Don't Look Back!


Genesis 18 and 19 tells the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, two towns whose citizens turned away from God.

Because of their wickedness, God sent two angels to investigate the "cries against the cities", and to destroy the towns and all of their inhabitants, save for one man, Lot, and his family.

After seeing for their own the depravity that was present in the towns, the angels told Lot to leave in order to save his family.  But when Lot told his sons-in-law they did not believe him, and thought he was joking, so they stayed back. 

And "with the coming of the dawn the angels urged Lot, saying, 'Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished...Flee for your lives!  Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain!  Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!'" Genesis 19:12,17 (NIV)

"But Lot's wife looked back longingly, and she became a pillar of salt." - Genesis 19:25 (NET)

I sometimes think about those two boys and Lot's wife...

The fatal flaw for the sons-in-law was thinking God's warnings were a joke.  And I wonder how many people today - who read the end-times prophesies that appear in the books of Isaiah, Zechariah, Jeremiah, Amos, Daniel, Matthew, Luke, Mark, Romans and Revelation, don't take them seriously either.  

Folks, the Bible is the Word of God.  The end is predicted, and it is going to happen.  And people who do not believe it are like ostriches with their heads stuck in the sand.

"In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: ' You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.  For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'  But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear." - Matthew 16:14-16

As for Lot's wife, her sin was the longing of her heart for the things of this world.  She did not care as much for God and His plan for her to live, as she did for the things she would have to leave behind if she followed Him.

For many of us, that is the case.  We have things in this world which we rank higher than our relationship with God, and by doing that - we make those things "gods" in our lives.

There is an old saying that goes something like this - "There's a reason your windshield is bigger than your rear view mirror.  It is because wherever you are headed is more important than what you left behind."

Friends, when God calls you to something - DO IT!  TRUST IT!  Go forward and DO NOT LOOK BACK!

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" - Jeremiah 29:11

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