“And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.”
Once outside the city, the angels say: flee for your lives! Do not look back, and do not stop anywhere in the plain. Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away. The command has three parts: flee, do not look back, do not stop. All three will be violated in some way by Lot's family — Lot will ask to stop at Zoar (verse 20), his wife will look back (verse 26). The urgency of the triple command and the triple warning is proportional to the danger. The instruction not to look back is not arbitrary — it is the instruction of a rescue that requires total departure, complete leaving, no divided mind between the old life and the new. Luke 9:62 records Jesus saying that no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. The application: rescue requires complete forward movement. Looking back is a form of incomplete leaving.
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