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Wednesday  23  January

Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain. ... But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Remember Lot’s wife.   Genesis 19, 17 & 26; Luke 17, 2.

This woman’s history can be related in a few sentences. As an inhabitant of Sodom she was well acquainted with the immoral practices of the city. But God had shown mercy towards Lot’s family and spared her and her two daughters alongside her husband when His judgment fell upon Sodom and destroyed the city. But compulsion was necessary to make them leave the city: they were so attached to it that they had to be led out by the hand.

God deals with us in a similar fashion. It is as if He would urge us strongly, pulling us by hand, so to speak, for He has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezekiel 33, 11).

Lot’s wife looked back It was only with regret and grief that she felt the burning city; her heart was still there. God had commanded them not to look back, but her glance showed that she did not stand the test. It meant that she was pining for a life of sin, over which God’s judgment was already passing. Physically she was out of the city, but her thoughts still hankered after it. Go does not want divided hearts.

Dear friends, whoever wants to follow Jesus must decide for Christ or the world, but not both. The way of the world leads to destruction and death. The pathway  of faith, however, is the road to salvation. Even if it is “narrow” (cf. Matthew 7, 14), it leads to everlasting joy in heaven, where God dwells.