March 30, 2008

Scripture reading Proverbs 4:25-27

Today I want to talk about a true pillar of the Old testament. I wanted to give a prize to anyone who could name the person I= m referring to. This is a hard question because there are so many to chose from: Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, the list goes on and on. Do I have any guesses? A true pillar of the Old Testament. Anyone? Actually the person I was looking for doesn't even have a name, she will forever be known, as Lot=s wife. Joseph wrote, @ she was changed into a pillar of salt, for I have seen it and it remains at this day.@  She became a true pillar of the Old Testament. Forever looking over the valley that was her home, on the Hill of Sodom on the western shore of the dead sea.

We all know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. The twin cities of wickedness. They were so bad God was going to wipe them off the map. But on the way to do this He and a couple angels stop to visit with Abraham. I= m backing up in the story just to show how wicked they had become. He tells Abraham what He= s planning to do and Abraham=  s pleads with the Lord to spare the cities, because his nephew Lot lives there. Abraham asked the Lord if the cities would be destroyed if 50 righteous people were found? No the Lord says, A He will spare the city if 50 righteous are found.@  And they continue this exchange by 5's and 10's all the way down to 10. If this was one of your kids you would want to tell them to be quiet. But God is patient with Abraham, and is probably pleased that the future father of His people has compassion. Anyway at this point Abraham thought he was pushing his luck because surly there would be 10 righteous people in the area, and the Lord hadn=t turned him into a grease spot yet. But as we know there was not even 10 righteous people found and God destroyed the place. That= s how wicked they had become. But He did spare Lot who was Abraham= s nephew and his family. Unfortunately Lot= s wife didn=t fair as well.

Let= s turn in our bibles to Genesis 19 and read how this drama played out Genesis 19 page -13- in your pew bibles. We=  ll start on verse 15.

With the coming of the dawn the angels urged Lot, saying, A Hurry! (Exclamation point) Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.@ When he hesitated, the two men grasped his hands and the hands of his wife and daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, A 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.

Then I= ll condense a bit now. Lot pleads with them to let him go to a nearby city instead of the mountains and the angels consent. V.23 By the time they reach Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah- from the Lord out of heaven. Thus He over threw those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the plain including all those living in the cities- and also the vegetation in the land. There is nothing left of Sodom and Gomorrah. The bible places them at or near the Dead Sea, which is the lowest place on earth at 1,300 feet below sea level. And even though fresh water flows in, nothing flows out making the mineral and salt content 9 times greater than the ocean. It is so dense it is impossible for a body to sink. Nothing can live in it. If we look back a couple pages to Chapter 13:10 we see that, When Lot settled in this region it was a fertile plain, the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered like the garden of the Lord. So the area went from being a fertile plain to becoming a wasteland. God not only destroyed the cities but He even licked up the soil and the rocks, making it so nothing or nobody would ever want to live there ever again. These people had it so good living in such a fertile area that they didn=t need God, from whom all blessing flow. And instead cultivated their wickedness.

Back to Chapter 19: 26. But Lot= s wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt.

The burning question for today. Why did Lot= s wife look back? And How does this apply to us today? All these stories are here for us to learn from, and if we fail to learn from history we are destined to repeat the same mistakes.

Poor Lot= s wife will forever stand as an example of those who look back on their former way of life with longing. Lot was a rich and influential man. He and Abraham were traveling together until their herds got so big the land could not support both of them, so they parted company. Abraham stayed as a nomad and Lot took up residence in town.

The same problem that killed Lot= s wife can over take us all. Basically sin. So many times as people we like to group sins into categories. We have big sins, like those that caused God to wipe out the whole region, and we have little sins like disobedience, or materialism that killed Lot= s wife. But you know that all sin is fatal. There is no big sin or little sin to God.

Now Lot= s wife, was by all estimations, a worldly and materialistic woman. And we know, she failed to train up her daughters in the fear of the Lord or teach them good morals and proper behavior. Even though she knew the Lord. She had traveled with Abraham and when Lot and was taken captive, and Abraham came and rescued them, she was one of the ones rescued. So she was aware of God, and His dealing with Abraham, she had even met Melchizedek.. And from what we know of Lot, we can say she had a very righteous husband, in fact the only righteous man in the whole area. I was reading some funny saying of little kids. And one of them was kind of getting her bible stories confused. She said, A Lot= s wife was a pillar of salt by day and a ball of fire by night.@ There might have been some divine wisdom in that statement. We don= t know what Lot= s wife= s sin was, and why she was punished, other than for looking back.

But we might guess the lure of the sophisticated city life sucked her down. She had it good, she became a high society lady. And I= ll bet she loved it. She loved being the wife of one of the towns richest men. She loved going to the club for lunch with the girls, she loved her pedicures and facials, she loved her little sports car and all her servants. She loved her soft linen sheets and her beautiful clothes and her shoes and purses. Sorry ladies I didn =t mean to get personal, like a little old lady told me once, you= ve gone from preaching to meddling. I= ll bet Lot= s wife was thinking. Finally they were free from following Abraham around, where ever the Lord told them to go. Living in tents with all those stinking animals. Sure the people of Sodom were kind of edgy, but they were sophisticated and fun. Abraham never partied all night like these city folk. They never had all those good things to eat, and drink. Just the same old mutton stew day after day. They never had the opportunity to go to the theater or enjoy the finer things of life. And now these strange men were telling them they would have to leave all this. Lot would probably go back to his uncle Abraham. And she knew what that meant. No more late night parties, no more rich food and wine. No more servants and hot baths. Living in tents with all those stinking animals, heading for the, A promised land.@ She had found her promised land she was happy here. Why were these two strange men dragging them away. They seemed so insistent that they leave right now, she didn= t even have time to pack her china and all her clothes. Here we go again, off following God to the promised land. I hope all this craziness will blow over in a couple of days and then they could go back home, back to the good life. They were a couple miles away now, and the sun was coming up. The ground started shaking. What was happening. She turned back as the city exploded into flames, even the rock building and the walls seemed to be burning. Oh what was happening to her beloved city and the lifestyle she loved so much, it was all gone. She threw her hands across her face as she wept. Great salty tears as she became a pillar of salt.

It= s all about choices. She chose to love the things of the world more than the things of God. And it cost her life and her future, she will forever miss out on the promises of God.

Now I wanted to bring this story to you today because I don= t want any of us to repeat her mistake. We live in a very cushy time. We have the test of prosperity. Will we love God in the good times too? We have it so good here on earth there is a great danger that we can become like Lot= s wife and become so attached to the things of this world that we no longer yearn for heaven. We are all called to be pilgrims just like Abraham, wandering through this world on our way to the promised land. Jesus tells us where our treasures are there our hearts will be. Then he goes on to tell us to lay up treasures in heaven. Jesus used Lot=s wife as an example of someone who started down the right path, but looked back because she was not willing to give up her former way of life. She longed for the good old days.

Jesus tells us that no one who sets his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of heaven.

Do we have any ex farmers in the crowd today? Anybody ever plow a field? Dad had a 60 acres we planted in walnuts when I was a kid. I think he bought the place just so I would have something to do. It was over in the Jackson valley below Pardee, right on the river. This was before I could drive so he would take me down to work. I would spend all day disking the fields, then put in burms to control the water for flood irrigation. To put in these burms I used 2 great big disk blades set opposite each other in the shape of a V and they make this big mound. Now 60 acres is a pretty wide field, over a quarter of a mile, and I would try to get these just perfectly straight. I wanted to be a real farmer not just a kid on a tractor. So I would lay way back in the seat and line up the ridge in the tractor hood with a fence post on the other side, and if you took your eyes off for just a second it would be all crooked. This is what Jesus has in mind. Keeping our eyes fixed on our destination. Not looking to the left or the right. Not letting the things of this world distract us. Not a Jack rabbit, or a bird or a plane, or a nice car, or house, or job, or a relationship, or anything.

It would be the same thing if we were driving in a car without a rearview mirror. If we kept looking over our shoulder all the time it would be long till we would wreck for sure. We must keep our eyes fixed on the narrow path. Keep our eyes on Jesus. Not getting caught up in the lure of this present world.

God was so gracious to Lot and his family, and yet Lot= s wife despised this salvation which He offered her, her daughters, and her husband. Instead of thanking Him for protecting her and her family. She longed for the easy life, and all the good thing of the here and now. Nobody said following Christ would be easy. Every day we are faced with choices.

And often times the hardest choices we have to make are not between good and evil, but between what= s good and what= s best. Having a nice home is great as long as this doesn=t become our promised land. God never says there is anything wrong with having nice things and enjoying this life. As long as we don= t take our eyes off the prize, Trust Jesus and you will never regret it, either in this life, or in all eternity.

It= s human nature to dwell in the past, but Jesus wants us to look ahead.

Ernest Shackleton was a British polar explorer from the early 1900's and they had a tremendous adventure. Their ship the Endurance was stuck in the ice near the south pole and finally crushed, nobody even knew where they were. Frank Hurley was the ships photographer, and after Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship, they took 3 life boats and started dragging them across the ice. But before they left they went through the photographic negatives and selected 120 to take with them, and sealed them in tin canister, the rest of the 400 negatives Shackleton had Hurley destroy so he wouldn=t be tempted to come back after them. To go back meant death. There was no hope in a crushed ship on the bottom of the Wendell Sea. They had to look ahead, just like us. Fixing our eyes on Jesus.

The past is a dead issue, we can not gain any momentum if we are dragging this dead horse around with us. Always looking back, even if it= s only in our mind. Fix our eyes or Jesus, not on the things of this world. The apostle John gets kind of rough with us. He tells us in his first letter. To not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him, or her as the story today proved. When we come to Christ we come to Christ on His terms, not ours. The person who comes in humility, and meekness. Poor in spirit. Totally destitute spiritually, and hungry for righteousness, willing to forsake everything else for the sake of our Lord, not serving two masters. We can= t come to Jesus with our china all boxed up, and our G certificates, and savings bonds. Hand over everything to Him money, possessions, relationships, comforts. It= s not that he wants to take it all away even, but He doesn=t want us to take our eyes off the narrow path and end up like Lot= s wife who yearned so much for the things she left behind that she ended up with no future, she missed out on her deliverance.

Let= s pray. Lord I just thank you for rescuing us in the first place, for pulling us out of that city and lifestyle that was doomed for destruction. I just pray that every one of us will stay on that narrow path that we all started on together. Lord mold us and make us according to Your will, and Your loving kindness. I thank you for the promise that you will never leave us or forsake us. Lord it is by Your grace that any of us stand, and Lord I just pray that You give us the strength to keep our blinders on so we will not be distracted by anything of this world, but keep our eyes fixed on You. Because someday Lord, we want to be like You. And all Gods People said, Amen.