The Monument
So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, ‘Escape for your Life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.’ – Genesis 19:17.
But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. – Genesis 19:26.
Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. – Luke 17:32-33.
Lot, and his wife were escaping from the destruction, which God poured out on Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s wife forever became a monument representing those who desire the things of the world over the things of God. She very literally turned from God to the world. She wanted to save her life of worldliness, and in the process lost her life, and became a monument representing a wasted life. Lot, in losing his life of worldliness, found his life to be saved. J. Henry Jowett says, “Worldliness is a spirit, a temperament, an attitude of the soul. It is a life without high callings, life devoid of lofty ideals. It is a gaze always horizontal and never vertical.”
How tragic that Lot’s wife lost the opportunity to have a godly influence upon her daughters, grandchildren, and so many others. We condemn her for her weakness, but we know in our hearts that we are just as weak. How many of us have settled for what the world has to offer, when we could have had riches stored up in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-20)? We’ve turned from faithfulness to God, in order to earn more, and more money for the trinkets of the world. In the process, we have lost opportunity after opportunity to influence others for good.
Through a single sermon preached by Dwight L. Moody in 1882, a never ending chain of influence was begun. 14-year-old Tommy Bewes was saved, and he became a prominent minister. Tommy’s son Cecil spent 20 years as a missionary in Kenya, and eventually became the leader of England’s largest missionary society. Of Tommy Bewes’ 100 descendants, nearly all of them were, or are involved in some way in Christian service.
You may never stand in the pulpit and literally preach a sermon, but every day of your life you will preach sermon after sermon with how you live out your life. Countless people will be influenced for good; or for bad, depending upon whether you lose your life in God, or try to save your life in the world. Today, I would encourage you to determine in your heart, that your life will become a monument not to the world, but to God.
Every day of your life you will preach sermon after sermon, with how you live out your life.)