Recently I rediscovered the story of Lot in the Old Testament.   Lot is a character in the Old Testament that has a story that perhaps we can all learn from.  He moved his family to the city of Sodom, a land of great beauty, however it was also a place of great and grievous sin.  One evening once Lot and his family had settled into the city, two angels appeared to Lot.  The angels told Lot that he and his family needed to leave Sodom because the Lord was about to destroy the city.   Everyone will be “swept away.”  (Genesis 19:14)  The city was about to be punished for it’s evil ways.  Lot had found favor in God’s eyes and God  considered Lot’s family righteous.  So God decided to save Lot’s  family from destruction.  Lot’s wife and two daughters were led safely out of the city, “for the Lord was merciful to them.”  (Genesis 19: 16)  

One of the angels gave Lot these instructions, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain!  Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”  (Genesis 19:17)

Instead of fleeing to the mountains, Lot pleaded with the angels to let him and his family go to a small city not far away called Zoar.  

Once in Zoar, the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities of evil were destroyed.  There’s one key element here that has a very profound impact on this story, as the cities were being destroyed, Lot’s wife, “looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”  (Genesis 19:26)  That’s it, that’s all that is said about his wife, she became a pillar of salt, why?  Because she looked back.  What did the Lord command Lot and his family to do?   Do not look back, but move forward, keep going.  This story is mentioned again in the New Testament in Luke 17:28-29, 32.  (Luke 17:32 just says, “Remember Lot’s wife!)  

I find that quite interesting that her desire to look back was compensated with death!  I read in a reference guide regarding this passage that perhaps God used Lot’s wife as an example of how we want so badly to cling to the past instead of moving forward with God.  You can’t go back for anything!   

God calls us to a new life, one that is totally focused on Him.  He gives us eternal life. 

In this time of Covid-19, we are in a state of isolation, uncertainty and there is a great void in our lives with social distancing.  I find myself wanting to look back and remember that just a few months ago we were active in the community, moving about freely without restrictions and free from wearing facial masks.   We washed our hands but didn’t even consider that we were actually washing our hands the wrong way.  The use of  hand sanitizers was a novelty, not something that we did everyday except if you were a student at school, you might skip washing hands and squirt a few drops of hand sanitizer on each hand, rub them together  and off to lunch you go…  

And yet times have changed, we can’t look back, we can only look forward.  The future will be different.  That is for sure.  No one knows what  the days ahead will bring.  We wait with great expectation on when we can start to feel like normal again, and yet nothing will be normal, there is no going back.  We must keep our eyes fixed ahead.  This is the time when we need more than ever to trust in God even as we move into the unknown.  

One important life lesson to take away from Lot’s story is, we can lead a God honoring life even in the midst of a society that chooses not to, we can stand firm in God’s word and uphold righteousness.  “Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid or terrified, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”
( Deuteronomy 31:6)  

God is with us, even in the darkness of night when we feel so helpless and uncertain of what the new day will bring.  Hold tight to the word of God, He is our fortress, our strength and our shield.  He is our rock, our solid foundation.  When we trust in Him, there is no need to look back.