Looking Back

January 18, 2008

Genesis 19:17 KJV
(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.
Genesis 19:26 KJV
(26) But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

A fear years ago I was visiting a small church. In the back of the church was a clock so when the Pastor was preaching he could keep track of the time. Around the edge of the clock was the words, 'remember what happened to Lot's wife when she looked back.' A silly thing to do, maybe. But does God want us to look back. What is so important during a service where we have come to worship the Lord that we have to look back to look at a clock. Aren't we suppose to be
worshiping the Lord and learning His word?

Why did Lot's wife look back? What was there that caused her to look back. She knew all was to be destroyed and was told not to look back. Lot had made a bad choice to live there in the first place, taking the easy country and leaving Abraham the hill country. He then moved
into the city with the bad life style that it had. So now he is on the run. Why did she look back. Maybe she wanted one last look at what she was loosing. Maybe she was going to miss the friends and clubs she had. I do not know.

Like the people looking at the clock in the back of the church, she was not looking forward. She was not worshiping the God who gave her freedom from death any more that we do when we clock watch in church.

God has something for us to do and we can not do it if we look back, only if we look forward. That is not to say that we can not take congratulations for what we have accomplished, just that we do not live in it. Life is moving forward and we must do so also.

Read through the Bible in historical order in one year:
Today:
Genesis 19:1-21:34
Tomorrow:
Genesis 22:1-24:67