Previously posted on January 14, 2013

“Then out of the sky the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah burning sulfur from the Lord. He demolished these cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.” (Genesis 19:24-26, CSB).

One of the most provocative stories in Genesis is the mass destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Perhaps, it is the strange interplay between good fortune and bad fortune expressed in the events leading up to the destruction that makes the story so foreboding.

It’s the middle of an otherwise ordinary day in the arid land where Abraham resides when the heat is at its blistering peak. Abraham is resting at the entrance to his tent when he sees three travelers standing nearby. His nomadic sense of hospitality demands that he invites them to stop and refresh themselves before proceeding on their journey .

The travelers accepted Abraham’s offer of hospitality. Abraham rushed into his tent and asked Sarah, his wife, to bake bread and then hurried outside to slaughter and roast a young calf. Once the food was prepared, he set a sumptuous meal before the travelers and stood by to serve them as they ate.

It’s not clear that Abraham recognized the three men as a physical appearance of God (a theophany and two angels). But, once the meal was done, the Lord fully revealed Himself to Abraham and reaffirmed His promise made previously that he would have a son and legitimate heir by his wife Sarah.

Then, the men inquired about Sarah and Abraham responded that she was inside the tent. One of the men (the Lord) promised to visit again in a year and predicted that Sarah would have a son. Sarah was listening in the tent and laughed because both she and Abraham were well beyond the age of having children. The Lord reassured her that nothing is too hard for God and then the men departed, heading toward Sodom and accompanied by Abraham to send them on their way.

As Abraham walked along with the men the Lord revealed to Abraham His plan to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah: “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious. I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to me. If not, I will find out” (vs. 18:20-21). The two angels continued on toward Sodom while Abraham remained talking with the Lord and negotiating with Him to spare the lives of his nephew Lot and his family who lived at Sodom. The Lord agreed to deliver them from the impending destruction.

The angels of the Lord entered the gates of Sodom later that day. Lot seemed to recognize that they were angels of the Lord. Early the next morning as the destruction was about to begin, the angels urged Lot to take his wife and two daughters and flee from the city. When Lot hesitated, the angels grabbed him and his family by the hand and brought them outside the gates of the city. There, the angels of the Lord urged them to run to the mountains and warned them not to look back on the destruction.

As God was raining down burning sulfur on the city, Lot’s wife looked back toward Sodom and was turned into a pillar of salt! The Hebrew verb indicates that Lot’s wife engaged in a prolonged, intense gaze toward the wicked world she loved. In other words, she didn’t just cast a curious glance back, she looked longingly!

Lot’s wife was possibly a native of Sodom. Nevertheless, she was too attached to the wicked ways of Sodom to follow God’s commands. Consequently, she was included in the mass destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jesus referenced the consequences of longing for Sodom by Lot’s wife when He taught His disciple about His second coming to judge the world at the end of time: “Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it” (Luke 17:32-33, CSB).

According to Jesus, those who desire the ways of this world over the eternal life God gives will end up losing their life–both in this world and in the world to come.

Jesus came to give you eternal life and deliver you from the ways of this world (and its ultimate destruction). Once saved, don’t look back at this world and long for its ways. Instead, let your longing always be to do the will of God!

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever. (1 John 2:15-17, NLT).