Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #38 of Genesis, chapter 19. We are continuing to read Genesis 19:25-26:

And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

In our last study, we were looking at the spiritual picture that points to our time at the end of the world. We are not coming up with our own idea, but we simply observed that God had given a commandment regarding the time period when people would come out of the churches during the Great Tribulation – at that time, God would command, “Look not behind thee.” He gave this command in this historical parable in Genesis and He reiterated the command, as we saw, in Luke, chapter 17. I will read it again. After speaking of the days of Lot, Christ said in Luke 17:30-31:

Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. 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: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.

There is the command. Do not return back when you are in the field (the world). You were to remain on the housetop involved in intense spiritual activity, but not return to the house (the churches). It was a command. And to highlight this command, Christ said, “Remember Lot’s wife.” The sin of Lot’s wife and what caused her death was that she looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt.

We are living in that time when many people have violated the commandment of God regarding these days, especially during the time after many of us came out of the churches. It had effect during the Great Tribulation and it has special significance now, because Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt after the fire and brimstone fell from heaven, not before it fell. The falling of the fire and brimstone is an historical parable that points to the spiritual fire and brimstone God has been raining upon the inhabitants of the earth since May 21, 2011. So, it was after the fire and brimstone fell from heaven that Lot’s wife looked back from behind him. Remember, we looked up the word “behind” and we saw that Jesus said to Satan in Luke 4, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” He even addressed Peter this way in Matthew 16:21-23:

From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

Remember that Jesus is the embodiment of the Word of God, so when Jesus is telling His disciples what must be done, it is revealing the will of God through the Word of God. Oftentimes, when God reveals a specific truth there are those that have identification with Him (Jews of old or New Testament Christians) that they refuse to obey. They turn from it, just as Peter turned, because they think they know better; they think their way is better and they think they understand what the will of God is in the matter. But the fact is that they do not understand what is best and they do not understand the will of God. They do not realize that God’s will must be carried out in the manner that He declares it is to be carried out.

So, here, Peter is an example when he says, “Be it far from thee, Lord.” It was like what Peter said in Acts, chapter 10 when God was making a change in His program regarding the eating of unclean animals. Remember that Peter was on the housetop and God gave him a vision of unclean animals being let down on a sheet. Then the Lord commanded him: “Rise, Peter, slay and eat.” What was Peter’s reaction? He said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.” Then God replied, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” You see, it was God’s will. We may not understand it – and most of the time we do not understand at first. Even an elect true believer was caught off guard initially and he did not understand that God was making a change in program. The eating of the unclean animals spiritually represented that it was time that Gentiles would be brought in as fellowheirs with the Jews. This is the reason God insisted that what He had cleansed was not to be called common. God did it three times to indicate that it was His purpose.

Again, it says in Matthew 16:22:

Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

We can put ourselves in Peter’s place when God opened up information about the end of the church age. Many of us rebuked that whole idea initially; I know I did: “Oh, it cannot be. It is not so.” And, yet, God had mercy upon me by showing me it was truth according to His Word. But on others He did not bestow that mercy and grace and, therefore, they remained in opposition to what God’s will determined to be done. They continued to think that their own understanding and feelings had supremacy and their ideas were above the Word of God, the Bible. It was the same situation when God opened up the true understanding that “Hell” is the condition of death or the grave and not a place of eternal torment. As a matter of fact, the idea of an eternal place of torment would violate many Scriptures, so it cannot be truth. But, again, many people began to rebuke. They began to rebuke Harold Camping and other individuals that taught this, but they were really rebuking the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God.

Again, God had mercy on some and they began to understand, but others continued in their resistance. Also, God opened up information that Christ died for sin and made atonement for sin at the foundation of the world and not in 33 A.D. His going to the cross in 33 A.D. was a tableau or demonstration of His finished work at the foundation of the world. God, by His grace, opened the eyes of His elect true believers to see and understand, but for the non-elect their eyes remained closed. They just could not understand. The same thing happened when God brought spiritual judgment on May 21, 2011. Those that have been given understanding began to understand what had happened, but others did not.

The character of the new heart that God gives His people is one of humility and one in which we are in submission to the will of God. In other words, when God first reveals something from His Word, we might initially reject it, but in due time we accept His doctrine. It is not of our own doing because mankind is naturally stubborn and pride and would resist to death anything that has to do with God. But when God changes a person, He gives him a new heart and a new spirit that is a “broken heart.” It is broken in the sense that he is now submissive to doing the will of God and has an ongoing desire to do His commandments.

After Peter rebuked the Lord, it goes on to say in Matthew 16:23:

But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Let me also read the parallel passage in Mark 8:31-33:

And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

You know, it is a very uncomfortable thing when you are talking to someone and they turn and “give you their back.” It is extremely uncomfortable. It happened to me with someone I respected very much. It made me think. First, our initial reaction is one of pride: “How dare this person turn the back to me!” Then I started to think about what I had been saying and what had brought this about. And, certainly, Peter would have been greatly disturbed because he had been looking at the Lord and then Christ turned His back to him and said, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Peter would then have been directly behind Him. Again, Christ was not identifying Peter with Satan, but He was identifying the rebuke and opposition with Satan. It was Peter’s initial reaction and he would not have continued in opposition, but he was characterizing what unsaved people often say and do. Remember what the Lord tells us in Galatians 5:16-17:

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Remember that the name “Satan” really means “adversary” or one that is opposed to someone or in opposition to someone. And that is the nature of the natural-minded person of the world that he is in opposition to the things of the Spirit. Of course, the things of the Spirit are found in the Bible, because the Lord said in Romans 7 that the Law is spiritual. We are to compare spiritual things with spiritual things or “scripture with scripture,” but unsaved man is contrary to things of the Spirit. This is the reason that man will do the opposite. When God says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” man commits adultery. When God says that marriage is between one man and one woman, then men want to marry men and women want to marry women. When God says that marriage is until death and there is not to be divorce, then people want to divorce. It is the nature of man to be in opposition to the thing that God has said. That is why mankind are such rebels in our unsaved condition; we are rebels against God. It is only when someone is saved that God transforms that individual and he no longer sets himself in opposition to the things of God. He is submissive to the things of God, even though in the flesh that person might “lust after the flesh” and do things contrary to the revealed Word of God, the Bible. And, yet, the Spirit of God that is within him will help him and the spirit brings the body “under” and the child of God begins to do the will of God, more and more.

Anyway, Peter was rebuking the Lord and the Lord turned His back on him and said, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” This is very significant, and we have read in three places (Luke 4, Matthew 16 and Mark 8) that behind Christ lies Satan. Lot’s wife looked from behind Him. This is the reason God made such a big deal of this and turned her into a pillar of salt. Being behind the Lord Jesus Christ is not like being beside Him, but “behind” Him is the place where the Lord has designated that Satan can be found: “Get thee behind me, Satan.”

When God makes major changes in programs (like ending the church age or ending salvation), the changes are made through the Word of God. God issues the decree from above and it is channeled or funneled through the Bible by His Spirit as He opens the understanding of the elect reader of the Scriptures. God brings understanding of His change in time and season and reveals to His people what we are to do, like staying in this world and continuing to serve God outside of the churches and not to go back. Of course, that is the major emphasis in Luke 17 and what we read in Genesis 19. We are not to go back. Going back is not an innocent thing. It is not something that happens without penalty. It is not up to the individual: “What do you think? Should you continue to attend a church, or not?” It is not up to the individual, if he is a true elect believer. A true child of God follows the will of God. That is our desire.

For example, God’s will was clear when He ended His relationship with national Israel. He never rekindled it again. He never brought them back as His people. And when God ended the church age, it is forever. There will never be another church age. If you return to the churches, you may as well go to a synagogue because neither entity is the people of God. God’s people are now found outside the corporate church and outside Israel. Again, going back is a very terrible thing because it goes against the commandment of God.

Let me read Philippians 3:14-15:

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded…

This word translated as “minded” is the same word that was translated as “savourest” when Jesus rebuked Peter. Peter was “minding not” the things of God. That is what it is really saying. Again, it says in Philippians 3:15:

Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

We are to press toward the mark and forget about those things which are behind. If you need to remember something, “remember Lot’s wife.”