Right, so
the angels, having heard enough, tell Lot to take his family and get out of
Dodge, cuz they’re gonna nuke the place. Yeah, fire, brimstone, the works. It’s
God’s final retaliation for all of their sins. While Abraham was wrong and
there weren’t ten good people in the city, the angels aren’t about to be inhospitable
and allow Lot and his family to perish. However, they do issue the warning
about “do not look back or stop anywhere in the Plain; flee to the hills, or
else you will be consumed” (Gen 19:17).
And this is
something that gets a lot of attention since “Lot’s wife, behind him, looked
back, and she became a pillar of salt” (Gen 19:26). This verse gets a lot of
attention for two reasons. One, is looking back really that bad? Isn’t this a
punishment that exceeds the crime? And B (yes, I did it on purpose) did she
actually become salt? Why salt? What sense does that make?
The angels
warned not just about looking back, but stopping at all. It is actually very
difficult to run forward while looking backward. Owls might be able to pull it
off, but not people. And, no, it’s not that egregious of a sin, but then, it’s
not a punishment. This is not a situation where God is tallying up people’s
infractions and is doling out punishment. I said God was going to nuke it for a
reason: He did.
“then the Lord rained on Sodom and
Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those
cities, and all the Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew
on the ground.” (Gen 19:24-25).
God was not kidding, and the angels
were not joking about not stopping. This was a kill zone. He told Lot and his
family specifically to run and keep running. But she didn’t. She slowed, looked
back, and even stopped. Her heart was in that city, otherwise why look back? She
didn’t want to leave it, and in the end, she paid the price for staying.
This was not a case of punishing
her for disobedience. Genesis doesn’t operate like that. This was a consequence
of her choice. She didn’t listen. She knew that the angels were going to
destroy the city, and yet she still stopped and looked back. We don’t know if
Lot’s wife was a sinner. We don’t have proof that she did some egregious harm
to anyone, or felt like the people in the city, not with direct proof, anyway.
What we do know is that she wanted to go back to the place that was her home.
And yet, that speaks volumes,
anyway. Her husband and daughters were running on ahead, but she wanted to go
back to the city. Whether it was to her specific house or for the friends and
neighbors, or because she really felt like she belonged to that community, she
valued Sodom more than her husband and daughters. In the choice of staying with
them or returning to the city; she chose the city.