Looking forward

DEVOTION

GENESIS

LOOKING FORWARD

Gen 19:23-26

23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah — from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities — and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

NIV

Lot was on the move, leaving behind everything as the angels had taken Lot, his wife and their two daughters by the hand and led them out of the city. It would appear Lot and his family had no time to pack up the valuables, or anything for that matter. Now maybe they did and we are just not told about it, but it would seem they left in a hurry and did not have much time to think about the move and prepare properly. In addition, if it was just the four of them, they could only take what they could carry, unless they had a pack mule which, again, we are not told about. So let us not interject what is not there and simply believe it was the four of them and them alone. Leaving in a hurry, a very big hurry they would have not been able to gather much. So they get to Zoar, which we find out means small. It is sunrise now and the Lord bringing down a rain of burning sulfur upon these cities and the entire plain, including all those who were living in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. This included all vegetation. In today’s technology we could say, God napalmed the whole area. This raining down from heaven, the skies with burning sulfur might be the concept some people have developed of what hell is like. Flee from the life you have here in Sodom, flee and you will be spared. This was the message he was given, flee, get out of here, disaster awaits this city and if you don’t flee you will experience it along with all those whose sin is so grievous it cries out to the Lord. Surely this is the lesson for us, yet with even more to it than just fleeing. First we need to see that once we decided to flee, once we heard the voice of the Lord calling us to flee our lives, to run to him, to accept him as our Lord and Savior, we have escaped the impending rain of burning sulfur that will once again rain down from heaven and destroy not just a couple of cities, but the whole earth. We have left that life behind, we can take nothing of it with us. We cannot pack up all the ways of our life and take them with us into this new life in Christ.

2 Cor 5:17-18

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

NIV

It cannot be any clearer than that. We are no longer citizens of this world,

Phil 3:17-21

17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

NIV   

Eph 2:19-20

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

NIV

We have fled from the old life, the citizenship in this world, as Lot fled from Sodom, to no longer live there. He had to start a whole new life, leaving all behind, his citizenship, his position, his possessions, everything behind. Certainly when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we do not have to leave all our possessions behind, nor leave our home and travel to some far off place. But we do need to leave our citizenship with this world behind, we need to forfeit our rights as citizens of the world in order to be citizens of heaven. We cannot hold dual citizenship, we cannot serve two masters. Yet, as we make that transition from the city of darkness and death into the city of Light and Life, we cannot even glance back. Lot’s wife did just that, and her fate was being turned into a pillar of salt. There can be no turning back, as the lyrics of that sang so appropriately say.

1.    I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back.

2.    Though I may wonder, I still will follow;
Though I may wonder, I still will follow;
Though I may wonder, I still will follow;
No turning back, no turning back.

3.    The world behind me, the cross before me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
The world behind me, the cross before me;
No turning back, no turning back.

These lyrics are based on a conversation a man had with Jesus.

Luke 9:57-62

57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."  59 He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."  61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." 62 Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." 

NIV

There it is, once we have put our hand to the plow, once we decided to follow Jesus, if we look back with that wander lust for our old life, we are not fit for service in the kingdom of God. This does not mean we have to be without anything, far from it. God blesses us beyond measure, but the point is the old life of self-indulgence, self-orientation, living completely for self is gone. We have fled our attitudes about life. We have fled the sin which condemned us. Not that we are without sin now, but we have been redeemed. Although we can return to the world, we can forfeit our citizenship in heaven and return to a life of darkness and death, it would be a disaster. Again we cannot hold that dual citizenship, once we have been born again a new creature in Christ, we hold a heavenly citizenship. In all reality there can be no turning back. We cannot even look back. We have said it before and most likely will say it again; if we are chained to our past, we cannot move into our future. We have to give the old life up completely and keep our eyes on Jesus.

Heb 12:2-3

2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

NIV

Let us keep looking up, looking forward, the past is past and the future is before us.