The Danger Of Looking Back
“Remember Lot’s wife.” That’s all Yeshua said in Luke 17:32. Three words. But those three carry enough weight to pierce bone and soul if we would just stop and listen. There is no explanation, no parable, no follow-up verse. Just a command to remember. And the implication is that if we don’t, we risk becoming just like her, frozen, finished, and forgotten in forward movement.
Let’s start with context. In Luke 17, Yeshua is speaking about the days of the coming of the Son of Man, He compares them to the days of Noah and the days of Lot. Both periods were marked by everyday life humming along, eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building, until sudden judgment came.
He says in Luke 17:28-29:
“Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.“
And then, three words: “Remember Lot’s wife.”
Why her? Why not remember Lot? Or Abraham? Or even the angels who came to rescue? Because something about her reaction is a warning in the mouth of the Messiah. So what did she do?
Genesis 19:26: “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”
Let’s break this apart. That word “looked back” in Hebrew is nabat, it means more than a glance. It’s not a casual over-the-shoulder peek. It implies looking intently, with regard, consideration, and attention. This wasn’t an accident. This was longing. An inward turning of the heart outward through the eyes. She wasn’t just looking at what was behind, she was grieving the loss of it.
And it says she looked from behind him. Lot was already ahead. She lagged. Maybe physically. Definitely spiritually. She was still tethered.
Now the result: a pillar of salt. In Hebrew, netsiv melach. Netsiv means a stationed, set thing, like something deliberately placed as a marker or memorial. She became a fixed symbol of warning. Melach, salt, in ancient understanding, was both preservation and judgment. Salt was used in covenant. It was sacred. But it was also used to sterilize land, curse it, or make it barren after conquest. So what happened to her wasn’t random, it was divine punctuation.
Yeshua didn’t say “don’t look back,” though He does warn elsewhere about having a divided heart (Luke 9:62). He said remember her. Why? Because what she did still happens today, people begin to walk out of destruction, they follow God’s hand, they feel the heat of the burning behind them, and still, they crave it. The bondage, the familiarity, the compromise. The old life calls.
Let’s go deeper.
When Paul writes in Philippians 3:13–14, he says: “…forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark…”
The Greek word for “forgetting” here is epilanthanomai, it means to completely lose out of mind, to neglect on purpose. He says, “I’m not looking back, I’m straining forward.” That’s the posture Lot’s wife didn’t have. She didn’t press on. She hesitated. Her pause became her prison.
Now, this goes even deeper. Lot’s wife didn’t just look back at buildings. She looked back at a way of life. Sodom wasn’t just wicked, it was comfortable. She had a house. Status. Her daughters were married to men of the city. She had roots. But God was cutting ties. She was meant to escape, not relocate emotionally, but fully separate. She obeyed with her feet but not her heart. And that’s a deadly split in the eyes of the Lord.
Think of Yeshua’s words in Matthew 6:24: “No man can serve two masters…”
He didn’t say shouldn’t. He said can’t. It’s an impossibility. A soul split between two loves is a stalled soul. That’s what Lot’s wife became, stuck between where she was and where she was going. She couldn’t move forward because she never let go.
Salt, preserved forever. Her death was a sermon. Yeshua made her memory part of the end-time message.
Back to Luke 17:31, the verse right before: “In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away…”
Stuff. Possessions. Memories. Status. People. Don’t look back for it. Don’t go back to get it. That’s the message. Lot’s wife did. She became the opposite of a living witness, she became a still statue, a memorial of what happens when you try to preserve your past while God is burning it behind you.
Even Yeshua in Luke 9:62 said: “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
In Greek, euthetos, “fit” means suitable, usable, ready. If you’re plowing and keep turning your head, your furrows are crooked. You’re not aligned. You’re not usable.
So what is the danger of looking back?
- You stall your purpose.
- You misaligned your vision.
- You halt your forward motion.
- You miss the rescue and walk into judgment.
Lot’s wife is the quietest character with the loudest warning. She said nothing. She just turned her head, and turned her heart. And that was enough to stop her story.
Yeshua said, “Remember her.” That means there’s something in us that might be prone to be her.
So if He’s pulling you out, don’t look back. If He’s calling you forward, don’t pause for what’s burning behind. If He’s leading you out of a place of compromise, of spiritual pollution, of worldly comfort cloaked in wickedness, don’t mourn it. Run.
If your story is still moving, don’t freeze in the firelight of a former life.
IMAGE made by chatgpt at my direction