Remember Lot

By Billie Duty

As Lot and his family were urged to leave the city of Sodom they lingered even though they knew God was going to destroy it. They had to be led out by the hand. (Genesis 19) It appears that the things they were leaving behind were more important than their lives. I think many today feel this same way. We want to hold on to things of this world and lose our souls.

When I was at school and in the first grade, one day we had a fire drill. I had pictures of a doll that I wanted, in my pencil box in my desk. As all the children were leaving I was going through my desk to get my pencil box, because of the pictures in it (I feared I would lose my doll or at least the pictures of the doll and then I may never get her). The teacher had to lead me by the hand out of the class room. Of course, I was a child and did not realize the dangers but I will never forget this incident and after that day when the fire alarm sounded I knew to leave everything behind and get to safety with the others.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (1 Corinthians 13:11)

The Lord warns us to Remember Lot’s wife (Luke 17:32). We must be willling to leave behind the things of the world including family or close friends who will not give up the worldly wisdom. The angels of the Lord told Lot's family, "Do not look behind you" (Genesis 19:17) as they left the city of Sodom before it was destroyed.

Verses later we read... "But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. " (Genesis 19:26)

As we remember Lot's wife, let us “press... on forgetting what we have left behind and reach forward to the things which are ahead,”... (Philippians 3:12-13).