Don’t Look Back
Sheree Morris
I was reading Genesis the other day and came to the scene where Lot’s wife was turned to salt. I first thought that seemed a bit harsh but, the more I read and pondered, the more I realised that actually this was a really important message that God wanted us to hear. In fact, not only was it recorded in Genesis but Luke also reminded us about Sodom and clearly tells us to ‘remember Lot’s wife’ (Luke 17:32) when Jesus is talking about the Second Coming.
In Genesis 18:16-33, this chapter tells us about the terrible sins of the people of Sodom & Gomorrah and describes a to-ing and fro-ing of a conversation between Abraham and the Lord, whereby Abraham asks the Lord several times about whether He would still destroy the city if there were only (eventually) 10 righteous people to be found there. The Lord then sends two angels to the city to rescue Lot and his family — the only righteous people in the whole of Sodom — and they tell him that the city is to be destroyed, so to take his family away to the mountains.
In Genesis 19, the angels tell Lot and his family: “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 19:17)
Lots wife was told one thing, and one thing only… ‘Don’t look back!’
But she disobeyed, ‘looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.’ (Genesis 19:26)
She looked back... Even though an angel of the Lord had led her and her family away to safety and she had been warned what would happen… she still looked back.
Wow - what a pull it must have been for her to disregard the angel and the foretelling of what would happen if she did? And yet she did. She was unwilling to put behind her all the things of the past. She had her family with her. She had all the things that should have mattered to her, right beside her, but she still looked back. It seems that she didn’t want to leave behind the things that she was familiar with.
The amplified version of this scripture states that she ‘looked back longingly’ in an ‘act of disobedience’. The dictionary definition for the word longingly means ‘with a yearning desire’. She desired the sinful lifestyle of Sodom more than being satisfied with escaping with her family. As she looked back, in an act of disobedience, she knew that this was wrong but she still did it.
Sometimes it’s so easy to long for something that once was: the super car we once drove, the large house we once lived in, the amazing job we once had — things can have such a strong pull on us at times.
Often we look back when we are ‘stuck’ in a not so good place. Looking back longingly can be quite damaging. It can dishearten us, we can feel depressed or dissatisfied with what we now have. Paul tells us in Philippians 3 that ‘we who are born-again have been reborn from above — spiritually transformed, renewed, set apart for His purpose’ (Philippians 3:3, AMP). With that in mind, in verse 13 he is, ‘forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead’. That is how we are to live: keep looking up, keep moving on, keep reaching forward.
Sometimes it can seem quite hard (in fact I would say it’s virtually impossible in our own strength) to not want to look back. But, if we keep looking upwards rather than behind, if we keep seeking God, He is the one who gives us spiritual strength to overcome any temptation to look back longingly:
‘I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.’ Philippians 4:13
So when you next find yourself ‘looking longingly back’ – remember Lot’s wife! Get yourself unstuck, get closer to God, ask for Him to help you to keep your eyes focussed on Him, and continue to move forward.
