Keep Looking Ahead | Luke 17:32

Remember Lot’s wife.

Luke 17:32

You don’t know her name, or much of anything about her, but you are commanded to remember her, to learn from her, to allow her life to be a warning to yours. I am speaking, of course, of Lot’s wife.

Jesus warned the people of His day to “remember Lot’s wife.” He gave this warning in the context of being prepared for His second coming, when He returns to establish His kingdom. Jesus warned His disciples that, in that day, they should not hesitate in going out to meet the Lord. They should be prepared for immediate departure. They should not allow their possessions to hold them back, and they should not allow their work to hold them back (Luke 17:31). They should remember Lot’s wife.

Lot’s wife obeyed the angel of the Lord and fled Sodom and Gomorrah with her husband and their children (Genesis 19:17). But, as they were fleeing, she looked back. Even though the angel of the Lord commanded her to not look behind her as she fled, she looked back anyway. God punished her for doing so. She became a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26).

Why should you remember Lot’s wife? Because she looked back at the wicked cities she was being delivered from. The cities that God was raining brimstone and fire upon, the cities that were under God’s wrath and judgment for their sexual immorality, the cities that Lot’s wife was commanded to not look back at, she looked back at. And God punished her for doing so.

If you have been delivered from a sexual sin, such as looking at pornography or masturbation, God doesn’t want you to look back. He doesn’t want you to look back at the websites, apps, TV shows, movies and other sexual immorality that ensnared you. God doesn’t want you to look back upon sins that he is one day going to judge with divine wrath. He doesn’t want you to look back at your sinful past while He is in the process of delivering you from it. Looking back comes at a cost—your eternal soul. So, remember Lot’s wife. Keep looking ahead.