This is the MARIOS podcast. You are listening to a series on the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is episode five. If this is your first time listening, I do recommend going back and starting with episode one. More on this podcast and other resources can be found at mariosministries.com. We left the story last time with the destruction of Sodom. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in His infinite mercy, spared Lot and his family, from the destruction of Sodom. But God told them not to look back or stop, and yet, Lot’s wife (on verse 26, of that 19th Chapter in Genesis), disobeyed the command. She did look back and lingered in the plains, and she seemed to have been caught up the fire and sulfur. Scripture tells us she became “a pillar of salt.” Now, let us pause, and consider what to make of this. The Scriptures are more than we can handle at times. But we must not gloss over what we are reading. This is a magnificent account. A terrifying account. This really happened. It is no fairytale. It’s history. This is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Fortunately, we have some help here from Jesus’ himself on this account. And let me pause here and hand to you this precious Bible study tool. When you come to a particularly difficult passage of Scripture, look elsewhere. One of the miracles of God’s revelation through Scripture is its cohesion. The whole of Scripture tells one story and without the whole, you are missing a part. The Bible is composed of 66 books, written over a period of roughly two thousand years by forty different authors from three continents, writing in three different languages. And yet, there is a supernatural harmony in Scripture that will be your friend, a guide to you, in your personal study. It does require time and energy to get to know this, but I want to encourage you. This is a precious Gift of God to you. Do not waist it. So always interpret Scripture in light of Scripture. All passages fit together perfectly. This is why I always encourage preachers and teachers to teach the whole counsel of God. All of Scripture. Not just the parts we are most comfortable with. Anyway, that’s enough of that. For this story of Lot’s wife, we have help from the words of Jesus in Luke 17 where we read of an account where the Pharisees (this were the so-called religious scholars of Jesus’ time), they asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. Here’s how He responded, pay attention: “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” [Pause] That alone there is something to think about for weeks on end (“the kingdom of God is in the midst of you”), but that’s not what relates directly to our story, so I won’t go there. He then, turns to His disciples and He opens the windows of heaven a bit, to talk about the end times. He says, starting in verse 22: “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. Friends listen to me very carefully. There are those today who seek to minimize the Word of God, especially the Old Testament, as having no real application to us in the 21st Century. DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM. Do not disregard the Word of God. Not one part. Not one book. Not one sentence, not a single word. You have it form the mouth of our Savior! Remember Lot’s wife. Our God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob still rules, and He admonishes us to “Remember Lot’s wife.” So, how do we do that. Well, one thing is to listen to God and never look back to the sin that ensnared us with nostalgia. What God has torn down was not to your benefit. Do not look back. Do not linger in the past. Do ...
