Looking Back

Many years ago, when I was a teenager on vacation I had the opportunity to ride in a taxi that just happened to be a station wagon. Maybe you remember the kind? It was the one where the very back seat faced looking out the rear window and that is exactly where I ended up sitting. While there was some entertainment in staring at the people in the cars behind you, I must say that looking back mostly made me feel woozy making the ride feel like it took forever.

Today, I relish my memories, photos, and keepsakes of the past but if I’m being honest with you, there are times when looking back now makes me feel sick too…that’s when I’m staring myself in the face, recalling all the times I’ve fallen short and ended up sitting in sin. Why is it that those are the ones that travel with us wherever we go?

I’ve been thinking about Lot’s wife. Sin had overtaken the place where Lot and his family lived so grievously that God couldn’t even find ten righteous people to warrant saving the city so He sent angels to help Lot and his family escape the destruction.

“With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, ‘Hurry! 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 men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two 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, ‘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!’…But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.”
Genesis 19:15-17,26 (NIV)

“Flee.” “Don’t look back.”

Sounds like simple instructions, but of course, Lot’s wife chose to look back upon the sinful place behind her anyway and she immediately became fixed in that very place as a block of salt. I can sure relate. Maybe you can too. We choose to return to our past sins and often end up frozen in place, forgetting that God is so merciful to us that He sacrificed Jesus.

We’re reminded of His immense mercy throughout the Bible, but think about when Jesus encounters an adulteress who the Pharisees wanted to use to trap Jesus, however He turns the table on them and encourages the one who has no sin to throw the first stone. After they’ve all walked away, the woman is left alone with Jesus.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
John 8:11b

“Go now,” flee. “Leave your life of sin,” don’t look back. 

“Then he adds: ‘Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.’
And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place
by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain
that is, His body and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”
Hebrews 10:17-23 (NIV)

“Sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary,” flee from your old ways. “Our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience,” so don’t look back.

You know? I’ve heard those backward facing seats have since been called the “death seat,” and so they no longer make them. I can see why. It’s a good thing that no one has to sit looking backward anymore. I’m learning that the same is true for our travels through life. As Christians, do we continue to sin even though we try not to? Of course. But, do we have to relive them over and over? No! Jesus sat in the “death seat” for each one of us and because of that, God remembers our failures “no more.” 

The condemned woman experienced Jesus’ loving forgiveness and he told her, as the angels told Lot and his family, and as He tells us through His sacrifice, flee beloved; and Don’t. Look. Back.

Joining this week with others at http://www.fiveminutefriday.com to write with the prompt “flee” in mind.