Lot's Wife -- Lessons Learned in Her Sandals

WOW! Isn’t it so easy to get entrapped with the things of this world? Prada, Gucci, Coach. Harley, Maserati, Corvette. Starbucks, top end restaurants, and fine dining. The latest and greatest electronic gizmo, the most recent iPhone/iPad, travel, concerts and venues. Some strive for it. Some live for it.  Others envy from afar never to achieve buying only knock-offs. Stepped on any toes yet?

Lot and his wife had stuff. They had a lot of stuff. They had so much stuff that they couldn’t keep track of it, and there were arguments with Abraham’s servants as to what was Lot’s and what was Abraham’s. Lot chose the prime real estate. Location. Location. Location. But the down side of the location was the neighbors, neighbors, neighbors. The neighbors liked stuff too. They liked all kinds of stuff. Stuff that Lot and his family had not been exposed to prior to moving to that location. At first, they may have been shocked by what they saw. Their skin may have even crawled at the things that they saw, but the longer they lived around the sinful ways of these men, they began to accept it. I, personally, don’t do it, but who am I to say that they shouldn’t live that way. They aren’t bothering me, but then the tables turn. They come and beat on your door and on your way of life screaming to get at you, your children, your guests, at the holy ones.

Things/stuff and complacency is what tears this woman apart. God spared this family for the sake of Abraham. This family was the only thing that remotely resembled a righteous family, and their vision had been obstructed and skewed by what they had allowed into their lives.

It jumped out to me that the word “guests” was used when Lot brought them home even though he knew they were angels. But the word “angels” isn’t used again until they grab the hands of Lot and his family. I don’t know if Lot’s wife really realized they were angels until then. We can become so blinded or numb to the work of God that we don’t recognize it as such until He has to lay his hands on us. Ever been there? YIKES! What does it take for God to get your attention? Have you become so numb and so blind to His ways that you wouldn’t know them if they were banging on your own door!? Seriously, it’s time for us to wake up. America is not a “BLESSED NATION.” We are NOT God’s chosen. We are His redeemed but NOT His chosen. The gay lifestyle is not okay with God. It isn’t something we should accept as normal and allow into our homes and in the influence of our children. We also shouldn’t accept extramarital affairs either or sex outside of marriage. God has spoken very clearly on these things.

Then there were the men beating on the doors trying to get into the guests. These men were sick, sick, sick. They were dark spiritually doing things that God had commanded them not to do, and when the time came, the guests struck them blind. They were physically in the dark. Blind as a bat. The door into the house could not be found by them. When Satan is banging on your door wanting to come in, wanting to spread his darkness, you better be praying that God hides the door. He doesn’t have to. After all, we put ourselves into these predicaments most of the time, don’t we? Lot CHOSE to move his family there. He knew before putting his family in the center of this degradation that his family would be exposed, and yet, he chose it anyway.

Then there was permanent darkness. Fire and brimstone literally fell from heaven like rain. Then keep in mind that sulfur is found naturally around the Dead Sea near these towns and possibly in the towns as a solid. Fire falling down like rain. Fire igniting up from the ground. In order for sulfur to be a liquid it has to be 245 degrees and becomes acid rain. The gas alone is toxic. The smell of sulfur permeates everything. It’s a smell that lingers in the nose long after the sulfur has dissipated. The ash from all living things being burned reminds me of what I saw on a movie about Auschwitz. Surrounding towns may have thought it was snow there was so much coming down on them, but it wasn’t. It was the remains of humans who died one of the most horrific kinds of death. Everything consumed. Nothing was spared, not even a blade of grass. There was no relief to be found. Ladies and gentlemen, that was hell on earth. The sounds that must have arisen from that town must have been dreadful and deafening.

And here’s another point I want to make. The angel told Lot to go to the mountains to be safe from all that was to come. Lot negotiated what he thought was best, a little town near Sodom called Zoar. Zoar was probably close enough that they could see Sodom from afar. The reason I think that because they were able to walk there from right before dawn till sunrise. The ash that fell probably poured down on Zoar. The smell of burning flesh and hair, that rancid, disgusting smell would easily reach this town. Had Lot been completely obedient to Yahweh, he would have been up in the mountains further away. His exposure to ash and stench would have been considerably less. His wife may not have heard the horrible, indescribable sounds, and maybe, just maybe, she would not have turned around. Lot’s unwillingness to follow God’s instruction to the letter cost him his wife and a closer exposure to the atrocity that happened that day. OH MY WORD! Have you ever done that? Has God ever told you or led you to do a certain thing, but you add your own touch to it? Seriously!? I have, and then I wonder why it didn’t work out. DUH! God knows what He’s doing and what He’s saying. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than ours (Is 55). He told Lot to go to the mountains for LOT’S OWN GOOD.

And then part of me wonders, was God turning Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt an act of grace? He knew what she would have seen. He knew what she saw would be something she would have to live with all her life. It wouldn’t have been something she could’ve ever forgotten. As men who come back from active combat in war. They never forget.

I apologize this is so long. There was just so much to glean, and there’s really even more that can be learned.