We look back only when we have something to look back to and we do so when prompted either by something (experience, event, memory…) or someone else (person).
Words such as reminisce, nostalgia, remorse, regret point to the process of looking back which is very much part of the normal human experience (human instinct): Who has never looked back?
Lot’s wife is the first character we read about in the Bible who looked back when she was instructed against it (Gen. 19:17). The fact that she did it is intriguing indeed. However, we note that her looking back when she was not supposed to was fatal: She was instantly turned into a pillar a salt (Gen. 19:26).
We can only speculate about what may have prompted her to look back, but what is clear is that the journey for her life ended at the moment she looked back against the angel’s instruction. Looking back was costly to her -I believe it is a valuable lesson for us. Looking back accounts for many detours in our lives from greater things in God ahead.
The second reference in the bible to looking back is in the context of the Israelites’ journey to the Promised Land. It is telling us that we tend to look back more in the course of our journeys…and often when confronted with difficulties or challenges….
Exodus 16:2-3 tells us, “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire community.'”
Please note that the whole community grumbled because they did not have food to eat. In other words, prompted by lack of food to eat, they looked back to the life they had in Egypt. We note the same thing happening again in Numbers 11 but this time they were so fed up with eating the Manna that they longed for some meat: Numbers 11:5, “We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost -also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”
The Israelites looked back to Egypt every time they faced some challenges in the course of their journey to the Promised Land. I wonder who told them that the journey to their Promised Land was not fraught with challenges.
Finally, we read about the Israelites looking back to Egypt again in their reaction to the spies Moses sent to survey the Promised Land: Number 14:4, “And they said to each other, ‘We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” Here we reach the climax with them denying themselves access to their possession and not surprisingly God did not allow them to enter the Promised Land. Here we can see the process that takes us out of the will of God as we decide to take our destiny into our own hands. God will never take us back to the undesirable past (bondage).
“When the going gets tough, the tough gets going”, the saying goes. In this context being “tough” is a matter of faith -consider David and Goliath. Faith in God is what makes one tough enough to possess his or her possession or conquer any obstacle to the fulness of God’s will.
Interestingly, the distinctive mark of people of faith is exactly the ability to not look back. For example, Hebrews 11:15 states, “If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country -a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
In other words, they were so focused on the promise of God of a better country that they had nothing else to look back to. And, their single focus on the promise indicated that they believed God (they took the word of God seriously) who made the promise, they had faith in God and nothing in their journey, not even the threat of death, could change that. To their credit we read that “God is not ashamed to be called their God”. I pray that the same be said about you and I, in Jesus Christ’s name.
Luke 9:62 comes to mind: Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Notwithstanding the context, it is clear that here the Lord Jesus does not commend looking back at all especially in regards to serving the kingdom of God on earth.
Going back to Israelites, it is important to recall that the journey through the desert was planned and intended by God in order to build up their faith for they were going to need it in order to take possession of the Promised Land. Constantly looking back in the face of challenges in the course of their journey achieved the opposite, however. They lacked the faith (toughness) which was required of them to possess their possession.
Few days ago the Lord reminded me that the promise God made to Israelites through Moses to bring them to the Promised Land was not a prophecy that they were going to enter in. in fact of the generation recipient of the promise only two entered the Promised Land.
Every new year most, if not all, Christians are encouraged by their own ministers to prophesy over their own lives or be prophesied over by them. If this is the case for you reading this message, I want to encourage you to make sure you don’t turn God’s promise to a prophecy.
Please note, God’s promise is a picture of the will of God for you or where God is taking you (your possession) and is meant to get you on a journey of faith to it. It is not a picture of where God sees you (prophecy) -for some it is just a matter of nuance….
The promise of God does not come with details description of what the journey to it will entail. It does not guarantee a journey free of struggles, but every challenge you meet is part of the journey to your possession, it prepares you to possess it. Unless you believe God who promised as to focus exclusively on his promise you will succumb to the human instinct to look back which is in essence a faith’s killer. However, this shouldn’t be your portion.
I hope that as you step into 2019 with God’s promises concerning the year for your life you will resolve to have nothing to look back to in regards to past years especially 2018 so that you can fully enjoy the fulness of the will of God in your life. This is also my prayer for you in the name of Jesus Christ!
