Coming Judgment

When speaking of the coming judgment on Jerusalem, Jesus said, “Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32 NKJV). With this statement, the disciples would have remembered being taught that Lot, his wife, and their daughters basically had to be dragged by the hand out of the city for escape. As they were led out of the area of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his family were given explicit instructions, [not to look back]. "But Lot’s wife looked back as she was following behind him, and she turned into a pillar of salt." (Genesis 19:26 NLT) Unjust? A deeper study of this phrase indicates the thought was likely, 'leave behind all desires for whatever was now in their past'. Yet, Lot's wife did look back, and it appears not to have been a quick glance and sigh of "at last we are gone," or "lets see what is next", but she looked back in a longing manner. Perhaps she anticipated missing her daughters' weddings and grandchildren or other things, but she was not really ready to move beyond their past sinful surroundings. The disciples would need to break with some previous and familiar surroundings as they followed Jesus' pathway - what a masterful example. So many human attitudes and actions are directly linked to our internal feelings of comfort and familiarity, and we must monitor them very carefully. When we become Christians and enter into God's spiritual kingdom, like the disciples, at times we must move out of our comfort zone; we must set aside our previous entrapments and move forward to serve Jesus in some way. We are empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit to accomplish this goal, to find those things we can do to flesh out Jesus' strongest desires, Help others! For us to move out of our comfort zone, Jesus' desires must become a part of our internal desires. When we begin acting and watch for the Holy Spirit's guidance, these changes become more natural and easy.