Don't Look Back

There are some sentences in Scripture that land like a thunderclap

though they contain only three or four words.

“Jesus wept.”

“Be still.”

“Follow Me.”

And then there is this one, spoken by Jesus Himself,

with no explanation attached: “Remember Lot’s wife.”

That’s it.

No commentary.

No footnote.

No elaboration.

Just a warning wrapped in a woman’s silhouette, a backward glance, and a story nearly as old as civilization itself.

When Jesus preached those words, the disciples heard more than a history lesson. They heard a spiritual alarm—one meant to ring across the centuries to the last generation, the generation living when the Son of Man returns. Because that’s exactly the context Jesus used: “In the day when the Son of Man is revealed… Remember Lot’s wife.”

It’s a strange thing to build a sermon around, isn’t it? We don’t know her name. We don’t know her age. We don’t know what her laugh sounded like or how she braided her hair or whether she was shy or outspoken. The Bible doesn’t give her a biography. It gives her only a direction—and a decision.

A direction from God…

and a decision in her heart.

And her decision did something your decisions do every time: it revealed what she loved most.

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>> The First Revival Message in the Bible Was a Warning, Not a Whisper

When the angels came to Sodom, they did not offer a seminar or a symposium. They offered mercy. They offered rescue. They offered the hand of God extended into a doomed city, saying, “Come with us. Get up. Leave now.” But the text says, “Lot lingered.” And then it adds something tender and shocking: “the angels seized him by the hand… for the Lord being merciful unto him.”

Mercy sometimes grabs you.

Mercy sometimes drags you out of what you won’t walk away from.

Mercy sometimes interrupts what you thought you wanted.

But Lot’s wife shows us something deeper:

Mercy can drag your feet out of a place,

but it cannot drag your affections.

It can pull your body through the gate,

but it cannot pull your heart from what you’ve chosen to love.

When Jesus said, “Remember Lot’s wife,” He wasn’t looking to drag us back into Old Testament archaeology. He was showing us the danger of half-surrendered hearts.

Because storms are coming.

The night is falling on this world.

The Son of Man will return.

And the greatest danger to God’s people in the last days is not persecution, not scarcity, not politics, not conspiracies…

It is misplaced affection.

A heart tied to the wrong thing.

A love rooted in the wrong soil.

A life facing the right direction but leaning toward the past.

Lot’s wife wasn’t destroyed because she looked back with her eyes—she looked back with her longing.

God was calling her forward,

but her heart was anchored behind.

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>> The Backward Glance That Reveals the Inner World

The Book says she “looked back.”

Not casually.

Not curiously.

The Hebrew implies she regarded, she considered, she turned back toward with desire.

It was a longing glance.

A tethered glance.

A glance that said:

“I can leave the city,

but I cannot leave the life.”

That’s why Jesus gives this warning to the people living before His return. Because in the last days, the battlefield is not Babylon. It’s not politics. It’s not economics.

The battlefield will be the affections of your heart.

Lot’s wife had been touched by angels.

She had seen miracles.

She had heard God’s warning.

She had walked through the very streets where fire would fall.

But her heart never migrated.

She left Sodom physically,

but Sodom never left her spiritually.

And friend, it’s possible to attend church faithfully, pray sincerely, believe earnestly, and still have a heart attached to something God is calling you to walk away from.

It’s possible to be outwardly moving with God

and inwardly resisting Him.

It’s possible to take the right steps

with the wrong heart.

This is the revival message Jesus gives us:

“Remember Lot’s wife.

Remember what happens when your heart refuses to follow your feet.

Remember that the direction of your longing becomes the direction of your life.”

You can only move toward what you love most.

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>> The Mercy That Leads You Out Isn’t the Same as the Faith That Keeps You Moving

It’s interesting:

Lot’s wife made it farther than most people ever do.

She left Sodom.

She fled the flames.

She walked under the same sky of mercy.

She made it all the way to the outskirts of God’s deliverance.

In other words,

she almost made it.

And there is a terrible truth embedded right there:

There are people who will almost be saved.

Almost surrendered.

Almost committed.

Almost ready.

Almost delivered.

But revival isn’t for “almost Christians.”