Jesus makes a very simple statement that relates to a very big problem: our ability to walk away from our old life. This statement to remember Lot’s wife is sandwiched between Jesus’ discussion on how God’s judgment came upon man while he went through his everyday life thinking of the great things he would do tomorrow, but their tomorrow brought only their destruction. And between His discussions on how a changing of our ways will keep us from that destruction.
As we know from Scripture, Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt after she looked back at the city of Sodom, where she lived, which was being destroyed by the Lord. Now was her punishment because she disobeyed the command given by the angles to not look back as they fled? Or was it because of the reason she looked back? I would say that she was punished for both. God did not want them to look back because He wants us to trust in His direction and future for our lives. When we look back we are saying in our hearts that I miss where I came from and am unsure of where God is leading me. So we can read in Genesis 19:26 that Lot’s wife looked back and in so doing was turned into a pillar of salt. In this verse we need to understand that the original Hebrew language has the words “looked back” to indicate that she took a longing look upon the city, a look that indicated she wanted what she left and not what God was saving her from or from what new life He was going to give them.
(Give some examples of what she was looking back to)
So in looking back to our scripture in Luke we see that Jesus is telling the disciples, as well as us, that we should not be looking back at the things of the world and our old life when He has a better life awaiting us. So don’t look back with longing for the life you lived before receiving Christ.
“Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.” Luke 17:33
Again Jesus is letting us know that we need to give up our old ways and look to His ways for our lives. Cast out the old man and let the born-again man live to please our Father in heaven.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
When we accepted Christ as our Lord and savior we have signed a contract with Him to follow His lead and not to long for the things of this world, to look forward to the eternal things and not worry so much about the earthly things. In being a disciple of Christ we are to press forward toward the mark that God has set before us. Because when we look back while we are walking we will run into or fall into something. Don’t look back; keep an eye on what lays ahead for you.
“And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:61-62
In this scripture we see that Jesus wants us to look to the greater priorities that God wants for us, and to not let the lesser priorities of life cause use to look back at the way we were. Again, we should not let life’s lesser priorities become greater priorities than God’s work because we then become little use to Him, and we become unfit or unusable for His service. Remember that you can not plough a straight line if you are looking back at the row you ploughed or for that fact anything behind you. For this let us use as an example 1 Kings 19:19-21; this is where Elisha is plowing the field with his oxen and Elijah walks by him, and as scripture tells us, that Elijah cast his mantle upon Elisha. And we see in verse 20 that Elisha quickly understood that he was being called into service for God. But he replies to Elijah that if could go and kiss his father and mother goodbye; to which, Elijah replied that he should just go back then. But we can see in verse 21 that Elisha takes the very tools he was used to working with and burned them, leaving him nothing to return to. Elisha when called by God burned his bridge to his old life and started looking forward to the new life God had for him. Don’t look back, because in doing so you will make crooked the straight path that leads to Christ.
Let us not look back with a distorted view of where God has brought us from and compare that with where He has brought us to. Here also is where God asks us to not look back at, because we can sometimes view our old life as if we were a prince of a palace, when in actuality we were the drunk of the boarding home. Having newness in Christ we sometimes look to our old life and see things that were not there. We have an example of this kind of view when we read about the children of Israel, how after being delivered out of the hand of bondage by the Egyptians, and saved by the parting of the waters of the Red Sea they look back at their old condition and believe that they would have been better off remaining as slaves. They were to busy looking back that they failed to see all of the things God had done along the way:
• They cried for freedom and God set them free
• They thirsted for water and God sweetened biter waters with a tree branch and allowed it to flow from a rock
• They cried for food to eat and God gave them bread from heaven
Let us not distort our old way of life as we lived before the saving grace of Christ lifted us from out of the gutter. Don’t look back upon it, but look forward to the wonders that Christ has in store for you. And when you do look back, look back upon what He has done for you to get you where you are today. You may not be where you think you should be, but you are where He wants you to be. Remember that God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts’ are not our thoughts’. He has a plan for our lives that we just cannot fully understand. But know that God is unfolding it before your eyes day by day.
For a lot of us we let the guilt of our past life keep us from reaping the rewards of our new life in Christ. Let us not be shackled by the things that we used to do and those things that remain hidden from our past life without Christ. We need to remember that Christ has washed us with His blood and the things that we have done wrong in the past have been forgiven and that we no longer need worry about them surfacing because those things were done in the ignorance of God’s grace and those things were done in the ignorance of Jesus’ gift of salvation. Remember that those things in our past are washed away and can never be used to shame us, because they were done by the old man. In Christ we are now a new man. And we can see in scriptures that we are not alone in the area of past guilt’s’:
• Jacob, with the stealing of his brothers birth-right
• Moses, having to deal with his murder of an Egyptian
• Samson, with his continued flaunts with temptation
• David, with the affair and murder
• Solomon, with his indulgences with everything worldly
• Peter, with his denial of Jesus
• Paul, with his murderous ways against all things Christ
Paul the apostle tells us in Philippians 3:12-14:
“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 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, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Paul is also emphasizing the idea of not looking back at the way we were, but to continue to look forward to those things that await us as children of God. To look forward to the riches in heaven and not to waste our time on the corruptible things of this world that will soon pass away. Those corruptible things being:
• Your past achievements before you were saved by Christ
• Those achievements after you were saved by Christ
Scripture tells us that we brought nothing into this world and that we will take nothing out. Paul in these verses is telling us to not let the guilt’s of our past from becoming something that keeps us from moving forward. He tells us to not look back on those things that we have done wrong because we have been washed by the blood of Christ. And we need to know that our Father in heaven and just to forgive our sins and throw them into the sea of forgetfulness. The Father does not want to look back on your past life, so why should you look back on and allow it to keep you from being the person that God wants you to be. History is a great teacher if you use it to press you forward. Because you can also use it to came you down.
Lot’s wife looked back in longing for her old life and it kept her down. Will you let your old life be a hindrance or a help? The writer of Hebrews puts it this way:
“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2
Jesus never looked back at where He came from…He lived in heaven with the Father, but came down here to redeem man. Had He looked back we would not have the salvation that was placed into His hands to deliver man from the grips of sin. Jesus continued to look forward to His task at hand. So let you light so shine and don’t look back as you journey to the Father, working out your own soul salvation.
