The Vine’s Church in New York

09/10/2026

Exodus chapter 20 love God & love the people

09/10/2026

She looked back. And became a pillar of salt. Most Christians have read that sentence as a story about disobedience and its consequences. A command was given. She disobeyed. She was punished. That reading is not wrong.
But it misses the word.
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Genesis 19.
The angels had come to S***m to bring Lot and his family out before the destruction.
They told Lot: take your wife and your daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.
Lot hesitated.
The men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters — the Lord being merciful to them — and they brought them out and set them outside the city.
And they said: flee for your life. Do not look back and do not stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, or you will be swept away.
And Lot's wife looked back.
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The Hebrew verb is nabat.
It is not the ordinary word for looking.
The ordinary word for looking — ra'ah — is used when you glance at something, observe it, notice it.
Nabat is different.
Nabat describes a deliberate, intentional, longing gaze.
It is the word used when someone contemplates something they desire.
When they look at something they want.
When their eyes go where their heart already is.
Nabat is the word used in Psalm 22 when the righteous will look upon the one they trust.
It is the word used in Isaiah 51 when God tells Israel to look to Abraham, from whom they were cut.
It is the word of directed, intentional contemplation.
Not a glance over the shoulder.
A look of longing.
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Lot's wife did not look back out of curiosity.
She looked back because she wanted to go back.
Her feet were moving forward. Her body was pointed toward the hills.
And her eyes went back to the city.
To the life she was leaving.
To the home. The possessions. The relationships. The identity she had built in a place God was destroying.
The text does not condemn her by saying she disobeyed.
The text condemns her by recording where her eyes went.
Because where the eyes go is where the heart already is.
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And then Jesus.
Luke 17.
He was teaching His disciples about the day of the Son of Man — about how it would arrive suddenly, without warning, the way the flood came in Noah's time, the way the fire came in Lot's time.
He described people eating and drinking and buying and selling and planting and building.
And then the day arriving.
And then He said three words.
"Remember Lot's wife."
No explanation. No elaboration. No theological unpacking.
Three words. As if the story was self-explanatory for anyone who had actually understood it.
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And the sentence that immediately preceded it was this:
"Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it."
That is the context.
Not: obey orders when God gives them.
Not: do not disobey angels during an evacuation.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it.
Lot's wife looked back because she was trying to preserve something.
The life she had built in S***m.
The city was being destroyed.
And she was trying to hold onto it with her eyes because she could no longer hold onto it with her hands.
And that holding on — that backward longing gaze toward what God had already determined would not be preserved — was what destroyed her.
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And now the salt.
In the ancient world, salt was not primarily a seasoning.
It was a preservative.
It was the substance that kept what would otherwise decay.
The meat that was salted would last through the winter.
The thing that was salted was the thing that was preserved.
A pillar of salt was not a random punishment.
It was a precise image of what had happened.
Lot's wife had tried to preserve what God had determined would not be preserved.
And she became the substance of preservation — salt — in the very moment of her attempt.
The judgment was the image of the sin.
She was trying to preserve S***m.
And she became preservation itself.
A pillar of it.
Standing at the edge of what she could not stop leaving.
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Jesus did not say: remember Lot's wife because she disobeyed an instruction.
He said: remember Lot's wife because she tried to preserve what God had determined to destroy.
And the warning was not primarily for a future catastrophe.
It was for the present moment.
For anyone who has encountered the call to follow — to leave something behind, to move toward what God is doing rather than back toward what He has already judged — and who finds their eyes going back.
Not because they are rebellious.
Because they want to preserve what they are being called to leave.
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Most Christians have read the story of Lot's wife as a cautionary tale about disobeying a direct command from God.
Nobody ever told them that the Hebrew verb for her backward look — nabat — was the verb of longing and desire, not the ordinary verb for glancing or seeing. Nobody ever showed them that Jesus cited her in Luke 17 in the context of a teaching about preservation — whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it — and that the warning was about the impulse to hold onto what God has already determined to release. Nobody ever explained that her becoming a pillar of salt was not an arbitrary punishment but a precise image — the substance of preservation, applied to the woman who had tried to preserve what could not be preserved.
And nobody ever asked what it means that Jesus told His disciples to remember her — not as an example of catastrophic failure but as a mirror for the very human impulse to look back at what we are being called to leave.
Not because the connections are hidden.
Because nobody ever gave them the roots to hear the longing in the Hebrew verb.
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I remember the first time I understood that nabat was not the ordinary word for looking.
Not in a seminary. Not in a commentary.
It was when someone finally showed me the distinction between ra'ah and nabat — and I understood that the text was not saying she glanced backward. It was saying she looked back with the eyes of someone who wanted to return.
Before that, I read the story as a lesson about obeying God's instructions.
After that, I understood it as one of the most precise portraits of spiritual ambivalence in the entire Bible. A woman who was being saved — whose feet were pointing in the right direction — whose heart had not yet left the place her body was fleeing.
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Because context changes everything. Every single time.
Did you know that Lot's wife is never named in the Bible? That we know her only as Lot's wife — the woman defined entirely by her relationship to her husband and by the single act that ended her story? And that this anonymity has led interpreters across centuries to read her as a representative figure — not a specific woman whose personal story we can trace, but the image of everyone who has ever been in the process of leaving something and found their eyes going back?
Did you know that Lot himself hesitated — that the text says he lingered, and the angels had to physically take his hand and the hand of his wife and daughters and bring them out? That the entire family was slow to leave — that the destruction of everything they had built in S***m was not something any of them left easily? And that Lot's wife's backward look was not an isolated failure but the most visible expression of a hesitation that had characterized the whole family from the moment the angels arrived?
Did you know that the city of S***m and the region around it — including the area where Lot's wife became a pillar of salt — lies in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, a region saturated with salt formations? That ancient travelers in that area reported seeing unusual salt formations that local tradition identified as the remains of Lot's wife? That the geographical reality of the region gave the story a physical anchor — a specific kind of landscape that made the image of a human figure of salt not only theologically precise but geographically plausible?
It is all there.
In the Bible you already have at home.
On the pages you have already read.
Waiting for whoever had the roots to hear the longing in the verb.
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This level of understanding does not require a seminary degree.
It does not require years of Greek and Hebrew.
It requires context. It requires connection. It requires someone who has already done the work of connecting the threads and placed it in a format you can walk through on your own.
That is why the Advanced Theology Course was created.
84 modules. From Genesis to Revelation.
Not a surface-level introduction. Not a five-minute devotional.
Real theology. Real depth. The kind of study that helps you understand that Lot's wife did not disobey a command — she looked back with the eyes of someone who wanted to return, and her fate was the precise image of what she was trying to do.
With an internationally recognized certificate. No subscription. You pay once and it is yours.
Because transformative knowledge should not be locked behind a monthly fee you cancel when your budget gets tight.
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Students who completed this module said things I cannot forget.
A woman who has read Genesis her entire life said: "I always read the story of Lot's wife as a warning about disobeying God's instructions. I never knew that the Hebrew verb for her backward look was the verb of longing — nabat, the verb of deliberate, desiring contemplation. I never understood that she did not glance over her shoulder by accident. She looked back because she wanted to go back. And Jesus cited her not as an example of disobedience but as a mirror for anyone who tries to preserve what God has already determined to destroy."
A man who has been in the process of leaving something difficult said: "The salt stopped me. Salt was the preservative. The substance that kept what would otherwise decay. She became the image of what she was trying to do — preserve what could not be preserved. The judgment was not arbitrary. It was the precise symbol of the sin. I had been reading her story as punishment. It was a portrait."
Another student said simply: "Remember Lot's wife. Three words. No explanation. Jesus said it as if the story was self-explanatory for anyone who had actually understood it. I had been reading that story my entire life. I had not understood it. The warning was not about a future catastrophe. It was about the present moment. For anyone whose feet are pointing forward and whose eyes keep going back."
They did not need a seminary to get there.
They needed the right context. The right connections. The depth that makes the Bible open itself from the inside out.
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The Bible is not confusing because it is unclear.
It is confusing because we are reading it without the foundation that made it obvious to the people who first received it.
The first readers of Genesis and Luke knew the distinction between ra'ah and nabat.
They felt the difference immediately.
When they read that Lot's wife looked back — using the verb of longing rather than the verb of glancing — they understood what the text was saying before they reached the consequence.
She was not fleeing with her whole self.
Her body was moving forward.
Her heart had not left.
And her eyes went where her heart was.
And she became salt.
The substance of preservation.
Applied to the woman who could not stop trying to preserve what God had already destroyed.
We read the same story and see a woman who broke a rule.
Not because our faith is lesser.
But because nobody ever gave us the roots that make nabat land with the full weight of the longing it was always describing.
The Advanced Theology Course gives you those roots back.
84 modules built to take you from the surface to the depth. From the text to the context. From information to transformation.
Internationally recognized certificate. No subscription. One payment and it is yours.
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She looked back.
Not with a glance.
With the eyes of someone who wanted to return.
Her feet were on the road to the hills.
Her heart was still in the city.
And the text recorded it with the one word that made the difference between a woman who glanced and a woman who longed.
Nabat.
The verb of deliberate, desiring contemplation.
The verb of going back with your eyes when your body cannot go back with your feet.
And she became salt.
The preservative.
Applied to the woman who tried to preserve what God had judged.
And Jesus said three words about her.
Two thousand years later.
To His disciples.
On a different road.
About a different kind of leaving.
Remember Lot's wife.
Not because she disobeyed a command.
Because she tried to hold onto what she was being called to release.
And her eyes went back.
And she became the image of what she was trying to do.
God did not use the word nabat by accident.
He never does anything by accident.
And what Lot's wife reveals — the longing backward look, the pillar of salt as the precise image of preservation applied to the woman who could not stop preserving, the warning Jesus gave to everyone who finds their eyes going back — has been waiting for you to hear the verb since the first time you read the story as a lesson about following instructions.

09/08/2026

09/07/2026

Welcome to TVCNY, today’s message by Pastor Rowel Exodus chapter 19 God bless us all.

Uncompromising God 🙏🙇

09/06/2026

The Uncompromising Holiness of God (Exodus 19)
Big Idea: God rescues His people not merely to save them but to shape them into a consecrated, obedient community that approaches Him through the one Mediator, Jesus Christ.

Overview
After reminding the congregation of Israel’s journey so far, the speaker camped in Exodus 19 ↗ , the hinge chapter between deliverance and the giving of the Law. God gathers His redeemed people at Mount Sinai to reveal two truths: He is supremely powerful, and He is perfectly holy. Because of that holiness the people must consecrate themselves, keep strict boundaries, and obey His non-negotiable commands.

The terrifying sights and sounds on the mountain teach that no one can draw near on their own; a mediator is required. In the new covenant that Mediator is Jesus Christ, who imputes His righteousness to believers. Therefore Christians today are called to daily purification, wholehearted obedience, and confident access to God through Christ alone.Key Scripture

•Exodus 19 ↗ — The foundation of the whole message: God’s redeemed people must consecrate themselves before approaching His holy presence.•Hebrews 1:1-3 ↗ — The theological anchor: in the new covenant God speaks finally and fully through His Son.•1 Peter 2:9 ↗ — The identity clause: in Christ we are a chosen people and royal priesthood called out of darkness to proclaim His excellence.Main Points
1. Remember what God has already shown Israel (vv. 4–6)

•God who hears (Ex 1), delivers (the plagues and Red Sea), guides (pillar of cloud/fire), provides (manna and water), heals, and wins their battles (Amalek).•These past acts prove He keeps His covenant with Abraham and can be trusted for what lies ahead.•Key phrase: “Redemption always leads to direction.”2. God’s holiness is non-negotiable (vv. 10-15)
•“Consecrate them today and tomorrow.” Consecration is continuous, not one-time.•Boundaries around the mountain illustrate that casual approach brings death; even priests must prepare.•Holiness defined: set apart, purified, free from personal agenda.•Two dimensions:
• Positional holiness (imputed by Christ).
• Practical holiness (daily sanctification).•Complaining, disobedience, and hidden sin attack God’s nature and must be confessed first.3. A supreme, powerful God still requires a mediator (vv. 16-20)
•Thunder, lightning, trumpet blasts, smoke, and earthquake (≈280 dB) display His control over creation.•God speaks to the people through Moses; mediation is essential because of sin.•In the new covenant Jesus is the only Mediator (John 14:6 ↗ ; Hebrews 7:25 ↗ ).•Without Christ no one can access the Father; with Christ believers become:
• God’s treasured possession.
• A holy nation.
• A royal priesthood empowered to approach God and proclaim Him (1 Peter 2:9 ↗ ).Application
The call: Live as a consecrated people—daily confessing sin, obeying God’s voice, and approaching the Father confidently through Jesus alone.Head — Understand that holiness is both a position granted in Christ and a practice we pursue every day.Heart — Cultivate reverence; let the awe of God’s majesty replace fear, anxiety, and small views of Him.Hands1.Begin prayer with confession before adoration—shift from “ACTS” to “CATS.”2.Set aside regular times to “wash your garments”: examine life, repent, and realign.3.Carry and read a personal Bible (not merely an app) to hear God speak through His written Word.Reflection Questions
1.Which past acts of God in your life strengthen your trust in His future direction?2.What daily practices help—or hinder—your ongoing consecration?3.Where have you treated God casually rather than reverently?4.How does recognizing Jesus as your sole Mediator change the way you pray today?5.In what concrete way can you proclaim His “marvelous light” this week

09/05/2026

Thank you to all who donated. God bless us all. 🩸❤️

09/02/2026

Give Blood. Share Hope. Save Lives 🕊️🩸

Joint project with Reformed Triskelion Batch Genesis 2026 and New York Triskelion

🗓️September 5, 2026 at📍2500 Marcus Ave. Lake Success NY 11042

09/02/2026

Redemption and direction