XVI. SHE LOOKED BACK. ST. LUKE, chap. xvii. verse 32. He THESE are the words of the LORD Jesus. is urging on His disciples to let nothing of this world's good hinder them in seeking the salvation of their souls, and He binds this exhortation on their hearts by allusion to the awful history of one, who found in the company of God's people, brought out of the city of destruction, yet perished in sight of safety. The direction of the eyes betrayed the hankering of the heart, and notwithstanding the injunction, "Look not behind thee," she dared to disobey, and the heavy wrath of God fell upon her. "Lot's wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." In that plain where of her own will she stayed, in that same plain was she, against her will, fixed-a lasting memorial of the just vengeance of God. Brethren, there are far more pleasant things to "remember;" few, perhaps, more useful, than this history of Lot's wife. He who takes to heart this exhortation of the LORD, will not be "of them who turn back to perdition," but of those who, "enduring to the end, shall be saved." O God, arrest our attention, impress our memory, and influence our affections, that the love of this present world may never turn us back from Thee; hold Thou us up, and we shall be safe, for Christ's sake. Amen! I call upon you, first, to I. Remember Lot's Wife; and secondly, II. To give Proof of Remembrance. your 1. Remember Lot's Wife. There is little mention made of her in Scripture; but our blessed LORD has set a mark over against that little, and brought it out prominently as a lesson to the latest times. Short as the record of her is, it is replete with instruction. Her privileges teach us,-they were many, they were great, they were to outward appearance the same as saved Lot's; but they availed her not; she perished in the midst of them,she perished in spite of them, she perished with an aggravated condemnation on account of them. She was aware of God's approaching judgment; she had before this been partaker of His deliverance; she had heard her husband's "sigh and cry," as his soul loathed the abounding wickedness of Sodom; she had, doubtless, bent the knee with him in prayer; and now, for the last time, mercy was vouchsafed her, special mercy; she was one of the only four brought out from the city of the -plain. But these privileges had never reached her heart; she conformed to the habits of him with whom she dwelt; but all the while she had “neither part nor lot in the matter,her heart was not right in the sight of God;' she was "yet in her sins." Brethren, privileges do not of necessity confer grace. Outward conformity, and heart religion, are as distant from each other as heaven and hell. To us they may, at times, seem the same; but the one will not bear the trial of the balances of the sanctuary. When Shishak "carried away the shields of gold which Solomon had made, Rehoboan made shields of brass" in their place; to the eye they might look as bright as those which they replaced; their number was the same; but they would in the fining pot prove but brass, -base metal in place of gold. Privileges are 1 2 Chron. xii. 10. means to an end: are they working that end in us? Are we spiritual worshippers, living the life of faith in the Son of God? Are we obedient children?.... Her sin instructs us; it appears, in our first glance at it, a slight deviation, a small offence! She "looked back," and as she looked, she was stricken, and, without a respite, slain. There is nothing to induce us to believe that she was a partaker in the gross wickedness of Sodom, and she had sufficient impression of the truth of God's warning, to come out with her husband on that awful day; but one last look she would take, one last look she did take,—and "she became a pillar of salt." My fellow sinner, are you saying, "What harm is there in this amusement?-what harm is there in that pursuit?-why should I debar myself from this indulgence?" We reply, "Remember Lot's wife." She did but look back, and yet death and destruction followed that look. Alas! that look was an index to the heart,that look was in direct disobedience to the command given. Her wishes, her desires, were there, whence she had, by constraint of fear perhaps, come forth; the carnal mind prevailed; she looked and perished. God saith, "Give Me thy heart;" and if that be not given, all service is vain. Does not the desire for those pleasures of sin, of which some think it hard to be deprived, but tell too truly of alienation from God,-does it not declare that their "treasure" and therefore their heart is in them? But direct disobedience was hers. God had said, "Look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain." She ventured to disregard God's word, and in that awful venture filled up the measure of her sin. Brethren, " every word of God is pure." Man trifles with it, and God's longsuffering spares; but once too often is His patience tried; the bow long bent sends forth the shaft, and the soul "sets to its seal" too late that "God is true." Her punishment, too, is instructive in its awful strangeness and suddenness. We stop not to ask the searcher into nature's secrets, the wise of this world, to give his fiat, his approval, to the fact; nor yet to account for the mysterious punishment, from the nature of the soil and consequent exhalations. He who made the so-called laws of nature, hath power to interrupt them, when He will, and how He will. We ask not the inhabitants of the anthill to authorize by their approval our acts, and shall JEHOVAH stand at the bar of poor |