“Remember Lot’s wife.” Luke 17:32
When you read this verse, you can almost hear it being said as some type of warning. An advanced notice of sorts. Or a piece of cautionary advice.
Have you ever had someone say, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, you remember what happened to so and so?”
I can actually recall several instances of someone saying this to me and with each instance I do not recall a positive outcome. And I believe that’s what the verse is implying here.
As the story goes, in Genesis 19, God was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of its widespread wickedness. And Lot, his wife and their children lived in Sodom.
And God in his graciousness, sent angels into the city to rescue Lot and his family from the destruction.
But as they were leaving the city, Lot’s wife “looks back”.
Genesis 19:26 puts it this way, “But Lot’s wife, from behind him, [foolishly, longingly] looked [back toward Sodom in an act of disobedience], and she became a pillar of salt.” Genesis 19:26 AMP
This story has always intrigued me. Not only because a human being turned into a pillar of salt but more so, the “WHY” behind it.
The Bible says in the verse above that it was because of “an act of disobedience” “foolishly, longingly” looking back toward Sodom.
Have ever said to yourself, “I wish I could go back to the way things used to be”, or “I wish I could go back to when ______ fill-in the blank? I think we all have!
But “remember Lot’s wife”!
I believe the Bible is reminding us and maybe even warning us, that it’s not always good to look back.
I mean, I can remember the first few years of homeschooling, some days, I just wanted to throw up my hands and run back to corporate America. Even knowing full well that the Lord had called me to this work of homeschooling. And even knowing that the workplace was sometimes unhealthy and was even toxic at times.
But isn’t this what we do, when life gets hard, we look for ways to escape the hard.
You see, looking back isn’t an escape at all, if it leads us back into bondage. If it leads us away from the place that God is bringing us into. Or if it leads us away from the place that God has prepared for us.
Lot’s wife was longing for what she once had even while it was burning to the ground under the wrath of God. And so, she looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.
Now I often wondered why of all things, did she turn into a pillar of salt.
Salt purifies, it adds flavor, it preserves. The Bible has even used the term to describe believers, as the Salt of the earth. So why salt? It almost seems like a contradiction.
But then I found where salt can also symbolize “desolation”. And desolation means a state of bleak and dismal emptiness.
Like WOW! Catch this and remember Lot’s wife!
God called her out of a place of destruction. A place of darkness and of ruins. And into a place of safety that He was leading her and her family into. And instead of trusting God, she looked back, trusting in what she once had and it ultimately left her completely EMPTY, a pillar of emptiness.
Because the Bible has strong words to say about people who look back.
Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62
As Believers, we are called to trust God. We are called to take up our cross and follow Him. And in being more like him, we are called to lose our life, in order to gain a new life in Him. Meaning, to lose our ways of thinking, our desires and exchange them for His. For His, is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory.
And so, I’m reminded of Luke 17:33 which sums up what happened to Lot’s wife. When we “remember Lot’s wife”, may we remember this verse. “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.”
Sobering thoughts but may we remember.
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