2010 is upon us folks, welcome to a new year, a new decade and a new season of possibilities. How many of you are excited about what God has in store in 2010? This will be a year of planning for future growth and taking steps of faith, to see God’s plans unveiled before our eyes. This kind of talk gets me so excited and passionate, but God would offer a word of warning to all of us this morning. As we look forward with great anticipation remember Lot’s wife, whoever clings to this life will lose it, and whoever loses this life will save it. One of the defining characteristics about Christians should be a people that are perpetually going forward. Pressing on into new things, new victories, new depths in relationship with God, and new Kingdom successes. Is that what your life looks like? Lot’s wife was on the brink of a brand new life with God. In His grace God rescued them from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but she never made it too far out f the city because she looked back. Where are you looking this morning? Forward in faith or are you looking back? I want to learn some lessons from this story this morning that will help you make the most of 2010.
Sodom and Gomorrah were cities of wickedness so rampant that God was going to destroy them. 2 angels came to get Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and his family out of the city. Lot had moved to this area when him and Abraham had separated and he had settled into the city and in the midst of this wickedness Lot had remained a godly man. Although the men of the city wanted the angels for themselves, Lot protected them and listened to their warning about God’s plans. The angels gave them this warning in verses 15-17. It would be this last command that Lot’s wife would break and it cost her life.
1. It’s in our nature to turn
Sodom and Gomorrah were 2 cities renown for sin and absolute corruption. Lot was a godly man, yet somehow he had found his way into this city and had a family there. Lot’s wife was ready to follow her husband out of the city, but remember that this was her hometown. Might have been easy for Lot to leave, but everything she knew was here: friends, family, home and all her possessions. As they are running from the city with the words of the angels still fresh in her mind she looks back. Why on earth would she do that? Because it is in our nature to look back, even go back to things in our past. It doesn’t matter how clear a warning she got she still did it; she gave into her nature.
Ever get warned about something and you did it anyway? I remember growing up and my father telling me that it’s dangerous to put your finger into outlets and light sockets, very wise words, but one day, despite the warnings, I did it anyway. I stuck my thumb into a light socket and stood there paralyzed and shaking until someone pulled it out. It is in our nature to look back, even with terrible warnings. Why do we do it? It’s all about what we want and our curiosity to see if it might be good. Somewhere in our logic we think there might be something good back there for us, which is the same logic the dog uses when going back to its vomit (Prov. 26:11). It’s not any more complicated than that, but the repercussions of such actions can be devastating. Parents give warnings, teachers give warnings, pastors give warnings and still people turn back to old things. That is what we must resist with the full armor that Paul talks about in Eph. 6.
2. Mercy is a precious gift
One of the significant points of this story is that God had mercy on Lot’s family. God sent angels to get them out of the city and ensure their safety. The fact that God cared enough for them and Abraham to do this was something amazing. It was going to be hard for them to leave everything and just run away, but they were going to be alive, and they had the promise of a future. This was something that God didn’t need to do, it was something to be appreciated enough to respond in unwavering obedience, but she looked back. She treated this special gift as cheap by disobeying the angel’s instructions. The appropriate response to salvation needs to be a grateful and submitted heart.
Do you know that when we disobey God we treat his gift of mercy, salvation, cheaply, as though it were insignificant? When we think about the great sacrifice that was made on our behalf, so that we could know God, we should be amazed. Why would God do all of that just for me? It reveals His love and the importance He places on you. When we turn back though, take our eyes off of Him and disobey, we telling Him that He is not God, we are. His gift, however meaningful when you received it, now means nothing. We need to treat the gift given with a grateful and submitted heart, which is evidenced by not turning back to our old lives.
3. The wages of sins have not changed
2 angels brought some very sobering and difficult news to Lot and his family. It would have been very difficult for Lot’s wife to leave because this was her home, where her family and friends lived. When dawn came the next morning the angels insisted that they leave and they hesitated, almost in shock about what they were saying. The angels grabbed them led them outside the city and told them to run. They begin to run, but as they do Lot’s wife, running from everything and everyone she knew and in verse 26 she looks back and is instantly turned into a pillar of salt. Dead instantly, just as the angels said, simply because she looked back. Does the punishment warrant the crime? Matthew Henry says, “This seemed a small thing, but we are sure, by the punishment of it, that it was a great sin, and exceedingly sinful. She disobeyed an express command, like those who came before her, Adam and Eve.” God did exactly what He said He would.
Imagine what that would be like: stress, panic, confusion and I’m sure a few other emotions as well. Without any time to really digest what is happening you are rushed out from everything that you know and told not to look back. Do you think you could do it as your friends and family burned? Do you think you would wonder if the punishment would really be death? Surely I could get away with one peek. I cannot stress to you the importance of fearing the Lord; the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). I know we like to focus on the grace and saving nature of God, but He is also just and severe in holding people to instructions that He has clearly outlined, just ask Adam and Eve, Moses, David, and Ananias and Sapphira. Only those who continually walk looking forward at God will enter his kingdom, God is very clear on this.
Conclusion
The punishment of Lot’s wife for this sin: She was struck dead where she stood; yet her body did not fall down, but stood fixed and erect like a monument to disobedience. Look at the goodness and severity of God (Rom. 11:22), towards Lot, who obeyed, goodness; towards his wife, who disobeyed, severity. Only living a life pleasing to God, like Jesus, will be acceptable when we stand before Him. You never know what your next look back will cost you, maybe everything. Paul would encourage us this morning, since it is such a dangerous thing to look back, “let us always press forward, we are still not all we should be, so lets focus all our energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Phil. 3:13-14). As we get excited for 2010, can I encourage you to head the word of the Lord. Don’t look back, press forward in obedience. Resist your nature, embrace God’s mercy and sin no more. What do you keep looking back at? Is it addiction that you know you should have walked away from years ago? Is it a relationship that you know is poisones? Is it bitterness about the past that you should have forgiven? What is it back there that is causing you to be disobedient and will cause damage to what God wants to do in 2010?
