City Life Starter

Written by Heather Yu

The Word

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. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”

Luke 17:28-37 (ESV)

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven…..But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

-Genesis 19:24,26

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

-Matthew 24:16-17

Exegesis

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose (Jim Elliot)

“One will be taken and the other left?” Jesus’ story of people being taken and left from Luke above seems random and without strategy. But ‘random’ is not His nature; He is detailed, orderly, faithful, and true. And the strategy behind “one will be taken and the other left” is revealed within His story about That Day: “remember Lot’s wife” (v.32). 

We meet Lot’s wife in Genesis 19 in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord in His mercy extracted Lot and his wife and family from Sodom before raining judgment down upon the city. Genesis 19:17 tells us that as the Lord’s angels were bringing out Lot’s family, one of the angels told them, “….[e]scape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” But a few verses later we read that, “…the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven…..[b]ut Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” (Gen 19:24, 26).

Why did she look back? Especially after she was saved from destruction?

Because her heart longed for the world she left behind. Even though she had left Sodom, and her feet were on the road to freedom, her heart longed…so she looked back, and became a pillar of salt.

The “one taken and the other left” examples from Jesus’ story above are not random. The Lord searches the heart and tests the mind (Jeremiah 17:10 & 1 Samuel 16:7). He knows His own, and He will come again to claim them – those who are His and whose hearts long for Him and cry, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)

Application

Dear brothers and sisters, where does your heart long for?

To ask this another way: what do you think about when you have nothing else to think about? Your answer to this question is what your heart longs for.

Do not cling to this life, dear ones. There is a reason nothing in this life has completely satisfied you – it is because nothing in this life can completely satisfy you. You have a Jesus-sized hole in your soul that only He can satisfy, and you are made for eternal life with Him; this temporal world does not fit you anymore. Do not look back. Keep fixing your eyes and your mind upon Jesus, and keep moving forward. You did not choose Him, but He chose you, and He who started this good work in you will bring it to completion at That Day. “Remember Lot’s wife.”

Prayer

Lord, You are my heart’s longing. I am Yours and You are mine. Purge out anything in my heart that is not of You. Pry my fingers from earthly things. Help me to keep my eyes fixed on You and That Day. Do with me as You will, and complete Your good work in me at any cost. Amen.