to the familiar...even when it’s bad for us? Maybe your “Sodom” is an addiction, an unhealthy relationship, or moral compromises. This story illustrates that in those places we mustn’t turn back. All ties have to be severed. We can only be saved from the place of ruin by putting one step in front of the other to get away from it…and never looking back.
In Philippians chapter 3, the apostle Paul tells us the way we are supposed to take: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Lot’s wife missed out on the prize of freedom when she chose to remember what was behind her. Let’s not make the same mistake ourselves.
GOING DEEPER:
1. Do you find yourself in a personal “Sodom” place? Resolve today to move away from it and toward what God has in mind for you. Pray for strength and seek help, counsel and accountability.
FURTHER READING:
Genesis 19:1-29; Luke 9:62
Can you imagine the fear? She is told to uproot her whole family with no time and no planning. Sodom was home…she had lived there many years; her daughters were engaged to men from this city…there were weddings to plan! But Sodom was the original “sin city” and God had had enough. How blessed Lot’s wife was to receive a reprieve from the judgment that God was handing down.
Lot’s wife did as instructed…to a point. She fled with her husband and two daughters, leaving before dawn and reaching a small town just as sulfur rained down on Sodom. She was safe! Then she did what she had been told NOT to do. Clinging to the past, she looked back at the city. And she became a pillar of salt.
It would be easy to point to Lot’s wife and judge her. But haven’t we all been stuck in a desperate place between needing to focus only on moving forward to where God wants to take us, and the overwhelming desire to go back to the familiar...even when it’s bad for us? Maybe your “Sodom” is an addiction, an unhealthy relationship, or moral compromises. This story illustrates that in those places we mustn’t turn back. All ties have to be severed. We can only be saved from the place of ruin by putting one step in front of the other to get away from it…and never looking back.
In Philippians chapter 3, the apostle Paul tells us the way we are supposed to take: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Lot’s wife missed out on the prize of freedom when she chose to remember what was behind her. Let’s not make the same mistake ourselves.
GOING DEEPER:
1. Do you find yourself in a personal “Sodom” place? Resolve today to move away from it and toward what God has in mind for you. Pray for strength and seek help, counsel and accountability.
FURTHER READING:
Genesis 19:1-29; Luke 9:62
