“Lot was dragging his feet. The men grabbed Lot’s arm, and the arms of his wife and daughters—God was so merciful to them!—and dragged them to safety outside the city. When they had them outside, Lot was told, “Now run for your life! Don’t look back! Don’t stop anywhere on the plain—run for the hills or you’ll be swept away.” Then God rained brimstone and fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah—a river of lava from God out of the sky!—and destroyed these cities and the entire plain and everyone who lived in the cities and everything that grew from the ground.
But Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.”
Genesis 19:16-17, 24-26 MSG
I only post scriptures in King James Version for my own personal reasons. Today I chose the message Bible version. I believe this is the first time I have ever posted in this version. The reason is that it sets the tone for what I want to bring to your attention.
Too often God has warned us to leave where we are and in this case he wanted him to physically leave a place, but it is also symbolic of the state or condition he was surrounded by. Why stay in a place that’s wrong? Sodom and Gomorrah were plagued with sin. There was nothing good about the place. God instructed Lot to leave: Lot knew he needed to leave, but was dragging his feet. He was procrastinating.
Most times in our life we are well aware that God wants us to move from that particular place. If it’s God telling me to move from a job, a relationship, a family situation, or a condition or state (mentally or spiritually) we are in. Either way, God wants you to separate yourself from that place or move from there. A lot of times we are disobedient for so many reasons such as we are familiar and comfortable with the state we are in, we don’t want to leave the people we love who refuse to move, or because we are fearful of where we are going simply because of the unknown. Change is always uncomfortable.
Despite the many reasons you may think up to pacify and/or justify your reason for staying, the truth remains that if God told you to move and you don’t move, it’s disobedience. I don’t want to get into how you failing to obey God’s voice or instructions has its own consequences but I want to talk about why God is telling you to move. God does absolutely NOTHING to hurt you. God does everything for a reason. The things that God allows to happen to you that do cause hurt are always to HELP you get into your rightful position. God has a purpose and an assignment for you. When he sees that you are going down a wrong path or in the wrong direction, he does allow correction to happen, but it’s to get your attention so you get on the right path; it’s to get you into position. And most of the time the correction is to prevent you from the real destruction you may not see that’s up ahead.
If Lot would have stayed just a little while longer in the city, it would have cost him his life as well as the lives of his daughters. Being disobedient in this case would have ended in a death like his wife who turned around and looked back at the city God told them to flee from. I know that sounds extreme but it’s deeper than just a glance back. It showed her desire to remain in the wrong condition or state. It shows what was in her heart. One could even argue that it showed her disbelief or lack of trust in God as she felt what was behind her was better than what was in front of her.
Be careful what God has brought you out of and what you try to return to because God brought you out and away from it for a reason. And you turning around may be a precursor for you to actually return to the mess, the sin or the condition which may cost you your physical life, spiritual life, or both!
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