Remember Lot's Wife

But Lot's wife looked back as she was following along behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19:26)

The context of this verse fascinates me. Why didn't Lot's wife get it? Why didn't she understand the importance of moving forward. Lot understood. He knew that Sodom had to be left - forever. He knew that life was over and gone. All we can do is guess but it seems to be a case of what Bruce Wilkinson's calls "The Three Chairs".

In chair one is the person who has a direct and personal encounter with the living God. Because this person's experience is personal it is very real to them and the odds of them having a serious desire to turn back to life before knowing God is unlikely.

And then there is chair two. This person knows the person represented by chair one (usually a parent/child relationship but not always). The chair two person is influenced by the person in chair two and so they try to imitate a life of faith. They are basically moral and 'good people' but until their experience with God becomes personal (what a good friend of mine likes to call taking off their parents robe of righteousness and putting on their own)the tendency is to run toward a ungodly lifestyle because living a Christlike life without the empowering of the Holy Spirit is simply impossible.

The person represented by chair three knows the person represented by chair two well. What they see is interpreted as hypocricy. They see the chair two person talking about God and talking about doing right but they are simply unable to do it. The assumption is that they are hypocrites. They talk one way and live another. But it may run deeper than that. It is entirely likey they know the right thing to do because they have seen it demonstrated but are simply unable to live up to the standard even though that is their desire. The result is that chair three person runs fast and furiously away from anything having to do with God because they simply see it as being a standard for living with no real power for experiencing life in it’s fullest.

So it’s not that much of a stretch to say that…

1. Abraham sat in chair one –He knew God as intimately as any person who ever walked on earth.

2. Lot sat in chair two – he knew Abraham. And apparently lived between the two worlds of righteousness and depravity. We know he lived in Sodom, one of the most wicked cities in the history of mankind. And it didn’t seem to bother him until it was on the verge of destruction. And yet 2 Peter 2:7 tells us Lot untimately was a righteous man.

3. Lot’s Wife sat in chair three. There we go. Now we know. How could she look back knowing what she knew? Maybe sitting in chair three she didn’t know nearly as much as we assume. All she know about God and his promises was three people removed.

What chair are you sitting in? It doesn’t matter what chair you began in. Through faith in Christ God wants to place you in chair #1. The chair of knowing Him personally and experiencing the abundant life He has for you.