Posts Tagged: Focusing on the future

“Don’t Look Back!”

On January 2, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”

(Genesis 19:26 The Holy Bible, English Standard Version)

https://accordance.bible/link/read/ESVS#Gen._19:26.

“Remember Lot’s wife.”  (Luke 17:32, my translation.  Jesus is warning his disciples about the difficulties in their future, and Jesus is encouraging them to persevere.)

Leon Morris comments as follows on Luke 17:32:

Lot’s wife came as close to deliverance without achieving it as was possible. She was brought right out of the doomed city and set on the way to safety. But she looked back and lingered, evidently in longing for the delights she was leaving behind. In the process she was caught up in the destruction that overtook Sodom and she perished with the city (Gen. 19:26).[1]

I have always thought along these lines.  Lot’s wife was looking back because of her longing for “the good times” in the past.  Perhaps that was indeed her motivation.  (Looking back is often called “nostalgia.”  Perhaps we should label it instead “sin” or “stupidity” or something else?)

However, this interpretation of Mrs. Lot’s motivation ignores one crucial aspect of the original story contained in Genesis 19, as well as one crucial aspect of Jesus’ words themselves.  We are not told, either in Genesis 19 or in Luke 17:32, Lot’s wife’s motivation.  Imputing motives is not wise, when we are doing so in our everyday, contemporary lives.  Perhaps it is not a good idea in our biblical interpretation either.

Furthermore, in Genesis 19:17, when the angel warned Lot, his wife, and their daughters not to look back, the angel did not speak of motivation.  The command is very specific: Don’t look back! No proviso about motivation at all!

So, maybe Lot’s wife looked back with regret for the time she had spent there.  Or perhaps she was looking back with contempt toward the cities and their inhabitants.

Now, Lot’s wife speaks to me, because she speaks of me.  I have struggled with nostalgia (and also with regret) since I was just a boy.  The problem hasn’t gotten better with time.

So, what is wrong with looking back?  Not a thing!  Except that it prevents me from focusing on God and on the things that I need to be doing right now.  Then there is the fact that an angel in the Old Testament, and Jesus in the New, who say, “Don’t look back!” and “Remember Lot’s wife!”

Don Henley has a song called “The Boys of Summer.”  (Listen to a more contemplative version of the song, as part of a Howard Stern Show at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoxEcD4PCco, accessed 01-02-2020.)  In this song, Henley says, “Don’t look back!  You can never look back.”

Maybe you can look back.  Certainly, I can.  The question is should you—should I—look back?  I could, but I think I’ll make a different decision. This year I am choosing to look forward, upward, and at . . ., and not so much back!

[1]Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary, TNTC 3; IVP/Accordance electronic ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 278.

https://accordance.bible/link/read/Tyndale_Commentary#44639
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