With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished. When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hand of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them.  As soon as they had bought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives!  Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”  Genesis 19:15-17 NIV 

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We know well the story of Lot. At the urging of two angels, Lot and his family quickly fled the wicked city of Sodom and Gomorrah to avoid getting caught up in its destruction at the hands of our Lord.  Likewise, we know that Lot’s wife made the tragic mistake of disobeying God’s command to not look back, and consequently, she was turned into a pillar of salt.  What we don’t know is why; why did Lot’s wife look back?

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At some point in our lives, we have all been trapped in dungeons; emotional, spiritual or mental strongholds that threaten to imprison our possibilities.  Sometimes, without even realizing it, we pitch a tent in the dungeon; we become comfortable in our dungeon-place and we have a hard time hearing God’s voice.  More than three decades ago, I was in an emotionally abusive relationship; that was my dungeon.  My low self-esteem was a barrier to my freedom.  Once I started to work through my self-esteem issues, I could see light in my dungeon and I could clearly hear the voice of God.  That light was God giving me the opportunity to flee that situation and to NOT look back! 

I wonder what dungeon Lot’s wife was fleeing.  Her husband had wealth and status, yet she remained a nameless woman in the bible and a woman that disobeyed the command of God.  She was a wife and mother, but who was she?  Moreover, what was her relationship with God? We don’t know what her dungeon was, but we do know that God promised her family refuge and a future.  

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God has a plan for each and every one of us, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future.” James 29:11. When we choose to look back instead of forward, we are standing in a place of fear instead of faith; we are choosing not to trust God to do what God has the power to do and what He promised to do!  God is omnipotent!  God and God alone can free us from ANY dungeon!  As Christians, our charge is to trust God and be obedient to God’s word.  God has promised us a future;  our future is ahead of us, not behind us.