No Going Back

Written by Kristi Huseby

Take our online study to explore the value and necessity of self-control in our lives today.

“Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family. But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 9: 61-62, NLT)

Have you ever told yourself, “I’m done with that sin and I’m never going back to it?” I have – about a bazillion times! I get so disgusted with my sin that I dissociate myself from it. However, this dissociation only lasts a couple of days before I begin to miss my comfortable sin. At the point of missing it, I wish I had it back.

Why do we go back? Here are some reasons: the past always seems to be better, we don’t like the present, we’re afraid of the future, we can’t let go, our sin feels so much more comfortable than the unknown. These are all excuses, excuses and more excuses.

The Big Minute

Rabbi Shaul Rosenblatt

Bo (Exodus 10:1-13:16)

When God informs Moses of the tenth and final plague, he tells him that it will happen at "approximately" midnight. Rashi, the great commentator, asks why God was not more exact. Doesn't God have a watch? He answers that timekeeping was an inexact science in those days. Were God to have said "exactly" midnight, people might have confused their timings and thought that it was God, and not them, who had made a mistake. To avoid potential confusion, God says "approximately."

At first glance, this answer makes no sense. Let's put it in context for a moment. God has brought ten miraculous plagues upon Egypt - blood, locust with iron teeth, hail with fire inside, darkness that is palpable... These miracles are about to climax with the slaying of every firstborn Egyptian in a single moment. And God is worried that because someone might not have an atomic clock, he will think that God's not as cool as he says He is?!

R.S.V.P.

 "Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: ...And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." Luke 14:16, 23

LUKE 14:16-24

The man who made the supper symbolizes God who has invited "whosoever will" to come to Him. The parable teaches that it is not God who fails to offer salvation to everyone, but rather it is the invited guests who reject God's offer.

These people had feeble excuses just like the excuses of those today who don't accept God's offer of salvation. Therefore, the Lord's Marriage Supper of the Lamb will be furnished with "undesirables" from the world's point of view, not because God rejects the upper class, but because they reject Him.