Don't Look Back

Well, good afternoon and happy Sabbath to one and all. Also, we say greetings to those joining us over the internet. Hope you're having a fine Sabbath day as well. Well, brethren, what do you think about when you think about Lot's wife? If her name comes up in a conversation, what comes to mind? Or even right now, I've mentioned her name, Lot's wife. What kind of thoughts do we have in our mind? What do we think about her? Actually, she's more than about a pillar of salt. Actually, we're instructed by Jesus Christ to consider her example as we go forward. So today we're going to do just that. We're going to take a look at the example of Lot's wife and see what we can learn from it.

We're going to take a look at a couple of lessons that we can learn from her example. Turn back to Genesis the 19th chapter, Genesis the 19th chapter, and we'll start by looking at the account of Lot's wife in the Bible.

Actually, there's not a great deal said about her, but what is said is important. After all, it's in the Bible. Genesis 19 is a familiar passage, I think, to most of us. I'm not going to do a lot of reading, but I will do some reading, I'll do some paraphrasing, and I'll do some skipping ahead. So Genesis 19 in verse 1, it talks about the angels coming to Sodom with a mission to destroy the city. Lot offers the angels his hospitality and takes them into his house, and the angels end up protecting Lot and protecting his family.

And then dropping down to about verse 15, they give instructions to Noah and his family. Genesis 19 in verse 15, where it says, when the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry of saying, Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city. And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, that's the angels, took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being very merciful to him.

And they brought him out and set him outside the city. So it came to pass when they had brought them outside the city that an angel said, Escape for your life. Do not look behind you, nor stay anywhere on the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you become destroyed. So here they have clear instructions of what they're supposed to do, where they're supposed to go. And then dropping down into verse 23, it said, The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zor.

This is still the following day. Then the Lord rained, 24, then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, and the Lord from out of Heavens. Excuse me, I'll read that again.

And it rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the Heavens. So he overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But his wife, this is Lot's wife, looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

That concisely is what is stated as far as Lot's wife is concerned. And this also brings us to the first lesson that we can learn from her example. The first lesson is obedience is important. Obedience is important. Turn back to Matthew 7, Matthew 7, and I'll start reading in verse 21. Matthew 7, where Christ talks about obedience, talks about what we need to be doing. Matthew 7, starting in verse 21.

Again, we'll take a look at instructions from Jesus Christ. It says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will come to me in that day, saying, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me you who practice lawlessness.

Obedience is pretty stern. This is a pretty stern warning that Christ is giving, saying, you know, I never knew you. That's just a terrible thing to contemplate, hearing those words. Continuing on in verse 24, Christ gives a parable regarding obedience. Again, it's nothing new, but it's always good to rehearse these things. Verse 24, it says, Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock.

So again, he's being obedient. And verse 25, In the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat on the house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. And then in verse 26, it's everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them. In other words, they're not obedient. They will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

And the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat on the house, and it fell, and great was the fall. So here again some instructions from Jesus Christ. A parable regarding obedience. We need to both hear and to do. We need to be doers of the Word. The apostle James talks about faith and works. The two do go together. It takes understanding and it takes action in order to be a good Christian.

So that's lesson number one. Obedience is important. Lesson number two is don't look back. Don't look back. Let's turn to Numbers 11 to look at an illustration of this example. Numbers 11 chapter, and again I'll do some reading and some paraphrasing. This is the example of Old Testament Israel as they were coming out of Egypt and they're wandering in the wilderness. Obviously things were not going well for them. So what do they do?

Typically Israelites, or typical Israelites? They complained. So Numbers 11 chapter starting in verse 1 it says, Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. So God was not happy with their complaining. Says, For the Lord heard it, and his anger was aroused.

So the fire of the Lord came and burned among them. So God heard them complaining. He heard them complaining. They complained, dropping down to verse 4, about a lack of food. Now the mixed multitude who were with them yielded an intense craving. So the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who will give us meat to eat? The margin of my Bible says, for intense craving of lust seriously, lust intensely. So there was really a lot of complaining and a lot of lusting going on, a lot of problems in that way.

They longed for the good old days. Continuing on in verse 5 it says, We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic. But now our whole being is dried up, and there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes. So they were complaining about a lack of food, about not having their appetites met.

They longed for the so-called good old days. And I always set up a postscript on that, the good old days that never were. Each time has its problems, each time has its difficulties, and they certainly had their time of difficulties in Egypt. Think about that. They wanted to go back into Egypt. Why would they want to do that? Think about the situation they had when they were in Egypt. They were slaves. They were under the lash, under the whip. They yearned to go back to Egypt, but again, the Egyptians were murdering their babies.

It wasn't a good place to go back to. It just wasn't. But somehow it looked better than the current situation. But their situation in Egypt, as I mentioned, is not that good. Sometimes we do not appreciate for the good things that we have. We do not show proper appreciation. We romanticize the things the way they used to be. Probably one of the best things about what used to be is they're in the past. We survived that, and now we go forward looking for something else to grow and to overcome in.

We tend to romanticize the past, thinking that it really was better than, you know, I have fond memories of the past. It really was better than what it is now. We have a selective memory. Today, you know, some might ask the question this way, you know, in the year 2025. I say, God, you know, why did you call me now? It's really a very bad question to ask. You know, why was I called now? My old ways were better. Couldn't you have let me alone for a few years and then call me in the future, you know, when I've gotten older or something? Again, it's really a very poor question to ask, but it's modernizing what the Israelites were essentially saying back then.

They're saying, you know, their old ways were better, Egypt was better, and it really wasn't. Dropping down to verse 10, it said, Turn back to Philippians, the third chapter. Let's jump over to the New Testament.

Philippians the third chapter. I'll start reading in verse 7, and we'll see some instructions from the apostle Paul. Philippians 3, and starting in verse 7, Paul says, So here's instructions from the apostle Paul. He made a comparison to what he had now versus what he had in the past, and he's concluded that what he has now at that time, what he has now is much better than going backwards in the past. He did not want to go back to being a Pharisee.

He did not want to go back to his old ways. He knew when he had a good thing coming. He concluded, as I say, that he is better off now than he was before. Dropping down to verse 12, it says, Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold for that which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

Brethren, I do not have count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God and Christ Jesus. Paul was living his life day by day, living by faith, going forward. As I said, he did not want to go back to his old ways.

He knew when he had a good thing, and he decided to keep that good thing. What God has for us now, and in the future, is much better than anything that we have in the rearview mirror, looking back. So, brethren, these are a couple of lessons to learn from the example of Lot's wife. Lesson number one, obedience is important. Obedience is important. Lesson number two is not to desire to return to our own ways.

Turn to Luke 17, Luke 17, and I'll read verse 32. Luke 17 and verse 32. As I mentioned in the message, we need to press forward and not look back, not to look where we were, but where we're going. Not to yearn for the so-called good old days. As Christ instructed us in Luke 17, verse 32, this one verse, Remember Lot's wife.