“But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” -Genesis 19:26
I keep thinking of Lot’s wife.
The point where we look back, is the point where everything stops.
She didn’t actually have to go back, all she had to do was look back, and everything stopped. She was frozen in time.
She became a statue of salt and all that Lot could do was leave his wife there on the plain to be eroded by the wind and rain to very shortly disappear forever.
Is this what it looks like to spurn the grace of God?
She was favored by God, along with her two daughters and her husband Lot, to escape the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but failed to have faith to appreciate the gift she had been given!
Sodom and Gomorrah are going up in smoke and instead of being grateful that she wasn’t there when the fire fell she’s lamenting it’s destruction, wistfully looking back at what used to be.
Understand, it’s not that Lot’s heart was so much better than his wife’s. His heart was also intertwined in the city. The scriptures tell us that he was also hesitant to leave. The difference between Lot and his wife, however, is that once they’d gotten out he came to his senses enough not to look back
“When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.” -Genesis 19:16
All of them had some kind of love for Sodom in their heart. All of them were so hesitant to leave Sodom that angels had to grab each of them by the hand and lead them out!
Something of Sodom had gotten into them. The city that God could no longer tolerate and had decided to destroy had found its place in their hearts and they were all reluctant to leave it behind. Even with all the wickedness in that city they could reason in themselves that it wasn’t all bad, that there was still a lot to like about Sodom!
And thus it is that the world creeps into our hearts and causes us to lose touch with reality. Sin blinds and hardens and if not for the mercy and grace of God it will slowly lull us to sleep.
Lot and his family were sleeping in Sodom!
We’re told that the things that “righteous Lot” saw “vexed his soul” but apparently not enough to cause him to move away from that place. If we’ll just look back at our lives we must admit that we’re not unlike Lot. Sometimes we befriend the very thing that vexes us!
When I take this passage and apply it to my own life I ask myself, “Did God tell me to be here, or am I here out of sheer self-will and desire?”
Why is this person in my life? Why is that thing occupying such a prominent place?
The answer to such questions is important because we often find ourselves in places where we’ve long forgotten how we got there in the first place.
Lot was deeply disturbed by what he saw around him day by day, but it was his own choices that had caused him to settle in that place. It’s a great metaphor by which we can examine our own lives.
“Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.” -Acts 17:16
The difference I think between Lot and Paul was that Paul was on mission. Lot chose the place where he lived based upon the advantages of the flesh. Paul chose the place where he lived by the leading of the Holy Spirit.
In any event, there came a time when God told Lot to leave.
Consider that.
There are times in all of our lives when that happens, and what we do in that moment, is absolutely critical.
“As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain!” -Genesis 19:17
When everything’s said and done, and God in His mercy has saved you from certain destruction, it shows a complete lack of gratefulness to long for the thing He rescued you from.
By looking back Lot’s wife was partnering with that which was being destroyed, and because of that, she ended up sharing it’s destruction.
Lot’s wife didn’t need to be in Sodom for her life to come to an end, all she needed was for Sodom to be in her.