Lessons From Lot’s Wife

From the heart of Dr. R. L. Taylor, Th.D., Bible Teacher & Expositor. It is important to live life with a thankful heart and an awareness of its brevity. The past is a part of who we are and those experiences help develop our character. But God has us on a forward-moving track, one that ultimately leads to our final, complete state as believers in which we’re fully sanctified, conformed to the image of Christ, and given immortal, resurrected bodies, free from sin and suffering! When we look back and remain stuck in the past, we lose sight of Jesus which can cause us to miss the mercy of God. Jesus told us to, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32). Indeed, it was not the curious gaze of one witnessing some miraculous destruction that turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt. It was the longing and desire in her heart that caused her backward look. A coveting of what she had left behind in Sodom is what ended her life. She looked back because she wanted to go back. She left behind material wealth and comfort so life in Sodom must have looked a lot nicer than the one in front of her. She looked back to the world instead of forward to God’s plan for her life. “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26). Lot's wife was looking back to the past she had in the town of Sodom. Looking forward and not backward is a concept that gets repeated in the Bible fairly frequently. It's a good lesson. It’s a life lesson, and for a Christian leaving worldly things and moving to the more spiritual, it's a necessity! Lot’s wife reminds us to live in the moment, as we encounter the present. We’re to be fully engaged with the current experience, free from distractions of the past or worries about the future, and to appreciate the richness of each moment with God. If your spiritual gaze were frozen this very moment, where would it be fixed? Paul reminds us, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Be encouraged!