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By Constance Darnell August 15,1999
There I was, 16 years old, Grand Valley Mustangs Girls’
Track emblazoned across my T-shirted chest. Coach Vilk had been working
with us for several weeks of training to whip us into shape for our first
meet. His favorite exhortations came in short, passionate bursts:
“Run
your race!”
“Stay
in your lane!”
“Don’t
Look Back!”
If he said those words once, he said them ten thousand times. I felt ready
to run my race when the 100-yard dash was called. I got off to a great
start out of the blocks, was stretching out my stride and found myself
in front. That was good. I was in my lane. That was good. I was running
my race. All I could hear was the sound of my feet hitting the ground
and the sound of my own breathing. Coach Vilk’s words echoed in my
brain as I neared the finish line:
“Run
your race!”
“Stay
in your lane!”
“Don’t
Look Back!”
As I moved into my kick for the last few yards another sound intruded.
It was the sound of someone else’s feet hitting the ground right
behind me! Coach Vilk’s words flew out of my brain as I glanced back
to see how close those footsteps really were. I didn’t have to look
back for long because Earlene Hill (an incredibly tall brown-skinned girl
with processed hair standing straight up in the air and a wild look in
her eye) was no longer behind me, she was beside me; and then she was
in front of me. Her long, brown leg and her T-shirt-clad chest crossed
the finish line first.
When the race was over, Coach Vilk came up to me. I expected him to chew
me out but he didn’t. He just said three words to me: “Don’t
look back”. That is the title of today’s teaching.
God Almighty always has your best interests at heart. Acting on God’s
will brings immediate and long-term profit. Only God sees the entirety
of His purposes from beginning to end. The scriptures contain all things
that pertain to life and godliness.
We will be looking today at one little scripture about one little person.
Then, we will go to the Old Testament to learn the background of that
scripture. After that, we will tie in the New Testament record, which
makes this little verse pertinent to our administration and our lives.
Our key scripture is found here in Luke 17:32.
Luke 17:32: -
Remember Lot’s wife
This verse of scripture is a figure of speech: Exemplum
Figures of speech in the scriptures are God’s neon signs. If your
bible were equipped with computer graphics there would be big explosions
and flashing lights all around this little verse. The figure, exemplum
is an allusion. Here, Jesus used it in reply to a question regarding when
the kingdom of God would come. It makes indirect reference to an Old Testament
story which Jesus’ listeners (the Pharisees) were very familiar with.
Let’s read the immediate context:
Luke 17:28:
Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank,
they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone
from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
31 In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in
the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in
the field, let him likewise not return back.
While there is no doubt the Pharisees were very familiar
with the scriptures Jesus referred to, we would be wise to look carefully
into these Old Testament verses which are for our learning:
Lot was Abram’s nephew
Genesis 12:1-5:
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from
thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show
thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and
make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth
thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
4 So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with
him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of
Haran.
5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all
their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they
had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan;
and into the land of Canaan they came.
Abram (age 75) and his nephew Lot set off on their journey.
While Sarai was noted as Abram’s wife, there is no mention of a wife
for Lot. After a foray into Egypt, it is noted that Abram is extremely
rich in livestock and in silver and in gold. Lot also had flocks and herds
and tents. Their wealth was such that the land was not able to nourish
and support them. Because their possessions and herds were too great for
them to live together, there was strife between their herdsmen. Abram
suggested Lot separate himself. This was a practical consideration, which
was simply the most logical course.
Abram was magnanimous with Lot. Lot looked and saw that everywhere the
Jordan Valley was well watered. The Amplified Bible says the area was,
like the garden of the Lord at that time. He went east, toward Sodom.
Sodom means burning (and they were). Verse 13 states...the men of Sodom
were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.
Lot’s senses assessment of the area set him on the path of least
resistance. It seemed the best course in the beginning.
Had we kept reading to Gen. 18:20, we would have read that God told Abraham,
“the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great.” This is another figure
of speech (personification), the people were not crying, the PLACE was
(figuratively) shrieking of the wickedness of the people. (Bullinger and
the Amplified Bible).
II Peter 2:6
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them
with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should
live ungodly;
7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the
wicked:
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing,
vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful
deeds;)
9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and
to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
Lot was a righteous man. He was greatly worn down by
the insatiable wickedness of the people of Sodom. Perhaps you have found
yourself in a situation at times in life, which seemed, at first, to be
right and good but which later became evil. It is always your decision
to turn from the path of least resistance or conflict when that path diverges
from God’s will for your life. God is able to set before you a path
of righteousness for a clean escape from temptation no matter what form
it takes.
Psalm 52:1 states the goodness of
God endureth continually
Rom. 2:4 tells us the goodness of
God leads men to repentance
The name “Lot” means covering. That is what
God, in His goodness, did for Lot and for his family. God has been covering
and clothing people since Adam sinned.
(i.e. animal skins in Eden, covering over the ark, cloud by day was a
covering for the children of Israel in the wilderness, sacrifices provided
for covering sins, Jesus Christ not only covered our sins with his life,
death, and resurrection, he paid the price for our sins and our sicknesses
and covered us once for all time.)
In Genesis 19, two angels come to town. Lot was a good host.
Gen. 19:1-10:
19:1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the
gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed
himself with his face toward the ground;
2 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your
servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall
rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will
abide in the street all night.
3 And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and
entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened
bread, and they did eat.
4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom,
compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every
quarter:
5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, where are the men, which
came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know
them. (Fresh Meat)
6 And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,
7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me,
I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in
your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under
the shadow of my roof.
9 And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came
in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse
with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even
Lot, and came near to break the door.
10 But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to
them, and shut to the door.
11 And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with
blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to
find the door.
After this, the angels warned Lot to get himself and
his family out of Sodom. Lot went to his sons-in-law. They thought he
was talking nonsense because he was a pillar of the community. He sat
in the gate of Sodom as a judge. He was a wealthy man with the admiration
of the city. Why would he ever want to leave all that?
Genesis 19:15-26:
15 And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying,
Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou
be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
16 And while he lingered (dawdled), the men laid hold upon his hand,
and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters;
the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set
him without the city.
17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that
he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou
in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
(The angels were urgently pulling them out the door
and Lot starts STALLING! It had to be a little like getting the kids out
the door in time for school in the mornings. “Let’s go!”
“Where are my shoes?” “I need lunch money” “I
forgot my saxophone!”)
18 And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord:
19 Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast
magnified thy mercy, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life;
and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die:
20 Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one:
Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul
shall live.
21 And he (the angel) said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning
this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which
thou hast spoken. (“OK, Get the saxophone, but hurry!”).
22 Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be
come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called
Zoar (little).
23 The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.
24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire
from the LORD out of heaven; figure of speech: idiom of permission)
Note: The result of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
has been compared to the impact of a nuclear bomb. Geologists Graham Harris
and Anthony Beardow wrote in the December, 1995, Quarterly Journal of
Engineering Geology that the area was probably destroyed after an earthquake
liquefied the rocks and soil the cities were built on. Mr. Harris is also
quoted, “The only way you can really lose whole cities and whole
tracts of land fast is by liquefaction..”. Mr. Harris and Mr. Beardow
theorize the large deposits of bitumen ignited during the earthquake and
the fire helped to destroy the city[1]
Young’s Concordance defines “brimstone” as “flaming
bitumen”. I have no problem with the findings of the geologists.
They are not measuring an act of the true God. It’s the idiom of
permission. They are measuring and observing the works of the adversary
after the true God’s people and protective covering had been removed
from the evil cities.
II Peter 2:6
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them
with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after
should live ungodly;
The words “turning to ashes” are one word
“tephroo”, which means “to incinerate”.
Genesis 19:25
And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the
inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became
a pillar of salt.
God’s messengers had taken Lot and his wife and his daughters
by the hand to bring them out of the evil city of Sodom. They specifically
told them to get moving and DO NOT LOOK BACK. Lot’s wife had been
led out of Sodom by the hand by angels who had, just
hours before, proven their tremendous power by dazzling the Sodomites
to blindness and saving her husband and daughters from them. Those same
angels enthusiastically encouraged Lot and his family along the path to
Zoar and unmistakably exhorted them to escape for their lives. Lot was
already in Zoar. Mrs. Lot was lingering behind--somewhere between “the
grave and the glory” in the misty salt flats between the outskirts
of Sodom and Zoar. Despite what the angels had said, she just was not
sure this could possibly be God’s will for her life. She heard the
explosions, perhaps felt the heat on her back, perhaps even heard the
cries of her neighbors. Mrs. Lot was at the crossroads of her life. This
was the defining moment in her story. She could have come out of the crucible
of this experience refined, as pure gold, precious in the sight of God..
But, instead of obeying God’s messengers and getting on with the
rest of her life honorably, Lot’s wife looked back longingly to where
her heart’s interests and desires truly lay...BOOM!
The word “pillar” is also translated “monument”. Lot’s
wife was already out of the evil city. Had she kept moving ahead as God’s
messengers had clearly directed, she would have remained under the protective
covering of her loving heavenly father. Instead, she “forgot”
the word of God and took herself out from under His loving protection.
Lot’s wife became a monument to her lack of commitment to the true
God, and an example for all time of one who refuses to move ahead when
the time for decisive action has clearly come.
I will never know if I could have won the 100-yard dash that day back
in Grand Valley. I looked back, and I lost. I do know, however, that had
Mrs. Lot kept her thoughts on the word of God, which His messengers had
clearly delivered, she would have won her dash across those ancient plains.
From Zoar, Lot and his daughters fled to the mountains where their incestuous
relations led to the conception of the Moabites and the Ammonites. One
may conjecture that had Lot’s wife obeyed and lived, she would have
thought of some more conventional way to keep Lot’s bloodline alive.
From the bloodline of the Moabites eventually came Ruth, a truly stellar
woman. Ruth reunited the Christ line with Israel when she followed her
mother-in law, Naomi, back home from Moab and married her kinsman redeemer,
Boaz, in the Book of Ruth.
Mrs. Lot was still a part of the Christ line via her daughters. However,
she was on the “knucklehead” side of the ledger. God’s
purposes will come to pass with or without your help. However, God’s
instruction is always that we choose life
Deuteronomy 30:19:
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that
I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore
choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
v.20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey
his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life,
and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which
the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,
to give them.
Life is so much sweeter when we walk hand in hand with
our heavenly Father. Only God sees the entirety of His purposes
from beginning to end. You have been covered by the good God who so loved
you that He gave His only begotten son that you might have life and that
you might have it MORE abundantly. God never takes off that covering.
Only you can remove it by dwelling on the past; by fear, doubt and worry;
by grieving over “what might have been”. Then you find yourself
out in the misty salt flats with the statue of Mrs. Lot shouting, “I
could have been a contender”.
It’s not too late for you to be a contender. Today is a new day.
Thought by thought, the time for decisive action has clearly come. Our
lives have everlasting impact when we continue to press toward the mark
Philippians 3:12-13.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this
one thing I do, forgetting those things, which are behind, and reaching
forth unto those things which are before,
v14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus.
That’s our calling. We put on the mind of Christ
and keep putting one foot in front of the other. When you remember Lot’s
wife you remember that your responsibility is to turn your thoughts to
God’s will and it is God’s responsibility to turn even the course
of nature if necessary to provide you a path of safety and plenty. (Your
thoughts, God’s power) God Almighty always has our best interests
at heart. You are pure gold to Him. And only God sees the entirety of
His purposes from beginning to end. The value of our faithful adherence
to the truth will be a benefit immediately and ultimately.
Remember Lot’s wife and DON’T LOOK BACK!
[1]
The Capital January, 1996 London (AP) Earthquake hit Sodom,
Gomorrah
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