But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Teaching in a pre-school was a fun job, but the title phrase (watch where you are going) had to be one of my most frequent sayings to these new walkers. They were so excited to be upright and able to go quickly and do whatever they wanted to do that they frequently found themselves face to face with, well, just about anything else in the room. That often met with a session of ice, a time out and tears, depending on what or who they ran into! When I had my own children that history repeated itself until I would be so tired of saying that phrase I would just let them go and see what happened. (Only if the boys would be safe, of course.) Same result, tears, ice, time out (on Mom’s lap.)
It may be just our nature to want to look back, but there are times when it is downright deadly! Take Lot’s wife for example. In Genesis 19:14-26 we read the story of the destruction of Sodom. It was a wicked city, not unlike what we are seeing in the country today. There was rampant sexual perversion, and it was accepted, and celebrated in the city. (Remember when Obama lit the White House in rainbow colors to celebrate the perversion of homosexuality?) While Lot, Abraham’s nephew did not participate in the sinful behavior himself, he nevertheless condoned it. God is not pleased with that. Instead of moving away from the wicked city, Lot stayed, did business there, raised his children there, and finally had to escape from there!
Sometimes our hearts still long for that certain lifestyle that we had before. Even when we are convicted of a sin, even when we know in our hearts it is wrong, we still keep a ‘memento’ of that thing with us. We want to have it somewhere in our memory, or a secret drawer, to remind us of the fun we had before we gave up that ‘sin.’ Yes, sin can be fun, for a while…until it’s not! Many people got tangled into a sinful situation and the enemy kept them there longer than they wanted to be, and they got caught. Maybe caught in an affair that breaks up your marriage, and entire family. Maybe in drug addiction that leads to an arrest, prison, and ruin of your entire family. Maybe a small exaggeration on your employee expense report that gets audited by the IRS, and leads to unemployment, poverty, homelessness, and destruction of your family.
Whatever the situation is, the result can be devastating, destroying your family. It may not be as dramatic as it was for Lot’s wife, yet if we remember that ‘pillar of salt’ before we take a step toward sin, maybe we will turn our eyes toward the One who has the power to keep us from it. See God, and the messenger angels knew what the plan was before it actually happened. Lot’s wife looked back. Maybe she participated in that lifestyle and knew it would be no more. Maybe she had friends there that were living that life and she would miss them. Maybe she just could not leave the excitement of a large busy city for a pretty barren land where they would begin to re-build again. Whatever her reasoning, it only took one look and she became an example to the rest of us of disobedience.
See, one small look, a thought, a memory or memento can give the enemy a ‘crack in the door.’ He is shrewd, cunning and wily. He will enter even the tiny openings in our hearts, IF we allow it. In Genesis 4:8 God says ‘sin crouches at the door, but we must master it.’ It is possible to master it, with God’s help, our willingness and awareness. We must always be ‘watching where we are going!’
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