Genesis 19:15-29

Lot's Wife Becomes a Pillar of Salt

Sodom and Gomorrah

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19:15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished."

 

16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.

 

17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!"

 

18 But Lot said to them, "No, my lords, please!

 

19 Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life.

 

But I can't flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I'll die.

 

20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn't it? Then my life will be spared."

 

21 He said to him, "Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of.

 

22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it." (That is why the town was called Zoar. )

 

23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land.

 

24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.

 

25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.

 

26 But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

 

27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD.

 

28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.

 

29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

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This is the Word of the Lord ... It is meant to change the way that we think, and the way we live.

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Commentary by Bob Pardue

Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's Wife

This passage about Sodom and Gomorrah really begins back in Genesis 19:1 when the angels appeared in the square of Sodom. I suggest that you read the verses leading up to chapter 15 because they will give you more insight as to what was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah at the time of this writing.

The Strangers

Lot had protected the angels from a crowd who wanted to defile them by offering his own daughters up for rape by the raging mob. This tells the story of how low these two cities had become. Still, Lot had hesitated to leave his home.

Holding on to Material Things

You see, Lot had a great deal of wealth and possessions in Sodom so leaving the city was the furthermost thing on his mind. We may decide from this study that Lot was greedy and self-centered but what about us? Lot's choice seems clear with our 20/20 hindsight but he was drawn in by the glitz and glimmer of a sin city with attractions made of paper.

The Temptation of - Us

We also live in a world of temptation and worldly pleasure. We can purchase almost anything under the sun and it becomes easier to ignore God's calling for our lives. Our society is becoming more like Sodom and Gomorrah so we need to be careful not to fall into the trap as Lot did.

Lot's wife held on to the past and what she left behind by "looking back". Just as she was turned to a pillar of salt, we will have no future as long as we pine over things lost so let's move forward in what God is asking us to do.

Don't look back!

Love in Christ

- Bob

Genesis 15:1-21 - God Promises Abram a Son