Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #39 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.

We have been taking our time as we look at what the Bible has to say concerning that which is “behind” the Lord Jesus Christ. The reference to “him” in this passage spiritually points to Christ. The Bible tells us that “behind” Christ is Satan: “Get thee behind me, Satan.” This was said two or three times.

So, Lot’s wife is looking back. She is being used by God as a type and figure of those that came out of the churches. She left Sodom at the same time her husband Lot came out with their two daughters. We saw that Sodom is a picture of the corporate church at the time of the end, a time when God’s judgment is upon it. It is the time that the Lord brought forth His commandment in the Bible that all that were in the churches were to flee to the mountains. Lot, his wife and their two daughters did come out of the city Sodom, just as many people came out of the corporate church and went out into the world.

From the point that they left Sodom to the point Lot entered into Zoar would relate to the time during the second part of the Great Tribulation when God’s people were coming out of the congregations and going out into the world. This was done during the Latter Rain period during the time that God was still saving outside of the corporate churches in the world. But on the date of May 21, 2011 God brought Judgment Day, the final judgment of mankind, as pictured by the “fire and brimstone” falling after Lot had entered into the city of Zoar. At that point, Lot represented all the people that became saved, God’s elect.

So, this happened after the fire and brimstone was falling from heaven, which teaches us that God is relating to us events that would take place after the Day of Judgment began or after the date of May 21, 2011. Therefore, it has everything to do with our present time because we are living “in those days after that tribulation.” We are living on the earth in the days of spiritual judgment that God brought to pass upon the world on May 21, 2011.

Lot’s wife did not look back and was not judged by God before the fire and brimstone began to fell, representing the time during the Great Tribulation period. She escaped that judgment on the churches, in a sense, because she came out of Sodom, a picture of those that came out of the churches. But she went out into the world and after God began to bring judgment, she then disobeyed God and rebelled against Him by doing what God had commanded was not to be done: “Look not behind thee.” That was the commandment, but she then “looked from behind Him,” the Lord Jesus Christ. And, again, behind Him lies Satan, so this is language that points to those that have gone back during this time after spiritual judgment was brought to pass on May 21, 2011.

Of course, since it was a spiritual judgment, the unsaved in the world and in the churches could not see anything and, therefore, they concluded that nothing happened. The unsaved, as typified by Lot’s wife, were among the numbers of professed true believers that came out of churches, giving the appearance of being true believers up to that point. But when God began to enact the severe testing program of bringing judgment in a spiritual way, they failed the test by “looking back behind Him.” They began to go back from God’s commandments and from faithfully following His Word and the truths the Lord has graciously opened up during the time of the Great Tribulation and during this present time. They have gone back from them, but not because they have learned from the Bible that these things were wrong. It is because their physical eyes did not see anything (on May 21, 2011) and because of the pressure that came upon them from the world and the corporate church. In drawing back, they are demonstrated that they do not love the Lord Jesus Christ: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” They are drawing back from those commandments. When people draw back from obeying the Word of God, guess who is there waiting? Guess who is “behind,” and willing to step in and assist the individual on their backward path? Of course, it is Satan. He is the one that is involved when the people that came out of the churches are now returning to the churches. Has the Bible changed its teaching concerning the condition of the churches? Has God returned to the churches? No – God has not gone back, but these people have gone back to a desolate place. And they have been deceived in their going back and they are believing the lie. That is Satan’s area of expertise; he is the deceiver and the father of lies. These people have gone back and, in a way, they are following Satan as they follow the lie rather than the truth.

This is the reason that after God speaks of the time of the end of the world when the Son of man is revealed and when those are in the field are not to return back, He adds, “Remember Lot’s wife.” It is an admonition that has special significance to these days after that tribulation during this present period of the prolonged Day of Judgment.

In our last study we were looking at Philippians 3 where the Lord was giving us encouragement and words of wisdom. It says in Philippians 3:10:

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

I wanted to read this verse because it is exactly what God is doing now. If we desire a like resurrection, then we must be conformed to the “death of Christ.” As God brought judgment on the world, He has turned the world into the condition of “hell” and since the elect are still alive and remaining in the world it means that we are in “hell,” in a sense. And hell is the grave or death. We have been made conformable unto the death of Christ; in other words, God has positioned us for this by bringing to pass Judgment Day in the manner He did. He has positioned us for the “resurrection.” First, we must be in hell or the grave before we can rise from the grave.

We had always understood the rapture as escaping hell and the blessed elect ones that are alive and remaining on the very last day would not physically die like the rest of God’s elect whose bodies are in the ground awaiting the resurrection. We had the idea of the rapture slightly incorrect because it does refer to those that will be physically alive and, yet, the great multitude saved out of Great Tribulation that are alive in our bodies will be raptured out of the spiritual condition of hell or the grave; and we will rise up out of the grave in that sense. So, the receiving of new resurrected bodies also has in view coming out of the “grave.” In that way, every elect child of God that has ever lived upon the earth is being resurrected from hell or the grave, whether it be a physical grave or a spiritual condition. We will all be made conformable unto His death. Again, it says in Philippians 3:10-11:

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Again, God positions His people and then the next thing in His program is to raise us from the dead in the resurrection. Then it goes on to say in Philippians 3:12-13:

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. 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,

What is behind? It is Satan, the world and the deceitfulness of the things of this world. That is what lies behind. I have said this before, but it is very true: the way God would have His people to go is forward. When Israel came to the Red Sea, it seemed there was nowhere for them to go. There was nowhere to flee as the Egyptians pursued after them. God was holding the Egyptians at bay, but where would Israel go? God opened the sea and commanded the people to go forward. That is the direction of the kingdom of heaven. We go forward as we follow that narrow way into the kingdom of God. But once you set your sights on the kingdom of God and you are going in that forward direction, you do not go back.

That was the sin of the Israelites in the wilderness. God had miraculously delivered them. It was a picture of His wonderful salvation program. He was bringing them to the Promised Land. He did not do so immediately, did He? After the great deliverance, God had a testing program for them that lasted for forty years, but after the forty years they did, indeed, enter into the Promised Land, except for the majority of the Israelites that had murmured and complained. They wanted to return to Egypt and the Bible says they returned to Egypt in their hearts. They wanted to go back. They looked behind them and wished to return to the place from where they came. But, you see, that is where Satan is operating. When anyone draws back from going the way God’s people are to go, Satan sees an opportunity. This is what we are seeing now in the case of people that have gone back.

I would challenge anyone regarding those that have gone back: “Show me someone who has improved their spiritual situation. Show me someone who has come to more truth and a better understanding of Biblical things.” You will not find that. You may find someone that will profess to have improved their situation, but then they will tell you all about their return to Reformed theology or their return to the Reformed Church or other things that had brought down the wrath of God upon the churches. The churches had lifted up and exalted the teachings of Reformers and the teachings of other theologians and it became “high places” that were then built in to their confessions and creeds. How can a person think they are blessed by going back to these things? They may be deluded in to thinking they are blessed, but there can not be the blessing of God in that place because God is not there. There are literally hundreds of Bible verses that teach the fact that God is not there. If you have gone backwards, it is to your own destruction and ruin. It is to your shame if you have turned back in this time of judgment. It is not to your glory or honor. It is not for your benefit. It is the worst possible decision anyone could make. It would be far better to continue, without murmuring and complaining, in waiting on the Lord.

Yes – you may be often afflicted, and you may experience tribulation. It certainly is not pleasant being under the “hot sun” in the wilderness, but that is the way to the Promised Land. There is no easy way. There is no bed of ease. That is the reason some have gone back – it is too difficult. It is too painful for them. Are we to feel sorry for ourselves? Of course not. There is nothing to feel sorry for, at best. And, at worst, it is a momentary affliction, so we should not give in to deceitful thoughts and feeling sorry for ourselves: “It has been so tough. It has been such a long time. Do you not know that we were looking ahead to 1994?” (Yes – I do know; and so was I.) “Do you not know that we were looking ahead to getting raptured out of here on May 21, 2011?” (Yes – I do know; so was I.) “Do you know that it has been disappointment after disappointment and it is just too much?” (No – we must never say that.) It is a light burden; it is a momentary affliction and it will soon give way to an eternal weight of glory. It is nothing that is more than we can bear: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” God will see to it that His people endure: “He that endureth to the end shall be saved.” God will bring to pass the end of our journey and we will arrive at the shore of Jordan. And we will cross over. We will see the faithfulness of God.

But, you know, we cannot just jump over: “I want to be there now.” We must wait. And we can wait by the grace of God in the power of His Spirit.

After saying that we are to forget the things behind and reach forth to those things before, it goes on to say in Philippians 3:14:

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

We are to go forward to “toward” that mark. God says something that I just noticed recently in Jeremiah 7:23-24:

But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.

They went backward and not forward. Here, God very clearly declares that when someone goes backward, and not forward, they are not hearkening to Him. They are not obeying Him. They are going contrary to the Word of God.

You know, it is a sorrowful thing, but a necessary thing, that God cannot bring an unsaved person into His glorious kingdom. He cannot bring such a person into the new heaven and new earth. So, these stages of the end of the world have been arranged by God for the specific purpose of separating the saved from the unsaved; God was separating the wheat from the tares during the time of the Great Tribulation; there is the separating of the sheep and the goats during the Day of Judgment. God’s Word is the divider. Christ is the divider. God will separate the one from the other. This is the reason that only the elect will endure to the end.

Well, this study went in a direction I was not planning. I was not planning to discuss a lot of these things in this study, but these verses do lead us in this direction.

In our next study, we will continue to look at Lot’s wife and why God tells us to remember her. We will look at the word “remember.” We will also look at the word “salt” and try to understand why God turned her to a pillar of salt.