Lot’s wife, no doubt, had a strong affinity for those rebels that God was destroying in a HORRIBLE fiery conflagration! Bad plan!
Shirley,
Regarding Lots wife. When I was little I thought, sometimes when people are afraid they’ll accidentally turn around due to fear. As a 32 year old woman, (I recently turned another age; oh joy, oh bliss), I thought maybe that she wasn’t killed and sent to hell for turning around. That she turned around because she was evil all along and she turned around because she wanted to go back to the reprobates-there was no reflex move. Whats your opinion?
— Cari
Hi Cari –
I believe that you and every other son and daughter of Adam come to that exact same conclusion if you live long enough on this earth. She, no doubt, had a strong affinity for those rebels that God was destroying in a HORRIBLE fiery conflagration, dropping from the sky as they literally fled for their own lives. She, who had been taken out by the angels, holding their hands! And the rebels included AT LEAST her sons-in-law. But the lesson is very sober, indeed and has eternal consequences!
Bible expositor, John Gill says this about Genesis 19:26, where the event occurred:
Ver. 26. But his wife looked back from behind him: That is, the wife of Lot, whose name the Jewish writers {x } say was Adith, or as others Irith {y }; and, according to the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, she was a native of Sodom: now, as they were going from Sodom to Zoar, she was behind Lot, his back was to her, so that he could not see her; this was a temptation to her to look back, since her husband could not see her; and this she did, either, as the above paraphrases suggest, that she might see what would be the end of her father’s house and family, or whether her married daughters, if she had any, were following her, after whom her bowels yearned; or being grieved for the goods and substance left behind, and for the people of Sodom in general, for whom she had too much concern; however, be it on what account it may, she was severely punished for it:
and she became a pillar of salt; was struck dead at once, either by the immediate hand of God, or by the shower of fire and brimstone; and her body was at once changed into a metallic substance, a kind of salt, hard and durable, such as Pliny {z } speaks of, cut out of rocks, with which houses were built, and hardened with the sun, and could scarcely be cut with an iron instrument; so that she did not fall to the ground, but stood up erect as a pillar, retaining very probably the human form, Josephus {a } says, this pillar continued to his times, and that he saw it;
Jesus said at Luke 17:32: “Remember Lot’s wife.”
Bible expositor, John Gill says this:
Ver. 32. Remember Lot’s wife. … Our Lord’s design in these words, is to instruct his followers by this instance, not to look back in their flight, or to turn back to their houses, to save their goods, when the desolation of Jerusalem was coming on, lest they should suffer in it; and to warn all professors of religion, in all ages, against looking back to things that are behind, or turning their backs on him, in a time of distress and persecution; since such are not fit for the kingdom of God; and in these God has no delight and pleasure.
Thanks for asking.
–Your friends at WBC