Remember Lot's Wife
When Jesus tells us to “remember Lot’s wife”, He was speaking to His disciples about a coming time of great destruction. A time that will inevitably come upon us when; “Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it” (Luke 17:32-33). As such, we would be wise to consider this statement to “remember Lot’s wife” as a command that our lives depend upon. He wants us to bring to remembrance the complete story, ponder what was occurring, and is even now occurring; and most importantly deeply consider how it all applies to each of us personally. These words of our Savior Jesus Christ, spoken in Luke 17:32, are an admonition to His disciples about how they should react to the conditions that would become prevalent in our society before His second coming. If we are to remember Lot's wife, we need to review what happened in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Five cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela (Zoar) were spread over the Plain of Jordan, at the southern end of the Dead Sea (Genesis 14:2, 8). Sodom and Gomorrah were likely the chief two of these five cities, situated in a valley "like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar" (Genesis 13:10). Conflict had erupted between the herdsmen of Abram and Lot. Abram did not want any hard feelings, so he proposed to Lot, “If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.” (Genesis 13:9). Lot, given first choice, headed toward the Jordan since he observed it had great access to water. Lot “pitched his tent toward Sodom,” while “Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan” (Genesis 13:12). Lot chose to settle in Sodom, even though he knew "the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD" (verse 13). Sodom’s culture no doubt attracted many to move to be close to the activities and attractions which fed the affluent lifestyle of the city and its neighbors. The wealth of the city helped create a high standard of living, allowing people to build and buy goods and sell them to others along the supply routes of the day. Food was plentiful. Life here offered Lot and his family a welcome diversion from the harder shepherding life they were used to. He proceeded into an environment full of sin and it eventually changed his pattern of life.
Several years later, God visited Abraham and revealed His intention to destroy the cities of the plain because their sin had grown "very grievous" (Genesis 18:20). Abraham pleaded for the lives of Lot and his family, and God graciously agreed to spare Sodom if only ten righteous people were there (verse 32). Abraham was certain Lot would have at least “commanded his children and his household” and kept the “way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment” (Genesis 18:19). But Abraham was not able to find even 10 righteous men among those of the land.
Two angels met Lot as he sat at the gate of Sodom and knowing how dangerous it was for strangers to be in public once the sun went down, he offered them lodging for the night. They initially refused, as they desired to “abide in the street all night” (Genesis 19:2). Lot insisted strongly and they finally agreed and went with Lot who fed them. Lot’s fears were well founded, for the perverted men of the city surrounded his house and brazenly demanded that Lot surrender the two angels to them so they could molest them (Genesis 19:4-5). Their depravity was so deep that both old and young, rich and poor, participated in this grotesque mob. In a moment of weakness, Lot tried to appease the mob by offering his own daughters to them, but this only roused them against him. When they became physically violent, the angels pulled Lot inside and struck the Sodomites with blindness. After a while, tired of searching for the door to Lot's house, the mob dispersed (Genesis 19:6-11). Having witnessed Sodom's complete depravity, the angels advised Lot to take his entire family out of the city. "For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it" (Genesis 19:13). However, though Lot tried to convince them, his sons-in-law thought he was joking and refused to leave (verse 14).
Although he had seen the complete perversions first-hand, Lot seemed to fail to grasp the urgency of the situation. (Do we?) While “he lingered” the angels “the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city” (verse 16). Still hesitant, Lot convinced the angels to allow them to flee to Zoar rather than the nearby mountains because he was afraid "some evil" would befall him (verses 19-22). One of the angels charged him, however, with two commands: 1) "Do not look behind you" and 2) do not "stay anywhere in the plain" (verse 17). When Lot entered Zoar, "the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens" (verse 24). All the cities of the plain were destroyed except Zoar (verse 25). Yet as the cities were being demolished, Lot’s wife disobeyed the angel's command and “looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:29). Why did she look back?
The context does not specifically give a reason, according to Bible commentaries like the NIV Zondervan Study Bible, Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt as she looked back, “for disobeying the instruction not to look back. Her action suggests that she identified with the people of Sodom. Her failure to flee God’s punishment becomes a vivid warning to others (Luke 17:32).” Let’s consider this a bit more, it is probable that she had an inordinate love for all the material things, the trappings and even lifestyle she had in Sodom. Obviously, Lot was a wealthy man who had enough livestock and servants to cause a problem while he lived with Abraham (Genesis 13:5-7). He and his wife likely had an impressive house with many fine furnishings, servants to do her bidding, fine clothes, food, and even frequent entertainment. They had status!
Lot had achieved prominence among the citizens of Sodom beyond his wealth. Genesis 19:1 shows him sitting in the gate of the city, a place usually reserved for the elders and judges. Lot's wife may have been reconsidering her decision to forsake the privileges of the high social status and her prominent friends. Perhaps she just loved the ways of the society she lived in more than God. John writes: Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15-17)
There was likely more to it than just loving the society she lived in and her status. Most people assume that Lot had only two daughters, but this is not the case. He says to the Sodomites, "See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man" (Genesis 19:8). He had two unmarried daughters. Later, in verse 14, he "spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters," meaning he had other married daughters who were not virgins—as they were married, possibly even with children of their own. Remember, the angels tell him, "Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here" (verse 15), this too implies he had daughters elsewhere. This is important as we “remember Lot’s wife” Since Lot and his wife had more than two daughters, they left more than just material possessions in the city. When God rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom, their married daughters and sons-in-law—and possibly grandchildren—perished with the rest of the city's populace.
Thus, when Lot's wife fled for Zoar, her wealth, her house and her social circle were not the only things that were on her mind. Those concerns were likely insignificant along side the certain death of her flesh and blood. Perhaps she did not fully believe that God would follow through on His threat. As a loving mother, her emotions for her doomed family in the city may have clouded her ability to make proper decisions. Can similar attachments cloud our decisions? As you “remember Lot’s wife” Jesus Christ makes a pertinent comment in this regard in Matthew 10:37-39 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it”. Though it goes against our nature, leaving family members behind to do God's will may be the most common hardship any of us can face. God requires us to have more allegiance to Him than to the members of our own physical families. This can be a real challenge of our faith and obedience—as it demands a humanly uncomfortable but ultimately necessary choice.
What else must we remember? “Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:28-30). Jesus vividly reminds us that an indicator of His imminent return is that the society around us will be similar to that of Sodom when Lot lived there nearly four thousand years ago. People will be going about their everyday lives seemingly unconcerned about the egregious evils in society, unaware that their lifestyles are abominable in the eyes of God. Thinking their ways of life are "normal," they will not expect the calamitous events that will befall them. Do we perhaps in some way identify with our society as Lot’s wife did? Do we see how abominable things are? Do we recognize the calamitous events that will soon befall our world?
We live in a society today where moral sin is discussed and openly displayed daily—it’s not just tolerated; it’s held out as normal and even applauded. Some of our own major cities could easily compare to Sodom or Gomorrah because of their blatant depravity. Our society has rejected anything that is of God. The apostle Paul explains where the rejection of God leads: “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what was against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was their due” (Romans 1:26-27). Make no mistake, our nations are experiencing a return to Sodom today.
Though sexual corruption is the sin most associated with Sodom, the people of that city displayed other evil traits. Ezekiel 16:49-50 lists some of their other sins: “Look, this is the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit”. We must recognize that our society is rapidly returning to the depravity of Sodom in many ways. The apostle Peter wrote about Sodom in the context of God’s judgment at the end of the age, the time in which we live. Showing God’s judgment as inevitable and unsparing, he writes that God “turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly” (2 Peter 2:6). Peter’s words will see a future fulfillment in the coming period of Great Tribulation culminating in the Day of the Lord, when God will bring judgment on the nations.
As we “remember Lot’s wife” we are to remember our society today where Satan lays in wait like a hungry lion (1 Peter 5:8)). We are living in Satan's world, we are in the time of the end, and we are commanded, "Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues" (Revelation 18:4). God wants us to make strides to overcome the ungodly practices that we can so easily absorb from "this present evil world" (Galatians 1:4). Lot’s story is a vivid reminder that well-intentioned people can get mesmerized by a culture and sucked into it even if they do not practice the worst parts of the sinful lifestyle themselves. It is an example of people failing to heed a warning message to change their lives in the face of coming judgment. Are we taking the warning we are given seriously? Are we being lulled into complacency? Scripture says, Lot “lingered”, and his wife “looked back”; do we at times linger or look back?
We cannot fail to fully recognize that our society, like Sodom, is designed to lure us into a well-watered valley of ease, convenience and pleasure. It tempts us to rationalize our choices, turn from God and all the right influences that can keep us on the narrow path of righteousness. Today, on Jebel Usdum (Hill of Sodom) on the Dead Sea's western shore, stands a pillar of salt known as "Lot's Wife." This monument is a perpetual reminder of a woman who for likely several physical reasons (spiritual rationalizations which we looked at in the last pastor’s message) looked back, rather than follow the express command of God. In a critical moment she took her eyes off the goal.
Christ warns each one of us that we cannot allow the same to happen to us. “Remember Lot’s wife” we have a much greater goal than our physical safety, our eternal life is at stake. “Remember Lot’s wife”, nothing, absolutely nothing can be allowed to come between us and our commitment to God. We must always keep that as our first priority. We must recognize we do indeed live in perilous times (2 Timothy 3:1-13), yes times rapidly approaching “as it was in the days of Lot”. As I conclude this pastor’s message, I am reminded of what the apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:13-15: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind.” Let us take the time to carefully remember Lot’s wife!