| |
Bible Question: What
do we know about Lot's wife?
.
Bible Answer: The
Bible refers to Lot's wife in the Old and New Testaments. There are
also some historical references to her. First we look at the Old and
New Testament references.
Old
and New Testament. The
Old Testament only refers to Lot's wife in Genesis 19.
| |
And when morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up,
take your wife and your two daughters, who are here,
lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city."
But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand
of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the
compassion of the LORD was upon him; and they brought him out,
and put him outside the city. And it came about when they had
brought them outside, that one said, “Escape for your life!
Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley;
escape to the mountains, lest you be swept away." But Lot
said to them, “Oh no, my lords! Now behold, your servant
has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness,
which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape
to the mountains, lest the disaster overtake me and I die; now
behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small.
Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) that my life
may be saved." And he said to him, “Behold, I grant
you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you
have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until
you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the town was called
Zoar. The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire
from the LORD out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities,
and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and
what grew on the ground. But his wife, from behind him, looked
back; and she became a pillar of salt. (NASB) Genesis
19:15-26 |
We do not know the name of Lot's wife. Genesis simply tells us that
Lot and the women of the home did not want to leave the city of Sodom.
As a result, the angels "seized" them by the hand and took
them out of the city. The angels had warned them to not look back,
but Lot's wife did and she became a pillar of salt. This was an act
of God's judgment.
In
the New Testament Jesus tells us why she looked back. We discover
that she did not become a pillar of salt because she simply looked
back. What was her sin? She was longing for the pleasures of Sodom
- the pleasures of this world - more than she was longing to be faithful
to God.
| |
It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating,
they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they
were planting, they were building but on the day that Lot went
out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and
destroyed them all. . . . Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever
seeks to keep his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his
life shall preserve it. (NASB) Luke
17:28-29, 32-33 |
She was willing to live with the great wickedness that God hated in
order to enjoy its pleasures. She did not really love God. She loved
the things of this world more. She was not really willing to obey.
So God punished her by turning her into a pillar of salt.
Pillar
Existed. Did
she really become a pillar of salt? Flavius Josephus, the Roman historian,
recorded that he
had seen her pillar of salt.
| |
But Lot's wife continually turning back to view the city as
she went from it, although God had forbidden her so to do, was
changed into a pillar of salt; for I have seen it, and it remains
at this day. |
| |
Josephus,
Flavius. Antiquities of the Jews. 1.11.4 |
Other
ancient writers such as Irenaeus, a church father, and Clement of
Rome, a contemporary of Josephus, record that they had seen her pillar
of salt (Irenaeus Against Heresies, Book 4, Chapter 31; First Epistle
of Clement to the Corinthians, Chapter 11). This also means that Jesus
may have seen the pillar of salt since Joesphus lived at the time
of Jesus. What a serious reminder of man's love for this world rather
than for God.
Conclusion:God
did not give us her name because it was not really important for us
to know. He wants us to remember that He wants our hearts - our longing
for Him. When we long for the pleasures of this world, they get in
the way of our relationship with God.
| |
Do not love the world, nor 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 and the lust of
the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father,
but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also
its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.
(NASB) 1 John 2:15-17 |
|
|
