Looking Back ?
Southaven, Ms
By: Mike Upchurch
Within two verses found in the gospel of Luke, Jesus gives a simple warning….
“Remember what happened to Lot’s wife! If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it.”Luke 17:32-33 NLT
We all remember the tragedy that befell Lot’s wife as recorded in Genesis…
“When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city. When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.”Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”Genesis 19:15-17, 24-26
Poor Lot’s wife! First, her name is never mentioned, and far worse she was turned into salt because she looked back in a longing way to the sins practiced there. She wanted to go back to the ungodly lifestyles in those Cities.
But I was intrigued by the fact she was turned into salt. Why salt? Why was she not just simply killed with fire as the others were, or why not have the ground swallow her up, or perhaps use some other miracle to end her life? Why salt?
So, as I normally do when I’m baffled (which is often), I asked the Lord “Why salt?” And the Holy Spirit answered with this; “Because salt has no life in it.”
Even though salt is essential to life, and all animals and humans must have it, the salt itself is void of any life organisms. It has no life in it. It cannot reproduce. It cannot grow. Think of it…one moment Lot’s wife is very much alive, and she is able to reason, to laugh, and to run….and the next moment she is completely void of life!
And to draw a parallel with our own lives, a person who looks back to a former life of sin fondly or longingly is in danger of having no life in them, and would be unable to reproduce or grow as well. It is why some Christians who struggle with sin seem unable to lead anyone else to Christ. They are spiritually ‘sterile’, and have no life in them which is able to reproduce.
Remember the words of Jesus….
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”John 14:6
We who have accepted Christ as Savior have life in us because HE is life and He is living in us. Having turned your heart over to Christ, do not long for the former things in your life; they will vacuum that life from you. They will destroy you!
There is nothing in my former life or in my past that would have me ‘looking back’ with desire. In looking back fondly, I too could die inside and lose the spiritual life Christ has given me! The only dying that should be taking place in me is my dying to self! Paul said it best….
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”Galatians 2:20
A dead man can’t look back!
And that’s the way I see it!
Pastor Mike
