Word At The Well - Remembers Lot's Wife

Today, we continue to unpack the message behind the music of For King + Country's song Burn the Ships. This was a song that spoke to me early in my faith journey and has continued to encourage me. I pray it will do the same for you. 

I invite you to join me as we dive deeper as we break down the last 5 words of the chorus, "and don't you look back" as we head way back to Genesis 19 and remember Lot's wife. 

Thank you for joining us today at The Well. 

It is our prayer this time together will unite our community in action, motivated out of love and activated under a common mission. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Well, hello there. I am so excited to finally be back for another word at the well with y'all. The last time we gathered for part one of this message was the beginning of May. And that just seems like a lifetime ago. My intention was to come back with the second part of that message a few weeks later, but as life tends to do, it just kept coming at me, and never once did it take my plans into consideration. So today, I really am grateful to be here. I'm grateful you're here, and ready to dive into the second part of the message. The last time we gathered at the well, I shared the message behind the phrase, burn the ships, which is also the title of a song for Biking and Country that I heard early in my faith journey. And in fact, it was so early on, I totally missed the reference to the story found in Genesis that is then later mentioned in Luke about Lot's wife. So today we're gonna pick up where we left off with five unassuming words at the end of the chorus, and don't you look back. And it's okay if you're thinking to yourself, who in the heck is Lot's wife? I promise you, you are not alone. She is mentioned briefly, briefly in Genesis 19, and then we never hear about her again until some 2,000 years later, when Jesus tells us to remember her. It's in Luke 17 when Jesus is speaking on the end times. He's talking about the kingdom realized in him that hasn't come yet, the times of Noah and the floods and things burning down. And then we get to verse 32 where he casually drops, remember Lot's wife? This is the second shortest verse in the Bible. And we get very few words from Jesus. So every one of them is important. There's no filler. So why out of some 170 women that are mentioned in the Bible, does Jesus only tell us to remember this one? He doesn't tell us remember Eve, the first woman. He doesn't tell us to remember Mary, his own mother. He doesn't say to remember Ruth. He says, remember Lot's wife? This nameless woman who appears on the pages of scripture just quickly enough to disappear. Y'all, she has the shortest bio in history. All we know about her is that in Genesis 19, she looked back at Sodom and Gomorrah, and as God was burning it down, and she turned into a pillar of salt. So we have to wonder why a pillar of salt? Why not stone? Why not dust? Why didn't it say she simply died? And to be quite honest with y'all, I didn't know the answer. The Bible is amazing. There are so many layers and so many details that we tend to just simply glance over and not even realize that they matter. And that's exactly why we're called to study the Bible and not just read it. Today we live in a time when we are equally fortunate and unfortunate, where we have so much information at our fingertips. We live in a time where anyone can hop online and say anything they want. I mean, I'm doing it right now. My point here is when diving deeper in scripture, make sure you are turning to trusted resources rooted in fact. And so today for research for this message that I am getting ready to share with you, I turn to biblical scholars and people that have a much deeper knowledge of the Bible, biblical context than I do, full disclosure. So I'm excited to dive into this message with you, and I pray that there is a word for you in it. So let's talk about salt. Salt in the ancient world, it wasn't just a seasoning, it was a symbol. Salt preserved things. It stopped decay by freezing something in its current state. It came from areas of desolation. The Dead Sea region where Sodom and Gomorrah sat was filled with salt deposits. It marked the places where life could not grow. These fields covered in salt were uninhabitable. They were fruitless. They were frozen, unable to move forward. In Genesis verse 26, when Lot's wife looked back, she wasn't just simply glancing over her shoulder. She was longing for what she was leaving behind. The Hebrew translation implies attachment or desire, a regret. So while her body was leaving Sodom, her heart was still living there. And what happened to her externally reflected what was already happening internally. She had become preserved in the past. And that's what salt does. It locks something in place. So when Jesus tells us in Luke to remember Lot's wife, it's not to scare people about his return, but rather to warn us about attachment to things other than God, about having a divided heart, about the danger of clinging to something that God has already rescued you from. I mentioned Ruth earlier. And Ruth is one of my favorite books of the Old Testament. Although, quite frankly, I say that about every book in the Old Testament. But Ruth, Ruth really is an incredible read. It's a short read. If you haven't been to Ruth, been to that book, I encourage you to head there. No matter where you are, whatever you're walking through, there is a word for you in that book. So Ruth lost everything. She lost her husband, her future as she imagined it, her security. But despite all of that, Ruth looked forward. She chose movement. She did not fossilize her pain. She did not build a shrine to what was. She says, Where you go, I will go. She chose forward even when forward felt empty. But she stepped into that uncertainty, trusting that God was already there. Scripture tells us Lot's wife did the opposite. She looked back and became a pillar of salt. Ruth looked ahead and becomes a part of the lineage of Jesus. We often think of salt as a preservative, but it also dehydrates. It pulls moisture out. And emotionally, this is exactly what happens when we live facing backwards. We become dry and bitter and hardened. We replay moments, we live in what could have been, and we rehearse conversations that will never happen again. And slowly our joy drains out of us. And it's not because God left, it's because we stopped moving. During this time, covenants were often called covenants of salt because they represented permanence. When Lot's wife looked back, she was making a covenant with the past. She was choosing permanence with what God had already judged and was destroying. Basically saying, this is still mine. But our God does not allow people to carry dead cities into living futures. And this is where it might start to get uncomfortable for some of us. Because you and I, we're not looking back at cities. We're looking back at relationships, versions of ourselves, seasons where the pain had not yet arrived. Or in some cases, we might be looking back at pain itself because at least the pain is familiar. And we tell ourselves we're processing, but if we're honest, we're preserving. We are salting our own wounds so that they never heal. Now, Jesus doesn't shame us for grief. That is not what we're talking about here. Jesus weeps too. Jesus understands loss and sacrifice, but Jesus also keeps walking because resurrection does not happen while staring at tombs. It happens when someone hears their name spoken from behind and instead they turn toward life. Lot's wife turned toward death and became like it. Ruth turned toward hope even when it felt thin, and she became a vessel of redemption. And God doesn't ask us to forget our past, but he does ask us not to live there. Ruth didn't know she was stepping into the story of salvation, but she did know staying where she was would kill her. Lot's wife didn't know looking back would end her story, but she simply could not let go. And here's the truth: God does not turn people into pillar assault today. We do it to ourselves. We freeze spiritually, emotionally, relationally. We become monuments to former pain, living reminders of what once was instead of participants in what God is calling us to. Today, if you feel guilt or shame about your past or present, if you haven't asked for forgiveness, I pray you would do it right now, right here. And then I pray that you would go forward living in a way that reflects how your life is different because of that forgiveness. And here's the truth: Jesus has already forgiven you. It's you that needs to forgive yourself. Or maybe you're struggling to extend or offer forgiveness to someone other than you. If that's you today, I pray the inconceivable, unpayable debt that the king canceled on our behalf when he hung and died on the cross would rest fresh upon your heart and spirit today. And may this serve as a reminder the only reason any of our sins have been forgiven is because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. While salt preserves, it also kills. Our faith does the opposite. Faith allows things to die so that new things can grow in and through us. So today I pray you will look forward and that you will allow others to look forward. Don't minimize your growth or theirs and hold each other in the past. Not because it didn't matter, but because it's finished. And not because the future is easy, but because Jesus is already there. If we want to be a people living and walking in the promise and hope of Jesus, forward is our only option. I pray you do not become a pillar of salt to something God has already carried you out of. Amen.