Shabbat Shalom friends!
Today I’m on an island in a river, remote camping with my son.
Whenever I get to be completely outdoors surrounded by nature and away from the world, I think a lot about what it will be like leaving this present society and transitioning into God’s kingdom. (Please Yah may this day come soon!)
But let me ask a seemingly easy question: will we miss it?
Let’s face it: no matter how Godly and righteous our lives may be now, when the kingdom comes, Yah is going to say no to a lot of the things we might ‘enjoy’ today.
Will we say, “oh please Yah can you keep my favorite TV show?” or “I liked the freedom and acceptance that was in the world before”. Or like the Israelites said to Moses “those cucumbers and onions were better in slavery than this freedom you’ve brought to us” (Josh’s paraphrase).
This makes me think of Lot’s wife.
Gen 19:17 “So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he [THE ANGEL] said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”
Gen 19:26 “But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”
Why on earth would she look back? She was specifically told not to! It makes me pretty frustrated- wasn’t this the most obvious and avoidable mistake she could have made?
But then… I wonder if she missed it. Her old life, the way of the city, her friends. Maybe she had relatives who lived this lifestyle that she was thinking of. In a way, perhaps she was even tolerant of all that was happening in the city, she accepted it, it didn’t bother her.
And so she looked back. Even when God said not to.
What do you do when Yah says no?
Growing up I was always taught to pray for God’s will to be done. And to do this, there is a common phrase used amongst believers: “God please open the doors for me that I am supposed to go through and close them if you do not want me to go through them”.
So what happens when He closes the door? When Yah says no to something you have been earnestly praying for, are you remorseful? Do you hesitate? Do you look back at the closed door?
Luke 17:31-32 “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife.
The phrase “let him not turn back” in Greek has a dual definition: one that means to physically not turn around, and also more importantly it means to not revert morally in your mind, or with intent.
We just cannot allow ourselves to be caught up or attach ourselves to this world. If we do, we will want to revert back to our old ways, what feels comfortable. Yah clearly states that we are not citizens in this society, that we are in the world, not of it.
Luke 9:57-62 “Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Yeshua said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Yeshua said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Yeshua said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Yeshua says here that if you are going to plow, then plow.
What this means is there has to be follow through, with no hesitation. Lot’s wife agreed to flee, started fleeing, and then stopped. Similarly- this person believed in Yeshua, said he would follow Him, and then stopped.
Heb 10:38 says “the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him”.
I have seen many “believers” come and go throughout my life. We have to make sure we are not one of these people that hesitates in our calling, that stop, or turn back to our love of the world.
Paul even mentions in 2Tim 4:10 that one of his trusted workers in Yeshua fell away ” having loved this present world “
2Peter 2:20-21 “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Yeshua Messiah, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.”
Clearly, we are not to turn back to this world after having been called out of it. So what do we do?
Let’s look at a final story in scripture that is similar to the person that met Yeshua on the road requesting to turn back
1Kings 19:19-21 “So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.”
From a quick read, one might think this is the same situation, with a different outcome. But let me add a little bit of background here: In those times, wealth was measured by livestock, land, and servants. It is listed here that Elisha had 12 yoke of oxen. Consider this: each yoke consists of two oxen, each yoke must have at least one person to plow, each plow must have considerable space on land to plow. That means Elisha had at least 24 oxen, at least 11 servants, and a large farming estate. It is safe to say that he was pretty rich for this time period, high in wealth and station.
Elisha eliminated his wealth, eliminated his labor, and gave away belongings to others. He traded his riches to symbolize completely severing himself from the previous world and following God. This is the perfect example.
Sever you ties from the corrupt world. Do not let it call you back to labor or pleasure. Don’t be like Lot’s wife, who turned back, Don’t be like the person who hesitated following Yeshua. Don’t love the world so much that it turns you away from the faith like so many before us including Paul’s disciples.
When God says no, when he closes the door, what will you do? Will you follow through? Without hesitation or remorse?
Be like Elisha, show Yah that you are all in to follow him.
No ties.
No turning back!
Shalom-
Josh
