So… II Peter 2:7 declares that Lot was a righteous man in spite of his soul being tormented every day by what he saw and heard as he lived just outside of Sodom, and as he was involved with that predator city full of predator people. What drew Lot to live in such an area? Was it the money?
I’ve pondered so many times why his wife was turned into a pillar of salt, of all things? I thought salt was a good thing, symbolically speaking. Are we not called to be the salt of the earth? And so when his wife looks back at Sodom being judged, which she was strictly told not to do, why did she turn into a pillar of salt? Why not pig dung, or catch fire or something? What is the Bible trying to tell us?
“But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.” (Gen. 19:26)
I welcome any theories on this, but the best I’ve come up with is that salt was also a form of money in those days. It had value. In desert areas where you sweat a lot, it could be used to pay for other things. Also where the phrase, “Are you worth your salt?” came from.
So she just can’t help herself. In spite of the warning, she looks back at everything she is losing. All her earthly stuff. And whamo! She turned into a statue depicting a form of money. Jesus warns us also; when speaking of the last days, judgement, and possibly rapture, he tells us to “Remember Lot’s wife!” (Luke 17:32)
As an American, how hard is it going to be for me not to look back at my earthly goods with some kind of longing? I think that was the real problem with her looking back. She was too attached to her material things. Are my affections set on things above?
In the account of Lot’s rescue by the two angels, which is in detail in Genesis 19, the word angel is used 7 times! That’s kind of a lot. Angels were heavily involved in the rescue of Lot, his wife, and two daughters. Those angels were likely there because of the interceding of Lot’s Uncle Abraham. I want to look closer at angel involvement in the last days in Part 3, but for this article, I want to consider something else. I want to examine where the angels told Lot and his family to flee. They told them to escape to the mountains! But Lot said that was too hard. They would die there. And he begged for another place.
Gen. 19:17> “When they were safely out of the city, one of the angels ordered, ‘Run for your lives! And don’t look back or stop anywhere in the valley! Escape to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
(VRS 18) “Oh my Lord!”
Lot begins begging to be allowed to go to a small town called Zoar. He cries that they will die in the mountains, and the angel grants his request. But what does the mountains represent? A separation to our Lord, the high places, spirit life, the eagle, all the good things of God, the very life we are supposed to desire as the born-again, but Lot dreaded the thought of it! And the angels suffered his pleading. They allowed him to settle. But what ended up happening? We find out in verse 30.
After everything that happened, something began happening in Lot. Another fear began to invade him. After seeing such destruction and judgement, then it says he began to fear the people in Zoar! And he ends up going to the mountains after all! And some bad things happened there too, but… a new fear overcame Lot’s fear of the mountains. He was terrified of them before. He begged not to go there. But ended up going of his own free will, because of the evil he now saw in other people. Hhmmm.
We should not fear the high places of living in Christ, separating ourself to the love of God. We have nothing to fear in those high places, and everything to be gained.
“Afterward Lot left Zoar because he was afraid of the people there, and he went to live in a cave in the mountains with his two daughters.”
Obviously Lot had some issues after what he had been through, but it was his own selfish heart that caused him to take the bountiful looking land while he left his uncle with the desert. Then he decides to mingle with Sodom, and for what? Money? Was it worth it? I think not. But how careful are we not to be doing the same thing? Could we end up with a destroyed family and so full of fear we run to a cave? Don’t be too quick to say that will never happen to me.
Why should we learn from Lot? I suspect we each have our own Sodom we’re contending with? Are we living too close? If so, why? What is the motivation? Are we calling on the angels God has made available to us? More on that in Part 3, but for now, we would do well to take heed of the words of our Lord. A very simple 3 word recommendation, or is it a command? “Remember Lot’s wife.” 3 simple words.
After Part 3 of “Lot”, the story of “Yinney the Sloth who needed to Poo” will continue.
Path Without End 